In the last posts about ArubaOS 8, I talked a lot about Virtual Mobility Master. This time, I will not include the VMM in my scenario. The reason is simple. Many customers deploy two controllers today. They simply do not need more. So the big question is how to build an environment with ArubaOS 8 and two controllers. The answer is Master Standby. Likely the same design as with ArubaOS 6.x.
Just to make it clear, you get the most features, the most benefits and the most outcome from a deployment with VMM. So this is just a plan B if you cannot use the benefits of an implementation with VMM.
Master Standby: Requirements
The Master Standby design requires two controllers, obviously. They run in the standalone mode. Keep this in mind during the setup of the controller. Only the active controller can terminate AP’s in this design. But you can use a variation of the fast failover feature.
The design looks like this, from a logical point of view:
The two controller run in standalone mode. I use the master redundancy configuration to synchronize the configuration, user data and of course the licenses. If the master fails, you can use the licenses on the standby for 30 days. Enough time to recover.
To create minimal downtimes during failover, I also create an HA Group. With the HA Group configuration, the AP’s creates a tunnel to each of the controllers. During failover, the AP fails over to the tunnel to the standby controller. This works without a reboot of the AP. Even the radios stay active.
Sounds interesting to you? Read further.
Master Standby: Master Redundancy
The first step to build the above design is to create the master redundancy. To start with master redundancy, I assume you have the two controllers running in standalone mode. Preferably fresh vom the factory or after a factory reset. You have configured them with the initial setup wizard to standalone controllers and they have rebooted.
Login to the one, which will be the active master. In the future, I name them master and standby. On the master, go to “Configuration–>Services–>Redundancy” and select the “Virtual Routing Table”. Make sure, you are in the device hierarchy and not in the “Mobility Controller” hierarchy. Add a new “Virtual Router” with the “+” sign:
Use a meaningful “Description” to avoid confusion later on. I always use the VLAN ID for the “ID”. This assumes I use VLAN 201. This is my controller management VLAN. So both controllers have IP addresses in that VLAN and the controller IP is in this VLAN as well. Enter an “Authentication password” and specify the VRRP “IP address”. I set the “Priority” of the master to 110, to make sure he is always the master. I also use pre-emption to make sure the master is master again after he is back. Set the “Admin state” to up and select the VLAN.
“Submit” the configuration and configure the same, except for the priority, on the standby. For priority use the value of 100, which is the default.
After some seconds, VRRP is up and running. You can check on the CLI:
(Master) [mynode] (config) #show vrrp
Virtual Router 201:
Description Master VRRP
Admin State UP, VR State MASTER
IP Address 10.201.201.10, MAC Address 00:00:5e:00:01:c9, vlan 201
Priority 110, Advertisement 1 sec, Preemption Enable Delay 0
Auth type PASSWORD, Auth data: ********
tracking is not enabled(Standby) *[mynode] (config) #show vrrp
Virtual Router 201:
Description
Admin State UP, VR State BACKUP
IP Address 10.201.201.10, MAC Address 00:00:5e:00:01:c9, vlan 201
Priority 100, Advertisement 1 sec, Preemption Enable Delay 0
Auth type PASSWORD, Auth data: ********
tracking is not enabledThe next step is to enable database synchronization. On the master, go to the “Mobility Controller” configuration hierarchy and go to “Configuration–>Services–>Redundancy” and select “Master Redundancy”:
“Submit” the changes and go down to the controller hierarchy again, but the same configuration page:
Add the “Master VRRP” information, this is the VRRP from above and the “IP address of the peer”. This is the IP of the standby. For this lab, I use an “IPSec Key” for “Authentication”. Certificates are possible as well. “Submit” the changes and redo the configuration on the standby, except for the IP address. Here you use the IP of the master. It could take some minutes to form the master redundancy. To check if it is up and running use the command below:
(Master) [mynode] #show database synchronize
Last L2 synchronization time: Mon Nov 27 04:41:29 2017
Last L3 synchronization time: Secondary not synchronized since last reboot
To Master Switch at 10.201.201.12: succeeded
To Secondary Master Switch at unknown IP address: succeeded
WMS Database backup file size: 31093 bytes
Local User Database backup file size: 38393 bytes
Global AP Database backup file size: 12953 bytes
IAP Database backup file size: 3750 bytes
Airgroup Database backup file size: 3052 bytes
License Database backup file size: 5168 bytes
CPSec Database backup file size: 3224 bytes
L2 Synchronization took 2 second
L3 Synchronization took less than one second
16 L2 synchronization attempted
15 L2 synchronization have failed
0 L3 synchronization attempted
0 L3 synchronization have failed
L2 Periodic synchronization is enabled and runs every 1 minute
L3 Periodic synchronization is disabled
Synchronization doesn't include Captive Portal Custom data(Standby) *[mynode] #show database synchronize
Last L2 synchronization time: Mon Nov 27 04:41:22 2017
From Master Switch at 10.201.201.11: succeeded
WMS Database backup file size: 31093 bytes
Local User Database backup file size: 38393 bytes
Global AP Database backup file size: 12953 bytes
IAP Database backup file size: 3750 bytes
Airgroup Database backup file size: 3052 bytes
License Database backup file size: 5168 bytes
CPSec Database backup file size: 3224 bytes
L2 Synchronization took 1 second
8 L2 synchronization attempted
6 L2 synchronization have failed
L2 Periodic synchronization is enabled and runs every 1 minute
Synchronization doesn't include Captive Portal Custom dataI have set the synchronization time to 1 minute. This is to make the waiting time shorter. In production environments, 10 minutes is ok as well.
