WLC L3 Roaming Using FlexConnect

[cnegrete]

Hi everyone.

A customer has a network with several buildings (each with a different VLAN/subnet), and a single WLC.

The Access Points are grouped by AP groups, and on each building the clients are assigned to different VLANs.

There is one single SSID with the users connect to on the entire campus, and it assigns (as expected) different ip address segments depending on which building the users are connecting into.

The problem comes whenever a user is in a building and walks to another, since the buildings are not that far from each other, and the client machine is still connected to the network, it tries to roam but it doesn't know that it has to refresh its IP address.

I know there's something that is not working here, but I can't find documentation about this. Is this a supported configuration? Is this an expected behaviour? How can I fix this?

Thanks in advance for your help

[Rasika Nayanajith · Accepted solution]

If you are using FlexConnect Local switching, then L3 roaming is unsupported feature.

Here is some reference in the 7.6 configuration guide (see configuring FlexConnect section or page 926)

http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/7-6/configuration/guide/b_cg76.pdf

Here is another good reference about FlexConnect Design from a CiscoLive presentation.

BRKEWN-2016 - Architecting Network for Branch Offices with CUWN
 

As you can see on page 9, these are the advantages you get if you have a local WLC at your branch. L3 roaming is one

* Cookie cutter configuration for every branch site 
* Layer-3 roaming within the branch 
* WGB support 
* Reliable Multicast (filtering) 
* IPv6 L3 Mobility 

HTH

Rasika

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[cnegrete]

Thanks, I kinda knew that, I just wanted to reconfirm and ask if there was a way to force the client machines to ask for their ip address automatically.

[Gunter]

Hello Rasika

Do you know if the FlexConnect L3 roaming is possible now day? If it's possible then in which software version this feature was presented?

Regards