Wireless Lan Controller in HA

[Marcos Salgado]

Hi Folks,

I would like know if i can use Wirelles Lan Controller 5508 with Virtual WLC for used in HA.

Tks

[Scott Fella · Accepted solution]

No you can't... if your talking about HA AP SSO.  Typically you want to use the same equipment if possible.  If you have a 5508 and want redundancy, then you get another 5508.  You can use another WLC like the vWLC, but the issue with that is the vWLC only supports AP's in FlexConnect. and this would be considered N+1 redundancy.

Thanks,

Scott

Help out other by using the rating system and marking answered questions as "Answered"

[Scott Fella]

Here is a linke for HA AP SSO:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10315/products_tech_note09186a0080bd3504.shtml

N+1:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/wireless/technology/hi_avail/N1_HA_Overview.html

vWLC:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps12723/products_tech_note09186a0080bd2d04.shtml

Virtual Controller Support

• Platform: AIR-CTVM-K9
• Hardware: Cisco UCS, UCS Express, HP and IBM servers
• VMware OS: ESX/ESXi 4.x/5.x
• FlexConnect Mode: central and local switching
• Licensing: Node locked licenses to UDI (eval 60 days)
• Maximum number of access points (APs): 200
• Maximum number of Clients: 3000
• Maximum number of sites up to 200
• Throughput performance up to 500 Mbps per virtual controller
• Management with Cisco Prime Infrastructure 1.2 and above

Thanks,

Scott

Help out other by using the rating system and marking answered questions as "Answered"

[paul.2.smith]

Sorry, probably my (mis)understanding of this but in your previous reply you stated that the vWLC only supports APs in Flex Connect mode but in the post above it states Flexconnect Mode : central & local switching.

Can you clarify this please?

[EvaldasOu · Accepted solution]

That's true.

• Local mode AP - central switching, all the traffic are tunneled back to the controller;
• FlexConnect mode AP - central or local switching. It depends on your WLAN configuration. Take a look at configuration example here.

However, flexconnect mode APs can't do some awesome stuff like AVC (application visibility and control).

Take a look at comparision matrix here.

[Abhishek Abhishek]

In local mode, an AP creates two CAPWAP tunnels to the WLC.  One is for management, the other is data traffic.  This behavior is known as "centrally switched" because the data traffic is switched(bridged) from the ap to the controller where it is then routed by some routing device.

Flex Connect also known as HREAP by the old timers, allows data traffic to be switched locally and not go back to the controller.  It basically causes the AP to behave like an autonomous AP, but be managed by the WLC.  In this mode, the AP can still function even if it looses connection with the controller.  Also, anytime you want to switch traffic locally, that would be the time to use Flex Connect.  I used it once when my users were needing the wireless and wired networks to be on the same subnet for broadcasting reasons.