WLC 44xx Implementaion in a Large Corporation.

mohammad.ouran · ‎08-10-2007

The Corporate I?m working in, is looking at the WLC to control our 10000's of AP's and i was tasked to learn it and to be the "to go to" guy for this matter. I?m first going to test it with a AP1200 and Cisco router 1700 and a switch 29xx. from what i have read about so far (which is not a lot, working on 7 other projects)is that it only works with LWAP, all our devices are Aironet 1200 series. This project is going to cost the company $$$ but as long as we can learn this technology, money is no issue.

My questions:

1- i will need to convert my AP to LWAP, do i have to do this to every AP individually or can i do it through the AP? Considering we have more than 15k AP's.

2- Can someone list me a sample step by step for a testing lab from the device (i will be using AP1200; which i will convert manually, 17xx router and wlc4402 and a switch 29xx)

3-what things i need to be concerned about when implementing this technology in our environment?

mgzwepaing · ‎08-10-2007

Hi,

I hope this would help you as I just finished my wireless project and here are the steps that I took.

1. Convert AP to LWAP

a. check if your APs has Cisco IOS 12.3(7)JA or later, if you do, you can directly upgrade your ap to lwap mode by using the upgrading tool and image.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/wireless/access_point/conversion/lwapp/upgrade/guide/lwapnote.html

b. if your ap runs on older IOS, you may need to upgrade it. I used 12.3(8)JA2 on my AP1231AGs and if you have cisco network assisant or similar program, it will speed up your IOS upgrade by selecting APs and upgrade them all at once.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps5931/index.html

2. If you already have wireless vlan set up, adding the controller and APs shouldn't be that hard by using the cisco wlc guide.

http://cio.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/wireless/ps430/products_configuration_example09186a0080665cdf.shtml

One note on that guide is for service port and you may want to assign a private ip for that one and don't follow the instrution and make sure not to use the subnet for the management/ap-manager ports.

3. Please read on the forums and cisco updates about that. I just had it configured wlc4402 box this week and trying to test on all of its features.

There are many, many useful guides on cisco sites and helps, hints on the forums that you may already find out about.

Zwe

mohammad.ouran · ‎08-13-2007

can you show me a config sample for your WLC, i dont need any specific network information. just what steps did you take and what configs did you use.(you can take delete anything that may risk your network security)

if not, thank you anyway. this respond is helpfull.

Thank you

mgzwepaing · ‎08-13-2007

Hi Mohammad,

I created 3 files that I think would be useful out of config file from the controller. I changed a few things(ip, mac, ssid) and I took out some parts about the radio and AP config parts and the rest should be fine. If you need more info or specific ones, please let me know.

Regards,

Zwe

mohammad.ouran · ‎08-13-2007

Thank you Zwe, that is all i need.

you have been a great help! 100%

Thank you again!

Rob Huffman · ‎08-13-2007

Hi Zwe,

Excellent answer here! You get my 5 point vote on this one for sure :)

Thanks again,

Rob

mgzwepaing · ‎08-13-2007

Thanks Rob. I've come to this site almost everyday since you helped me with my AP question and there are a lot of useful information on this site and helpful people. I'm glad I could also share my experience with others.

Have a nice day.

Zwe