ruckus without zone director

Question

I am about to purchase a few ruckus aps. I was wondering if anyone has experience with using flexmaster with multiple aps and without zone director? I have read you can do that. Customer support confirmed it. However, I have not heard of anyone doing that. I expect us to have about 15 laps in use. Thanks for any input.

unknown · Answer

I personally would not deploy a Flexmaster for 15 AP's.

The key benefits that you get is reporting and batch update, but you can accomplish this otherways that wont cost you anything i.e. licensing for AP numbers on Flexmaster.

For reporting you have Open NMS and then you can use the control file (zfAP_cntrl.rcks) to look for firmware updates on a central FTP server:

Control File example - file extension must be .rcks:[rcks_fw.main]
192.168.0.1
zf7363_9.6.2.0.13.BL7
6971392

Here is a CLI example of the fw update commands:fw auto enable
fw set host 192.168.0.1
fw set user ruckus
fw set password ruckus
fw set proto ftp
fw set control zfAP_cntrl.rcks
fw set firstcheck 5
fw set interval 240
fw set badfile_retry 30
set ntp server 192.168.0.1
set ntp update synchronize time now
fw set reboot 2 am

I would also let Unleashed get some legs before taking that plunge as its early days and the UI on the AP is very.... slow.

Good Luck

john_d · Answer

Traditionally, the way you would do this is via the "standalone AP firmware". We had a discussion about this not too long ago: https://forums.ruckuswireless.com/ruckuswireless/topics/standalone-features

Since then, a few things have changed: The ZD1106 is end-of-life, so you should look at ZD1200 (ZD1205) if you would like to consider the controller route.

But more excitingly, Ruckus Unleashed is a new offering that's controller less yet centralized -- similar to some of the other solutions on the market, your AP's will vote and decide on one to assume a controller role. The "downside" to Unleashed for now is that it's still not 100% feature parity with either standalone or ZD, as the UI is focused on core functionality and the CLI seems to only support monitoring, and not access to the more advanced configuration options found in standalone and ZD CLI.

You mentioned Flexmaster -- what centralized/reporting features were you requiring, in particular? That might help decide which of the 3 is the most appropriate option for you.

unknown · Answer

I have a remote location (3 ZF7962 AP's) that have been up and functioning for over 3 years that are not controlled.  All configuration is done via each AP's web interface, with all static settings, channels, IP, SSID with PSK.  It's been solid.  I live in the US, these devices are in the UK and I never have to remote into them.

I do own Flexmaster but have not used it since they are so solid.

These AP's are supporting a few laptops and about 4 wireless scanners.