Virtualized WLC

[Steve Warren]

Does anyone have any information on the Wireless LAN controller been virtualized?  or the wireless on a box concept?

[Leo Laohoo]

Thats right.  7.3.101.0 has been released and supports virtualized WLC. 

The virtual wireless LAN controller is software that can run on hardware that is compliant with an industry standard virtualization infrastructure. Virtual wireless LAN controllers provide flexibility for users to select the hardware based on their requirement. 
We recommend that you have the following hardware to host a virtual controller: 
Cisco UCS R210-2121605W Rack Mount Server (2 RU)  
IBM x3550 M3 server  
ISR G2 Services Ready Engine (SRE) using UCS Express 
For more information, see http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps12723/tsd_products_support_series_home.html
(NOTE:  The link above is a “404”.  )

[Vinay Sharma]

Thanks Leo for letting us know about the 404 link. Let us try to fix it.

Thanks

Vinay Sharma

Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPhone App

[Vinay Sharma]

Leo,

Just checked and confirmed from product team that the 404 page is in preview status and will be active soon.

Thanks,

Vinay Sharma

Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPhone App

[Leo Laohoo]

Thanks Vinay!

[Johannes Luther]

From what I see, the vWLC is the virtualized pendant to the FlexConnect WLC 7500.

So no APs in local mode.

Does someone know if there are product plans for a vWLC supporting local mode APs?

[d.friday]

Yes coming in the near future

The 8500 will support

Cisco 8500 Series Controllers are introduced with support for local mode, FlexConnect, and mesh modes. The Cisco 8500 Series Controllers support 6000 APs, 64,000 clients, 2000 FlexConnect groups, 6000 AP groups, 100 APs per FlexConnect group, and up to 4095 VLANs. A Cisco 8500 Series Controller can support up to 24,000 rogue APs and 32,000 rogue clients

[Steve Warren]

Thanks for following up on this for me LEO

[Leo Laohoo]

No problem Steve.

Just a note to everyone:  The vWLC and the 8500 are not aimed at enterprise-level clients.  It's aimed at the carrier-grade clients.  This biggest benefit of using the vWLC and/or 8500, in my humble opinion, is Hotspot 2.0 and Concierge.

Look at the 7.3.101.0 configuration guide and the two items are found in the last chapters.

[netspikeslabs]

Yes you can virtualize WLC and integrate it with GNS3 for more information please visit

netspikes.wordpress.com