Side effects of enabling Zone Director and Mesh

[Piet]

I have a zone Director 3000 and it's taken over 5 R700 Access points.

I get the impression that it downloaded new firmware. The AP's can still

be accessed via ssh but the web interface is gone. I expected the r700 web

interface to remain. Anyway, if my Zone Director 3000 goes off line or gets

messed up, will the r700 boot the old standalone firmware? If not does

the hardware reset mechanism still work as documented on the back of the

R700's?

I'm tempted to try enabling mesh on the Zone Director but I'm worried that

the new environemnt will change my current environment a lot. Perhaps new

firmware where the zone can only be managed as a open network and the

users and roles will no longer work. I didn't understand the significance of not

being able to go back to mesh being disabled. I read that each Access Point can

have Mesh disabled and it effectively puts things back to un-messhed.

Thought I'd backup my Zone Director config before trying it. Wish I had backed

up the 5 R700s before allowing the Zone Director to take them over. Would be

nice if it reverting back to the standalone configs if the Zone Director gets whacked.

Thoughts appreciated.

-piet delaney

[Vineet_nejwala · Accepted solution]

Hi @Piet 

1) The AP's can still be accessed via ssh but the web interface is gone :

You would need to enable https on APs as below :

To enable WEB access on a single AP:
SSH into AP CLI:
rkscli#set https enable

To enable this on all APs managed by ZD
SSH into ZD CLI:
ruckus>enable
ruckus#debug
ruckus(debug)#remote_ap_cli -A "set https enable"
ruckus(debug)#exit

2) if my Zone Director 3000 goes off line or gets messed up, will the r700 boot the old standalone firmware? If not doesthe hardware reset mechanism still work as documented on the back of the R700's?

NO, once your ZD goes offline under any condition the AP would remain on the existing ZD code and YES, the reset machanism still works the same.

3) I'm tempted to try enabling mesh on the Zone Director but I'm worried that the new environemnt will change my current environment a lot. Perhaps new firmware where the zone can only be managed as a open network and the
users and roles will no longer work.

The above is not true, enbalish mesh or changing code would not impact any such capability. Below are few article that would help explain the mesh network and playing with user role in ZD.

a)Best Practices - AP Mesh Networking - Outdoor Guide attached

https://support.ruckuswireless.com/articles/000002218

b)How to disable Mesh on all the access points connected to the ZoneDirector via CLI

https://support.ruckuswireless.com/articles/000003918

c)Role Assignment on ZD

https://support.ruckuswireless.com/articles/000002946

d)Issue with assigning proper roles for users with different groups in the Radius server.

https://support.ruckuswireless.com/articles/000001731

Please let me know in case you have any further concern or doubt.

Best Regards

Vineet

[Piet]

Thanks, Vaneet:

The ' remote_ap_cli -A "set https enable" ' cmd worked great, thanks.

Unfortunately, I can't read the articles you referred to as don't have a support contract. 😞

It's likely too expensive for a hobbyist kernel/network engineer. 

Glad to hear that enabling mesh won't remove any functionality.

On the AP GUI, if I do a factory reset does it go to the original stand-alone firmware?

On the new/ZD AP GUI the option to change the firmware is gone.

Not clear if a factory reset to to the current firmware default state

or if the original firmware is also maintained and it goes back to it.

I saw something about two firmware flash images but the purpose wasn't mentioned as I recall.

Since the option to download the firmware is gone in the ZD image, it seems likely more

sensible that the original stand-alone image would be available.

-piet delaney

[Vineet_nejwala]

@Piet 

Q)On the AP GUI, if I do a factory reset does it go to the original stand-alone firmware?
A)No, post reset AP would remain on the ZD code, you would need to upload the standalone code again to change.

Q)On the new/ZD AP GUI the option to change the firmware is gone?
A)This is expected since now the AP is being managed by ZD and ZD keeps the software updated as per its running code.

Q)Not clear if a factory reset to to the current firmware default state or if the original firmware is also maintained and it goes back to it.
I saw something about two firmware flash images?
A)On the AP two boot images are available but in most cases both gets updated though have seen some scenario where one partition remains on older code. You can login to the AP and do a "fw show all" to see code on both partition.

Best Regards

Vineet

[Piet]

I read the Mesh best practices, likely from:    

      https://webresources.ruckuswireless.com/pdf/appnotes/bpg-wireless-mesh.pdf

It wasn't clear how the wave 1 and wave 2 access points interact with each other.

My guess is that the wireless connections have to be of the same wave number.

Like a R700 can connect wirelessly to another R700 or a R300 but not the newer R710 or R750.

I think I may have read most of the papers you mentioned.

It's just a bit difficult seeing things I didn't see mentioned.

Like how you go back to the original stand-alone firmware on, say, the R700.

And if the original stand-alone firmware is in one bank and the Zone Director firmware is in another bank. I'd hate to wipe out the original standalone firmware by mistake and get stuck.