Deployment Guide

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0511236-01 | Jan 2013 1

Dell PowerConnect W-Instant in W-AirWave 7.6

Deployment Guide

About this Document

This document describes the Dell PowerConnect W-Instant access point and Virtual Controller system as well as

the procedure to integrate this system with W-AirWave. This document contains the following points:

l "Overview of Dell PowerConnect W-Instant" on page 1

l "Using Dell PowerConnect W-Instant with AirWave" on page 1

l "Setting up Dell PowerConnect W-Instant" on page 2

l "Remaining Manual Admin Tasks in AirWave" on page 5

l "Adding Additional Instant APs to AirWave" on page 7

l "Changing the Mode to Monitor Only for New Instant Devices" on page 8

l "AirWave Pages with Instant-Specific Features " on page 8

l "Other Available Features" on page 9

l "Optional Tasks" on page 14

l "Best Practices" on page 16

l "Known Issues with the Dell PowerConnect W-Instant Integration with AirWave" on page 17

Overview of Dell PowerConnect W-Instant

Dell PowerConnect W-Instant is a system of access points per Layer 2 subnet. Dell PowerConnect W-Instant IAPs

are controlled by a single IAP that serves a dual role as a primary Virtual Controller, eliminating the need for

dedicated controller hardware. This system can be deployed through a simplified setup process appropriate for smaller

organizations, or for multiple geographically dispersed locations without an on-site administrator.

Only the first IAP/Virtual Controller you add to the network must be configured; the subsequent IAPs will all inherit

the necessary configuration information from the Virtual Controller. Dell PowerConnect W-Instant continually

monitors the network to determine the IAP that should function as the Virtual Controller at any time, and the

Virtual Controller will move from IAP to IAP as necessary without impacting network performance.

The Virtual Controller technology in Dell PowerConnect W-Instant is capable of IAP auto discovery, 802.1X

authentication, role- and device-based policy enforcement, rogue detection, and Adaptive Radio Management

(ARM).

Using Dell PowerConnect W-Instant with AirWave

AirWave can be used to provision and manage a multi-site deployment of Instant networks. For example, if you have

100 retail offices that require Instant to provide WLAN connectivity at each office, AirWave can be used to

provision all the 100 offices from a central site and also give the administrator the ability to monitor these

geographically dispersed Instant networks using an AirWave server (depending on the scalability recommendations

for AirWave).

With a distributed deployment where multiple locations each have a Dell PowerConnect W-Instant Virtual

Controller and IAPs, AirWave serves as a centralized management console. AirWave provides all functionality for

Summary of content (18 pages)