You could now connect an AP. You would use the VRRP address for the connection between AP and controller. During a failover, the AP would connect to the standby after VRRP changes. But the AP would reboot. To avoid this, we use “HA Groups”.
Master Standby: HA Groups
The “HA Group” feature enables fast failover. To do this, the AP creates a tunnel to the two controllers. The first tunnel is the active one. If the controller for tunnel one fails, the AP uses tunnel two to the second controller. This makes the failover time very short and the best, the AP did not reboot during the failover.
To create an “HA Group”, login to the master controller. Stay in the “Mobility Controller” hierarchy and go to “Configuration–>Services–>Redundancy” and select “HA Groups”. Create a new “HA Group” with the “+” sign:
Add the two controllers to the “HA Group”. You can use the role “dual”. “Active” for the master and “Standby” for the standby works as well. Enable “Pre-emption” and “State synchronization”. Enter a “Pre-shared-key” and “Submit” the changes.
The last step is to join the controllers to the group. Stay on the same page as bevor and select “HA Member”:
Select the “HA Group” from the drop-down list “Member of HA group”. Now, the two controllers form an “HA Group”.
You also have to change the LMS IP in the AP group. You can do this in the AP Systems profile as well. I personally, prefer the group. In the same hierarchy level go to “Configuration–>AP Groups” and select the AP group you would like to change:
Select the “LMS” tab and enter the two IP addresses of the two controllers. The master the first one and the standby is the “Backup IP address”. Save the configuration.
All AP’s establish now two connections. One to each controller. To check this use the command below:
(Master) [mynode] #show ha ap table
HA AP Table
-----------
AP IP-Address MAC-Address AP-flags HA-flags
-- ---------- ----------- -------- --------
HA-Test 10.201.201.204 94:b4:0f:cb:75:cc LU
Total Num APs::1
Active APs::1
Standby APs::0
AP Flags: R=RAP; S=Standby; s=Bridge Split VAP L=Licensed; M=Mesh, U=Up
HA Flags: S=Standby, C=Standby connected, L=LMS, F=Sent Failover Request to AP, H=AP flaged for Inter Controller Heartbeat(Standby) *[mynode] (config-submode)#show ha ap table
HA AP Table
-----------
AP IP-Address MAC-Address AP-flags HA-flags
-- ---------- ----------- -------- --------
HA-Test 10.201.201.204 94:b4:0f:cb:75:cc SLU
Total Num APs::1
Active APs::0
Standby APs::1
AP Flags: R=RAP; S=Standby; s=Bridge Split VAP L=Licensed; M=Mesh, U=Up
HA Flags: S=Standby, C=Standby connected, L=LMS, F=Sent Failover Request to AP, H=AP flaged for Inter Controller HeartbeatYou see, that the AP is “Licensed” and “Up” in the master and in addition “Standby” on the standby controller. In case of a failure, the AP uses the standby connection to stay active. Because of the synchronization, all user sessions are available on the standby as well. No need for a complete new authentication.
Once the master is back online. All the master functions change back, including the AP termination.
The user might see a small interruption, I had only 8 pings failing in the worst case. Normally around 3-5.
Do you use this design of master standby or do you prefer a design with virtual mobility master? Tell me and leave a comment below.
If you find this post interesting, leave me a comment and share it with your friends. If you don’t like the post, leave me a comment and share it with your enemy. But whatever you do, leave me a comment, now.
Are we able to terminate ap in Master mode (8.x) ? We cant .
hi Ashik,
maybe I can describe it with more details.
So first of all, if you are running a network with a Mobility Master (the blog post above is not talking about a mobility master at all, but I would like to mention it for completeness), the Mobility Master (MM) cannot terminate AP’s. you can only terminate AP’s on managed Devices (MD).
