topic Re: Meshing across zonedirectors in ZoneDirector

Meshing across zonedirectors

paul_cross_6661 — Fri, 04 Jul 2014 14:03:36 GMT

I have 3 ZoneDirectors, a 1000, 1100 and 3000, if I turn on meshing and set the mesh password the same on all zonedirectors will access points approved on different ZDs mesh happily, or will everything come to a grinding halt?

Re: Meshing across zonedirectors

monnat_systems — Fri, 04 Jul 2014 16:32:36 GMT

hmmmm...all three need to have same MESH SSID too, only then it would create issues..

if both Mesh Name (ESSID) and Mesh Passphrase are same on all ZD's of yours then it can create lots of trouble as in auto mode if AP's can see AP of other ZD then it may join during trouble times.

you have an alternative where you can fix an mesh AP to contact only few specific Root ap or mesh ap as per your choice. this may limit potential issues.

Also if other ZD's are full with their AP lic then ZD would refuse literally to let them join. this also limit the trouble.

Re: Meshing across zonedirectors

paul_cross_6661 — Mon, 07 Jul 2014 09:49:45 GMT

Thanks, yes I meant setting the Mesh name the same too... which I now won't try.

This all came about when I had all 3 Zone Directors with meshing enabled (different essids), and at some point, it seems, all the 100-odd access points started querying each other as to if they were a valid mesh AP, and it just ended up bringing down the entire network.

I think what I will do is turn on meshing on only one Zone Director (the 3000) and leave the others without meshing.

Re: Meshing across zonedirectors

michael_brado — Wed, 16 Jul 2014 21:11:49 GMT

We will support multiple controllers in a cluster (SCG and vSCG) soon, that will
allow APs to failover to other controllers if their current one goes offline. This is
currently also available for two ZoneDirectors with equal firmware and AP licenses.

If you have separate controllers managing APs within range of each other, you
would not want to use same Mesh SSID, or any client WLAN SSIDs, as you can
not roam smoothly between APs managed by different controllers (as another
reason not to try the above).

Re: Meshing across zonedirectors

paul_cross_6661 — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 19:24:16 GMT

I like the sound of clusters - the current failover model requires having hardware and licenses sitting there doing nothing, which always seemed like a waste of resources. Would clustering also allow Dynamic PSK to work across multiple controllers?