WCS Server Required or Not?

[mohammed-amjad]

                   I have Cisco AIR-CT5508-25-K9 Wireless Lan Controller and AIR-CAP3602I-E-K9 Access Points (18Nos).  Should i have WCS for this or no need?  Can i configure and manage these access points through the Lan Controller because i have only 18 Access Points and i dont want to purchase this WCS if not required mostly.  Can anyone give me the suggestion?

[Scott Fella]

WCS is not required. It's more for management for larger implementations or for reporting, tracking, etc. WCS is EOS and NCS replaced WCS and now Prime Infrastructure will be replacing NCS.

Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPhone App

[Amjad Abdullah]

Salam Mohammad,

If you have only one controller then you can configure everything from the controller and no need for the WCS for configuration.

However, WCS is also used for history reporting. It also shows you info in graphs (like client count on each SSID, number of up and down APs...etc) also keeps AP status history, alarms and events, WIDS messages..etc. in WCS those are kept to be used later while in WLC you can only see the current status of the wireless network.

For example, you can ask the WCS to show you the number of clients during the last 3 months (because it keeps the history) while you can not do that request from WLC (because it keeps no history).

So, if you are OK to live without those history reports then you do not have to buy WCS.

HTH

Amjad

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