If you do not have a MM, the Mobility Controllers can run in different modes:
MCM or Mobility Controller Master, this is a normal Controller, running some kind of Mobility Master functionality, but with fewer features as a normal Mobility Master. I would never recommend this and please forget about this just after reading, it is here just for completeness. In this mode, the controller cannot terminate AP’s.
Standalone, this is what the post above is talking about. In this mode, the controller runs without mobility master, like it was running in 6.x. In this mode, the controller can terminate AP’s and you can also configure the controller directly.
Managed Device or MD, here the controller needs a MM and can terminate AP’s. But you can only configure the controller through the MM.
Hope this gives a better understanding of the different modes and where you can terminate AP’s or not.
BR
Florian
Please check 8.x fundamental since we cant terminate ap in MCM or MM mode
Got it ,,, you configured as standalone the you can bring up ap
Good site for learning..Keep doing awesome work ….
Hi ashikkkkMohamed,
thanks for the feedback. Really appreciated.
BR
Florian
Thank you for the blog post. I can confirm that this also worked fin ArubaOS 8.5 with only one difference. That being the breadcrumb trail for configuring “Master Redundancy” and “HA Groups” has been shortened from “Configuration–>Services–>Redundancy” to “Configuration->Redundancy”.
Hi Brad,
thanks for your feedback. Really appreciated. and also thanks for the update.
It would consume more time as I have to keep the posts up to date with new software versions. But I hope, if you know what you are looking for, you should be able to find it even if the config context moved to a different place.
BR
Florian
I got this working too.. thanks for your help!
Great article, thanks for the info. I have 2 controllers with 8.3 and need to do the same redundancy mentioned here. Just one quick question though, if I have some access points already configured on one controller with it’s ip address (like 10.201.201.11 – no redundancy setup yet), will they lose connection through the VRRP setup process? In other words, would I have to configure the new master VRRP IP address (10.201.201.10) on the access points or will they get updated from the controller on their own with the new VRRP controller ip address 10.201.201.10? I just want to make sure I don’t take our access points down, if it can be avoided. Thanks
Hi Ike,
thanks for your feedback.
If the AP’s are configured to the physical address of the controller and you add a VRRP address, they will not reboot. You should use the VRRP address for the discovery only. This means, depending on the discovery process (DHCP,DNS or Layer2) they will learn the VRRP address during the next scheduled reboot via those discovery methods. During normal operations, they will not connect to the VRRP address, only for the first connection to the controller in order to learn LMS and Backup LMS from the controller.
So simply adding VRRP to the game does not interrupt normal operations.
BR
Florian
Sounds good, thanks for your help.
Hi Ike,
sure, you’re welcome.
BR
Florian
Hi!
Great post! Could you please specify the OS version of the controller you are using? Is this feature supported on all AOS 8.X, or just from specific versions?
Thanks!
Hi Daniel,
Not sure which version I was using but this should work for every version in AOS 8.
I would recommend to use the latest conservative release for production environments. Except you need newer APs which are only available for newer versions.
BR
Florian
We want to configure Active-Active HA Deployment mode in which some access points are active for one controller and standby for second controller. Will some one guide us the configuration please.
Here is the link below.
https://www.arubanetworks.com/techdocs/ArubaOS%206_3_1_Web_Help/Content/ArubaFrameStyles/VRRP/HighAvFastFailover.htm#Active/A
Hi Tahir,
Active-Active Deployment with ArubaOS 8 is not possible anymore, without using a Mobility Master and at least 2 managed devices. But if you already have a Mobility Master I would always go for cluster setup like this:
ArubaOS 8 Cluster
BR
Florian
Thanks for the article. A couple of questions. Will any configurations on the master be copied to the standby contorller? Also, will the standby controller share the ap licenses assigned from the master controller?
Hi John,
thanks for your comment. I will try to answer your questions to my best knowledge.
First, all of the configurations from the /md tree will be synched between the two devices. All of the /mm tree as well, but only from the top level. Everything under /mm/device needs to be configured on each device individually. But this should be not that much.
The licenses are synched the same way most off the rest off the databases like WMS or AP whitelist is synched, but the standby controller can only use the licenses when the primary goes down. This means, as long as the primary is up and running, the standby knows about the licenses but cannot use them.
This is the reason, why this kind of setup can only support an active-standby scenario. For real redundancy, I would recommend a cluster setup.
BR
Florian
Great article. Just a few questions. I use MAC authentication using Internaldb as the authentication source. (The two controller run in standalone mode for Master-Redundancy). When Master is down, all AP switch to standby, but users cannot pass the authentication.(Authentication failed). And I typed “show local-userdb” on standby AC, there are all users and password info, but the Status is Inactive. On Master AC, show local-userdb status is Active. So if two standalone run in Master-Redundancy with MAC authentication. Anything special to pay attention to? How to troubleshoot this scenario?
