So recall that the value of a WLAN is that we want to combine our SSID with our
SSID configuration including security settings by the way. This is where we
would set up our WPA ideally in this world WPA 3 minimum WPA 2 but we would
get our security in place here as part of other configurations involving our
SSIDs. But then we want to push our WLANs out and so let's say we have three WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
SSIDs. But then we want to push our WLANs out and so let's say we have three
different sites and these three different sites have a bunch of access
points. Chances are these sites are going to have different needs from one
another. For example maybe one of these sites is going to have multiple types
of
employees. Maybe we've got a separation here between our staff as well as maybe
faculty. Let's say we're some kind of learning facility and so we've got two
different types of internal users here and then over at this site we are going
to want to support our staff and our students and then maybe down here in the WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
to want to support our staff and our students and then maybe down here in the
student area we would want to support our students and guests. Allow guests to
log in because it's a public space. As we can see we've got three different
locations within the organization and yet we have three very different needs.
And so how do I go about configuring SSIDs that get mapped out to all of these
different access points? Well this is going to involve the creation of AP WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
different access points? Well this is going to involve the creation of AP
groups.
AP groups are only available in AOROS. This isn't something we use with iOSXE.
Instead with iOSXE we're going to use the concept of the site tag. Remember the
purpose of the site tag is to create a set of configurations and then we
apply that to an entire site. So all of these access points will receive this
set of configurations and then I can create another site tag and apply it to WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
set of configurations and then I can create another site tag and apply it to
another site and so on and so forth. Well that's what AP groups are going to do
in AOROS. It's going to allow me as the name implies to group a bunch of access
points together and then I combined a WLAN to that AP group. Meanwhile on the
other side the WLAN is bound remember to an interface. Whether that interface
is
a dynamic interface or a management interface, usually a dynamic interface,
but certainly again as we said it could be the management interface either way, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
but certainly again as we said it could be the management interface either way,
this is how a VLAN gets mapped to our SSID. So as we can see we're creating a
VLAN mapping, SSID and configuration mapping and we're placing that through AP
groups onto the access points. So this is exactly how I can get onto my access
points here, broadcast that SSID and on the back end place it onto a VLAN. And
so
thanks to this not only can we apply configurations to a bunch of access WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
thanks to this not only can we apply configurations to a bunch of access
points at once, but we can also manage different policies at different
locations.
So let's go ahead and see how we can configure AP groups. The way this is
going to happen is we're actually going to go to the WLANs tab, doesn't
necessarily feel like this is where it would be and so it's important that we
remember that, that it's on the WLANs tab and over on the left we have to
extend advanced and click AP groups. We do see that there is a default group,
this
is important. All access points that connect to this wireless LAN controller
will be placed into the default group. We don't necessarily want that because WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
will be placed into the default group. We don't necessarily want that because
we're going to want at least one AP group per individual site. And so I'm
going to click add group over here, we'll call this CBTN group and I'll click
add
and now we have our group. So I can click on this and see a list of WLANs
that's associated with a particular group. As we said in the showed in the
example, rather we're probably going to have multiple SSIDs, but also as we've
said from a wireless perspective it's considered highly inefficient to have WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
said from a wireless perspective it's considered highly inefficient to have
more than let's say three SSIDs at a location. We really want to keep it to
three, four at the absolute most, but best practices to keep it at three or
under to maximize our wireless utilization. So here's where we would apply
multiple WLANs. Each WLAN contains that SSID, contains the configuration and by
extension it contains the VLAN that that SSID maps to. So long story short, we
're
going to create AP groups, map access points to the groups which we'll see here WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
going to create AP groups, map access points to the groups which we'll see here
in a bit and allow us to deploy policy to each individual group, thereby
allowing
us to scale out our configuration.