SSID that's both central and locally switched

[Philip]

We have a globally advertised SSID that we would like to sometimes have locally switched and sometimes centrally switched.  The reason is that some locations have their own internet breakout and firewall, and we would like the traffic to use that internet connection instead of being capwapped across the MPLS, centrally switched to use the datacenter internet (protect the MPLS bandwidth).

Currently we're accomplishing this by simply using two 5508s.  Locations that have their own internet breakout use the 5508 with the SSID that has FlexConnect enable, and locations that don't use the other 5508 that has the SSID with centrally switched enabled.

So we're about to buy another 5508 to support failover between our data centers, and I thought I'd make sure there wasn't a trick around the "WLAN can be FlexConnect or not" fact.  Because this solution is a little pricey.

Thanks!

[Stephen Rodriguez]

Well, you could do that with one WLC actually. When you set the WLAN to be FlexConnect, it just allows the WLAN to be locally switched. You still have to set the AP to be in FC mode and set the mappings.




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[Philip]

Thanks for your response Stephen, but I'm not following.  Is your point that an AP not in FC mode still centrally switches the WLAN that is FC capable?

The problem there would be that all APs need to be in FC mode to support the variety of other WLANs that are locally switched no matter what.  I probably should have stated that part above.

But maybe you have something else in mind?

[Scott Fella · Accepted solution]

Create a new ssid with a different profile name but same ssid.make sure one ssid has a WLAN ID <16 and the other >16. Then create an Ap group and define what AP's have what SSID's. You will have two of the same SSID's, so you will have to know which one to add to the AP Group.

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[Philip]

Oh man, thanks Scott!  How the heck did you know about the greater than 16 less than 16 thing? I know that's a special number for the default AP group, but had no idea.

And thanks - you just saved us the cost of another 5508!

[alex.roth]

Hi,

I checked also this possibility but If I do this and create two equal  SSIDs ( same PSK  ) with different  profile names then  I get following error If I enable both SSIDs:

"The following errors occured while updating the WALN with duplicate SSID and L2 security policy found "

What shoul I do ? Use another PSK ?

Thx

[Philip]

Which WLAN IDs did you use for each WLAN?