Hi Holly,
thanks for your comment. Really appreciate your feedback.
actually, I have never tried MAC Authentication with local DB. I have always used a central radius server for this kind of setup. But I would first check if the database synchronization works. If this is the case I have no clue at the moment why this should not work.
I’m currently recreating my lab so I think with the start of February I should be able to test this myself.
BR
Florian
any news about tha mac auth thing?!
Hi jAyR,
I just tested it without issues. I created a guest manager and created a guest account and two mac address accounts via CLI. After database synchronization was running from master to backup the users were active on the salve as well:
(VMC-2) [mm] (config) #show local-userdbUser Summary
------------
Name Password Role E-Mail Enabled Expiry Status Sponsor-Name Remote-IP Grantor-Name
---- -------- ---- ------ ------- ------ ------ ------------ --------- ------------
guest123 ******** guest Yes 2/25/2020 2:31 Active 0.0.0.0 guestmanager
ac7ba18b2fae ******** employee Yes Active 0.0.0.0 admin
fcd5d92d9b87 ******** guest Yes Active 0.0.0.0 admin
User Entries: 3
(VMC-2) [mm] (config) #show vrrp
Virtual Router 201:
Description Master_VRRP
Admin State UP, VR State BACKUP
IP Address 10.201.201.100, MAC Address 00:00:5e:00:01:c9, vlan 201
Priority 100, Advertisement 1 sec, Preemption Disable Delay 0
Auth type PASSWORD, Auth data: ********
tracking is not enabled
I was running the latest “ArubaOS 8.6.0.2” version. So maybe a bug in your version.
BR
Florian
Thanks for the article, I found it useful in case of no MM.
it will be kind when you make a new post to clarify how we deal with the migration from 6.x to 8.x when we also don’t have a MM. for example how to transfer our old license to the new OS version.
Hi Ady,
The migration from 6.x to 8.x is a hard cut. This means if you install the new 8.x image in your controller and reboot, the old configuration will be gone and the controller did a factory reset. So you need to configure everything from scratch. Normally a partner is in charge to plan and do the migration during a maintenance window or during low usage hours, during the night for example.
If you prepare well, your downtime might be under 1 hour. but this is just a guess, without knowing your configuration and the environment. And that everything works as planned, and we all know, how often this happens 🙂
In regards to the licenses, the controller will do a factory reset, but your licenses will remain on the controller. You only need to convert them, if you plan to use a mobility master. Which is my recommendation for the following reasons:
1. You can use a cluster after the migration, which gives you by far the best user experience in regards to failover times
2. You can prepare your upgrade by configuring the Mobility Master before you actually upgrade the controllers so that everything is already in place when you upgrade the controllers. This will bring you definitely under one-hour downtime. If you upgrade the standby first you can even be faster. But this should be planned by a consultant or with the help of your peers at Aruba.
I hope this helps.
BR
Florian
Thanks a lot…
I am doing the migration myself and we can’t afford a MM, so do you recommend using the migration tool for saving the config time or its not perfect?
Best Regards,
Ady
Hi Ady,
Personally, I cannot comment on the migration tool, as I do not have used it. I did the migration always by myself.
Maybe you can start the migration with one controller (you will lose redundancy for the 6.x environment) first, move the AP’s to the new controller and afterward migrate the second one. This should give you the lowest downtime.
BR
Florian
Hi Florian,
I have recently upgraded our office controller from 6.x to 8.6.0.2 and we have 7210 model. I have currently made up one 7210 controller with all configuration in place all the APs’ are terminated and in the production.
Now i i need to add one more controller as backup. Currently all the AP’s are registered with IP 10.99.99.100
now please tell me if i bring them in VRRP and HA Group will the AP reboot to get the new controller IP(when you do VRRP and HA Group, AP will use which IP )to register with controller example my 1st controller IP is 10.99.99.100 currently in production and second controller IP is 10.99.99.101 which is freshly configured and VRRP ip is 10.99.99.102). Basically i dont want to take one more downtime as i already took long downtime to bring controller in 8.x version.
I have 3 Sites which campus AP mode configured with DHCP server local to each sites. And AP discovery mode will be ADP with i have configured controller IP address in DHCP server for option 42 and 60.
Please let me know if u need further info.
Hi shridhar,
jsut to make sure we are talking about the same thing:
10.99.99.100 Controller 1
10.99.99.101 Controller 2
10.99.99.102 VRRP
first, you would use the VRRP IP only for initial AP discovery. So you would insert this IP into the DHCP server config. I assume you have 10.99.99.100 there at the moment.