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Dell PowerConnect W-Instant in W-AirWave 7.6 Deployment Guide About this Document This document describes the Dell PowerConnect W-Instant access point and Virtual Controller system as well as the procedure to integrate this system with W-AirWave.
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normal WLAN deployments including long-term trend reporting, PCI compliance, configuration auditing, role-based administration, location services, RF visualization, and many other features. Integrating Dell PowerConnect W-Instant systems into AirWave is unique from the setup of any other device class due to the following considerations: l Discovery: AirWave does not discover Dell PowerConnect W-Instant devices via scanning (SNMP or HTTP) the network.
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Shared Secret when it appears in the APs/Devices > New list. The administrator also enables user roles to administer the Dell PowerConnect W-Instant systems, makes any other changes in AirWave as necessary. NOTE: The first Instant network that is added to AirWave includes the ‘golden’ configuration that is used as a template to provision other Instant networks at other locations as the locations are brought online.
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At this point, the admin in our example should send the Organization String, Shared Secret key, and AirWave IP address to the on-site installers setting up Dell PowerConnect W-Instant hardware inside the storefronts. Entering the Organization String and AirWave Information into the IAP For the initial IAP/Virtual Controller set up in each location, the on-site installer logs in to the first IAP's web interface via the Dell PowerConnect W-Instant configuration SSID, and navigates to Settings > AirWave.
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ip dhcp pool IAP-Pool default-router 10.169.241.1 option 60 text "DellInstantAP" option 43 text "Acme:Store1,10.169.240.8,dell123" network 10.169.241.0 255.255.255.0 authoritative ! ip dhcp pool IAP-Pool2 default-router 10.169.242.1 option 60 text "DellInstantAP" option 43 text "Acme:Store2,10.169.240.8,dell123" network 10.169.242.0 255.255.255.0 authoritative In the example configuration shown above, the following group and folder structure is created on AirWave: l A group called Acme is created.
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Figure 3: A new Instant device in AirWave 1. Click Add to add the device. A Group and Folder do not have to be selected. The Instant device will automatically get added to the new group that was created. 2. Select Apply Changes Now to add the Instant device to the group. Resolving Mismatches The new device will appear in AirWave as two devices: the first is the Virtual Controller for that Instant network, and the second is the access point itself.
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Perform the following steps to resolve the mismatch. 1. Navigate to the AP/Devices->Manage page for that Instant device. 2. Change the Management Mode option to Manage Read/Write. 3. Click on Save and Apply at the bottom on the page. 4. When the Confirm changes page opens, click on Apply Changes Now for the changes take effect. Upon completion, the configuration will be synced to the Instant network. The status of the device will initially display as ‘Verifying’ during this process.
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Figure 6: Adding an additional Instant device to AirWave The golden template configuration from the first Instant network is used to provision the second Instant network in the new folder. When provisioning is complete, the status of the device will change from Verifying to Good. Changing the Mode to Monitor Only for New Instant Devices A best practice for using Instant in AirWave is to change the mode for new devices to Monitor Only.
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l Clients > Client Detail: Once IAPs are serving clients, the IAPs can use user-agent strings to extract operating systems and device descriptions of its clients, and then populate the Device Description and Device OS fields in Clients > Client Detail. l APs/Devices > Audit: Dell PowerConnect W-Instant configuration fetching can be performed in APs/Devices > Audit. The running configuration is stored on the IAP and verified by the template.
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Figure 8: Select the VCs to update 2. Click the Update button next to the Aruba Instant Virtual Controller Variables field. The opens the Variable Edit page.
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Figure 9: Change the Individual VC Names Bulk Editing on Multiple Virtual Controllers The upper section of the Variable Edit page includes a drop down menu of variables that can be used to apply bulk changes to all VCs that you select in the lower section. Perform the following steps to apply bulk edits. 1. In the edit screen, select the check box beside the virtual controller(s) that will be edited. (See Figure 9.) 2.
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Using Custom Variables The Variable Edit page includes additional generic fields, labeled as custom_variable_1 through custom_variable_10. The custom_variable_1 field can be used to add multiple lines of text rather than a single entry (as indicated by the larger note field on the UI.) This is useful, for example, if you want to add a new WLAN configuration to a VC. Other variables can be used to enter additional, single support commands.
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Figure 12: Confirm Changes page Selecting Cancel returns you to the Variable Edit page, where your latest edits will still be visible. Click Cancel again to return to the APs/Devices > List page with no changes saved or applied. Monitoring Features Use the APs/Devices > Monitor page to monitor your Instant devices. AirWave provides you with detailed information for your virtual controller, APs, and radios. This information includes spectrum interferers, rogue clients, and channel utilization.
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current virtual controller. NOTE: When you first run a command, the results can take up to a minute to appear. For subsequent commands, the results will appear after one or two seconds. Figure 14: Running Commands Firmware Image Management AirWave pushes firmware to the Dell PowerConnect W-Instant Virtual Controller, and the Virtual Controller pushes the firmware to the rest of its IAPs.
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Enabling the IAP Role As shown previously, new IAP devices can be added to AirWave automatically. In some cases, after a device is added, the Admin may want to enable store-specific access. In this case, the Admin might enable a specific IAP role. 1. Enable the newly created Admin User Role in AMP Setup > Roles, as shown in Figure 15. Figure 15: Enable Admin User Roles in AMP Setup > Roles 2. In Groups > Template for the newly created group, verify the first Virtual Controller's auto-created template.
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Figure 16: The Instant template editor If you want to add additional variables to the template, the Allowed Variables section just to the right of the Instant template editor shows you the set of variables that can be added. Figure 17: Allowed variables Refer to the Dell PowerConnect W-AirWave 7.6 User Guide for detailed information about templates and variables.
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l Be sure that the default configuration is validated and has been pre-tested in a non-production environment prior to applying it to a production network. Any changes that are made to this configuration will follow the same process each time and will be applied to other Dell PowerConnect W-Instant networks.
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Copyright © 2013 Aruba Networks, Inc. Aruba Networks trademarks include , Aruba Networks®, Aruba Wireless Networks®, the registered Aruba the Mobile Edge Company logo, and Aruba Mobility Management System®. Dell™, the DELL™ logo, and PowerConnect™ are trademarks of Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Specifications in this manual are subject to change without notice. Originated in the USA. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.