Wireless controllers ( foreign and anchor controller in each data center ) high availablity set-up in two different data centers

[vinodjad1234]

Hi Experts,

I want to understand the HA set-up for wireless lan controller :

I have two data centers with foreign and Anchor controller in each data center . there are two remote sites will be  connected to primary data center along with internal and guest SSID. and I have two authentication server as well in each data center one .

I would need to understand , is there any way to achieve HA for AP if primary data center goes down ?

I understood that , we can add multiple anchor controllers in foreign however if foreign itself is down how do i switchover to other data center foreign controller ?

bit confused about HA here ... Can you please put light on this ? aim to utilize both the data center controllers ( foreign and anchor  in each)  for HA  ?

[Stephen Rodriguez]

Here is a pretty good doc to get started with:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/wireless/aironet-1130-ag-series/qa_c67-714540.html

Steve

[vinodjad1234]

Hi Stephen ,

Thank you so much for providing the informative link however HA options which are mentioned, looks to be feasible if you have two internal controllers in same data center.

As per the recommandation in doc. to have HA in two different location , we should have Layer 2 VLAN/fiber in the different data centers ...

My scenario is : each data center has  foreign (internal controller )  & anchor ( guest controller in DMZ ) set up and I am looking forward to get failover for AP if primary data center is down.

If I put primary controller is of primary datacenter and secondary controller is of secondary data center in AP database , will it work fine ( for guest as well as for internal users ) ? I can accept some seconds of downtime .

even remote clients which were previously connected primary datacenter controller will get connected to secondary datacenter controller ... They would have different subnet all together ...right ?

[Stephen Rodriguez]

All depends on your DR plan. Do you have OTV configured etc.

If the two DC have different VLAN than failover of the AP in local mode buys you nothing. Now if your AP are in FlexConnect mode, then it works fine so long as the WLAN order is the same across the WLC.

[vinodjad1234]

Hi Stephen,

Thanks .... In my scenario , we do not have OTV configured and we can not extend L2 to DR so we will have to go add primary and secondary controller  IP address in AP manually and .

 AP's will be in Flexconnect mode only ...   and if AP's are in flexconnect mode , probably I can put local switching for data traffic for Internal SSID however for Guest , I will have to put central switching since Guest has to go via data center internet link ...right ?

[Stephen Rodriguez · Accepted solution]

Correct.

FlexConnect you just define the local VLAN for the WLAN. For the Guest you don't do any Flex and it'll backhaul the traffic as normal.

HTH,

Steve

[vinodjad1234]

Hi Stephen ,

its been great , having discussion with you ... Happy to tell that almost all the doubts are clarified ...

Thanks