This would not make the AP’s reboot!
Secondly, you would simply configure the 10.99.99.100 as LMS IP and 10.99.99.101 as Backup-LMS in the AP Systems Profile. As the AP’s are already connected to 10.99.99.100 they would just create a second tunnel to 10.99.99.101. They will not reboot.
All the above assumes, that VRRP and HA is already configured between the two controllers.
Many thanks,
Florian
Hi FLorian,
Many Thank you for your reply on this.
Actually currently VRRP not configured yet i received another controller just this week and need to bring them to vrrp and HA.
So before doing the changes i was going throgh your blog and take consult on this.
Current situation
10.99.99.100 is the controller as the single standalone 7210 controller.
now i need to create VRRP and HA with new 7210 controller.
I dont want to take any big risk of major changes just add the new controller to the VRRP and HA with no downtime or minimal downtime.
Please help me here.
Thank you so much.
Hi Shridhar,
First of all, you should contact your local partner or Aruba representative as this might need onsite consulting to understand your infrastructure. I can only give some general guidance.
In general, if the already deployed controller (10.99.99.100) is already running in standalone mode you first need to create the master redundancy. This will include setting up VRRP. If this is running successfully, with successful database synchronization you can start configuring HA between the two controllers. Afterward, you simply add LMS (master controller) and backup LMS (backup controller) to the AP group config. This will make the AP to create a backup tunnel to the second controller. It should not make the AP reboot.
you should use the VRRP IP for AP controller discovery. So you should put this either into the DHCP server as option 43 or into DNS. (only if you do L3 based controller discovery).
Hope this helps.
BR
Florian
Hi Florian,
Many many thank you for the info you provided this info really helping me.
thanks, just trying to help
i am trying this setup on 8.6 , when i enable master-redundancy , the high availabilty tab just disappears from the GUI on the MM level , i can get it work from the CLI only
did you encouter similar issue ? , or do i need to get the HA config first before i enable the redundancy ?
Hi MH,
I haven’t checked with 8.6 so far. So I cannot tell if this is as designed or a bug. But I will check during the next days.
Many thanks,
Florian
Thanks Florian , can you check on your current code if you have the tab “high availabilty ” on the mobility controller level ( the /mm level or the parent level) ,apparently once the the L2 redudancy is formed , this tab is gone from the GUI
it is only available on the 7005-1 (the device i am using for this test ) .
i am not sure if i can post a screen shot so it is clear.
Hi MH,
you are correct. I’m currently testing with 8.6.0.3 and after the Master-Standby is formed the Tab is gone, at least from the MM hierarchy. If you go own to the device level it is still there. For the controller, acting as the master, you can do this from the main GUI. The standby controller needs to be configured from the device itself. I will try to fully test this in the next days.
BR
Florian
thanks Florian for confirming this , i am testing with 8.6.0.2 the production release and it is the same.
on the device level , the tab is also gone from the backup controller (instead the l3 redundancy tab is showing up)
the only way i managed to get it to work is from the /mm of the master cli.
or maybe config the HA before forming the l2 redundancy.
Hi Florian,
Thank you very much for posting this detailed setup. We have a 7210 controller running 8.2 in stand alone mode with all the configs. Now, we want to add a second 7210 controller and have them setup as Master/Standby. If we add the second controller and setup VRRP, Master Redundancy, Database Sync, will the second controller get all the existing configs like AP groups, ap system profile, vap profile, user roles ect? Or do we have to configure those things manually on the second controller before setup HA? How about license? Do we need to install any license on the second controller?
Thank you for your help.
Hai
Hi Hai,
it depends on which level you configure everything. If you did as I described above, the second controller should get all the configs like AP groups and so on. In a Master/Standby scenario, only the master need licenses, as the standby will get those after failover.
BR
Florian
Hi Florian
I am setting this up in a lab with 2x 7030 and running v8.6.0.4. I can confirm the HA tab is still gone in the MM hierarchy. Have you found out more about this? Is this feature being phased out by Aruba, or just a bug? I could try configuring this in CLI, but if this feature will become unsupported in future versions, the CLI config does not help me either.
Kind Regards
Ingo
hi Ingo,
Master/Standby with HA is no longer the recommended configuration. The recommendation is to use Master/Standby with VRRP. Use the VRRP address for LMS IP and do not use any Backup LMS. The failover times should be similar to the ones with HA in 8.x (ca. 10sec). I will write a new post about this in the coming weeks.
BR
Florian
Hi, I have a production instalation with two 7030 controllers in master/standby with VRRP, behind a mobility master. But now I wish to add two new 7030 controllers to replace the old ones, How do I add them to the existing cluster and them remove the old ones? thanks in advance
Hi Daniel,
thanks for your comment. To be honest I do not understand your setup. You are running a Mobility Master and you use VRRP for your MD’s managed by the Mobility Master? You would like to replace the two MD’s? Is this correct?
If so, I would recommend going to a Cluster setup. There you do not need Master/Standby, as the Cluster will handle it. There you can add the new members and afterward remove the old the one one by one.
Hope this helps.
BR
Florian
Dear Team,
i have configured VRRP in Aruba controller but how can i test primary down and secondary up. if you have any command so please guide me.
Hi Kori,
I’m not aware of any command. Taking down the port from a physical point of view is a good option. I would either remove the link physically or set the port in a downstate, but from the switch. This would simulate a link failure and VRRP should act accordingly.
BR
Florian
Hi Florian,
First of all, thank you for this very detailed guide. I’ve used this and it helped me though my config.
Just a quick question, we’ve already configured the HA but we’re using a Cisco Switch. The only problem that we have encountered is that the interfaces from MC1 (0/0/0) and MC2 (0/0/0) seems to have mac-flopping. But we have already established the VRRP for Master and Standby and it seems to be working well. Is it normal to have mac flapping for the connected interfaces? Does it have something to do with the database sync timer as well?
Any inputs from you will be very helpful. Again, thank you very much!
Hi Michael,
thanks for your feedback.
You should not see any mac flapping. you should see only the physical IP if Port 0/0/0 for each controller and the on one port the VRRP MAC as well. Nothing more. If there is a flapping, something is not working or working not correctly. Which mac is flapping?
BR
Florian
Hi Florian,
Thank for your post. I have a question about upgrading Controller from ver 6.x to 8.x.
I have 2 WLC 7205 (Master_Standby), managed 80 APs with ver 6.x/
Now we need add more 80 other APs ver 8.x, so we need upgrade 7205 to 8.x (Master_Standby also, without MM).
My plan:
– Turn off Master controller to using Standby Controller.
– Unplug network of Master controller + Upgrade Master controller from 6.x to 8.x >>>> Lost all old configuration, and must configure to standalone role, right?
– Plug network of master controller (and unplug network of standby controller) to test wireless network.
– If above step is ok, upgrade standby controller >>> which role of standby controller when it is 8.x?
Thanks!
Hi baobeeBao,
Thanks for your comment. Your steps are correct and I would do it the same way. The good thing is, you can reuse most of the configuration from 6.x. So copy-paste parts of the config could speed up the process.
The standby controller should also run in standalone mode.
BUT: In later versions of 8.x (I think >8.5) you cannot use the procedure with HA Fast Failover anymore. It is removed from the GUI if you do not have a mobility master. The recommended setup is to use VRRP for AP connectivity and not to use HA Fast Failover.
BR
Florian
what is the different between “active” ,”standby” , “dual” on Ap fast failover ?
Hi Dinesh,
That’s the role of the controller. Only controllers configured as “active” can terminate active AP tunnels. In “standby” mode, controllers can only terminate standby tunnels, which will get active if the “active” controller fails.
If you run a pair of controllers with “active” standby” mode, only the active on will terminate the active AP tunnels and all traffic is going through this controller.
In most situations, you will load balance (on a group basis) the active AP’s on both controllers. Therefore you select “dual”. In this mode, the controller can terminate “active” and “standby” tunnels.
BR
Florian
Hi Florian, did you ever write an new post about Master/Standby with Version 8.6+ ?
Hi jAyR,
Thanks for asking, but no, as most of the configuration is not available anymore from the GUI. You can still use the CLI to configure the same, but the recommendation is to use a Mobility Conductor and use clustering which is a much better approach.
If this is not a good fit, maybe looking at AOS10 could bring some benefits as well.
I hope this answers your question.
BR
Florian
Hello florian
Do you need to license each controller or is just licensing one controller sufficient for redundancy to work?
Hi Cesar,
Thanks for the comment and your question.
The licenses are also synchronized between the active and standby master. But be aware that, you should use a Mobility Conductor and create a cluster. This will be the supported setup in the future.
Many thanks,
Florian
We want to migrate a Master/local setup, where IAP’s via IPSEC are terminating on the master controller.
We want to migrate the Master controller to a master controller mode ( even though it isnt’t recommended).
I can find no AP’s can be connected to the Master contoller mode, but is it possible to terminate the IAP IPSEC vpn on a mobiltity controller master ?
Hi Nico,
thanks for your question.
A controller running in MCM Mode (Master Controller Mode) is a limited version of a mobility master and therefore has the same limitations as a mobility master. This means you cannot terminate anything on this controller. You can only manage other controllers.
BR
Florian
Hi
I’ve followed this guide but my config is not working.
Some info (VRRP and Master redundancy are fine)
(x-aruba-wlc-1) *[mynode] #show ha ap table
HA AP Table
———–
AP IP-Address MAC-Address AP-flags HA-flags
— ———- ———– ——– ——–
lk-site1-8-w1 10.36.208.197 f0:5c:19:c6:6b:f6 sLU
lk-site2-23-w6 10.36.39.250 f0:5c:19:c7:e7:3e sLU
lk-site3-14-w1 10.36.23.172 f0:5c:19:c6:69:f8 sLU
(x-aruba-wlc-1) *[mynode] #show ha group-membership
Controller member of HA group: HA-group
(x-aruba-wlc-1) *[mynode] #show running-config | include HA
Building Configuration…
ike authentication PRE-SHARE ******
ha group-profile “HA-group”
ha group-membership “HA-group”
———————————————————————————
(x-aruba-wlc-2) *[mynode] #show ha ap table
HA AP Table
———–
AP IP-Address MAC-Address AP-flags HA-flags
— ———- ———– ——– ——–
Total Num APs::0
Active APs::0
Standby APs: 0
(lx-aruba-wlc-2) *[mynode] #show ha group-membership
Controller member of HA group:
(x-aruba-wlc-2) *[mynode] #show running-config | include HA
Building Configuration…
ike authentication PRE-SHARE ******
———————-
Any ideas?
thanks
Juha-Pekka
Hi Juha-Pekka,
Which version are you using? In recent versions, this type of setup is not recommended anymore. You should go with a cluster setup instead of this setup above.
From a first view of the output, it looks like the “x-aruba-wlc-2” controller is not configured correctly. You should check if the config is correctly applied.
BR
Florian
Hi Florian,
We currently have 2 standalone controller running in Master Redundancy configuration mode. If we bring in a mobility master in future and want to join the current two standalone controller into the MM, do we need to reset them totally and reconfigure them as MD before we are able to join them in to the MM.
Or is there an better way to do this. Thank you.
Hi Pat,
unfortunately, if you join a controller to an MM, you need to do a factory reset of the controller. There is no other way.
but you might migrate parts of the config using the CLI, doing a copy paste. Just keep an eye on the level (Global/Group/Controller) before pasting something.
Hope this helps.
BR
Florian
I’d love to see this re-written for current AOS versions (8.10.x.x) as there are significant differences. Configuration item locations have all moved. Some options that were available are no longer.
Hi Simon,
with recent AOS 8 versions, this is no longer a supported setup. You should either move to cluster setup or go directly to AOS10. But master-standby is old fashion and should not be used in new installations.
BR
Florian
Is this topology can be built in the latest 8.7.x code?
Hi Koushik,
To my understanding, this can be built using the CLI only as most of the options are removed in GUI. But this is no longer recommended; you should move to a cluster setup.
BR
Florian
Hello！
You write well and in detail, which makes me learn a lot. I configured VRRP according to your steps at the beginning, which is great!
But I have a problem. Someone asked me whether different models of controllers can be used for VRRP. I don’t think so. I remember you must have the same model and version!
A colleague told me that VRRP is a three-tier protocol and does not require the same type of controller. But I insist that this is necessary, otherwise there will be problems when you enable primary redundancy to synchronize the configuration.
May I have your opinion
Hi,
The simple answer is yes and no.
Your colleague is correct, VRRRP is independent of the model and version and runs standard-based, but VRRP is only half of the story. The two controllers also need to sync configurations and, this is most important part, the AP will get it’s version from the controller. If you run the controller with different versions, the AP will download the new version everytime it connects to the other controller.
You might be able to have this setup running with different controller models, even if I would not recommend it, it should work, but they have to run the same software version.
BR
Florian
Hello Florian!
Your writing helped me a lot. Thank you so much!
I am currently using two standardone controllers.
And I only set the master-redundancy setting based on vrrp.
However, the customer wants faster failover.
Version is using 8.6.0.18.
Is it possible to add HA settings in this situation?
VRRP redundancy uses one tunnel, but I have to use two tunnels through HA redundancy.
Hi Choi,
Without a mobility conductor, you cannot improve failover times. The setup, described above is deprecated and fully replaced with clustering. But clustering requires a mobility conductor.
The other option is to go with Aruba Central and AOS10. But this also requires a Central subscription for your AP’s and controllers.
BR
Florian
Is it fully deprecated? I still see it in the UI in 8.10.x.
From Colin Joseph
To be clear, if you are using master/standby, you MUST connect access points to the VRRP for proper redundancy. You CANNOT use HA. Why? Because the VRRP determines what controller is the master and can actually serve access points. The other controller will not accept access points. If you configure ha and access points fail over to a controller that doesn’t have control of the VRRP, the access points will not function.
Again, DO NOT use HA when pointing APs to master redundant controllers. Point the APS at the VRRP between them.
Hi jorge,
yes, it is fully depricated. At least if you think of an HA solution. Sure you can still run both controller in an active/standby scenario, but the failover will be much longer than any other option. So don’t use this anymore. Either use a mobility conductor or look at AOS10, which makes it much easier.
BR
Florian
Hello Florian,
Thanks for your post!!!
We are currently managing two Aruba controllers and have successfully set up L2 Redundancy. The database synchronization is running smoothly without any reported errors. Although the Aruba APs are connecting to the primary controller, I am running into an issue when attempting to test the redundancy as the APs are not coming online on the secondary controller.
I am seeking assistance to troubleshoot and resolve this matter.
For reference, the controller in use is the Aruba 9240 with firmware version 8.11.2.1.
Thanks in Advance
Hi Sufyan,
The setup from the post above is not officially supported anymore. It should work but there is no guarantee. How do you test the failover?
Bevore the failover, you should see the AP’s conneted to the primary (as expected) and there should also be a standby connection to the secondary. If this is the case and you shutdown (diconnect) the primary the AP’s should failover to the secondary. what happens if you reboot the AP’s during the time, the primary is down?
BR
Florian
Dear Florian,
thanks alot for your post , it’s really has good information.
I noticed that you keep saying it’s not recomened and valid solution anymore while I can still find it at user guide of 8.12. check below link:
https://www.arubanetworks.com/techdocs/ArubaOS-8.x-Books/812/ArubaOS-8.12.0.0-User-Guide.pdf
I need to ask: using this method is better than using VRRP only between the two controllers?
Hi Abdelwahab,
Thanks for your comment. Can you help me with the page, you are referring to?
Master-Standby without a mobility conductor is not supported. Using a mobility conductor it is, but if you have a mobility conductor you can also use clustering, which perform much better then any other HA method. The post above is for Master-Standby and assumes, there is no mobility conductor.
Many thanks,
Florian
Hello Florian,
Thanks for your post!!!
I have a client which will buy two 9240 WLCs, he want to have high availability option, according to guide “ArubaOS-8.12.0.0-User-Guide” (AP and User Redundancy Methods) which method is better:
Using active/active high availability model or using VRRP Redundancy?
I know cluster will not available as the client will have only two physical 9240 WLC and will not buy mobility conductor.
are this solution can’t be done as in comments it’s removed from web interface? but at mention guide still showing steps from web interface?
at case it can’t be done is there is away to have active/active or active/standby with low failover time in case we have only two physical controllers 9240? or it can’t be done and we need to buy another hardware to have Mobility conductor?
BR
Abdelwahab
Hi Abdelwahab,
thanks for getting back.
I personally would recommend to look at ArubaOS10, managed from Aruba Central. With this you can run the two Controllers in a Cluster, without the need for the mobility conductor or any additional hardware.
If cloud is not an option, you have to stick to AOS8 and here I would always recommend a mobility conductor. It is enough to run the mobility conductor in a VM. It is not required to have it as a hardware appliance.
If you can’t use a mobility conductor you can only use Active/Standby, which can only be configured using CLI and is not supported anymore. You should also reach out to your local Aruba representative to get this sorted out.
Many thanks,
Florian
Hello Florian,
I have a client which will buy two 9240 WLCs, he want to have high availability option, according to guide “ArubaOS-8.12.0.0-User-Guide” (AP and User Redundancy Methods) which method is better:
Using active/active high availability model or using VRRP Redundancy?
I know cluster will not available as the client will have only two physical 9240 WLC and will not buy mobility conductor.
are this solution can’t be done as in comments it’s removed from web interface? but at mention guide at section (AP and User Redundancy Methods) still showing steps from web interface do to active/active high availability with redundancy group? at that case I can still have half of AP active at controller1 and standby at controller 2 and the other half of APs active at controller 2 and standby at controller 1, so I can have active/active with two physical controllers without mobility conductor?
at case it can’t be done is there is away to have active/active or active/standby with low failover time in case we have only two physical controllers 9240? or it can’t be done and we need to buy another hardware to have Mobility conductor?
BR
Abdelwahab
Dear Florian,
thanks a lot for your information, I’m sure that cluster giving better failover time. but again in case customer has only two physical 9240 WLC and cloud is not an option plus he can’t add mobility conductor physical or virtual.
at above case and as per mentioned guide “ArubaOS-8.12.0.0-User-Guide” (AP and User Redundancy Methods) still I can use Configuring High Availability with two controllers each with dual mode rule and using the web interface not only CLI
only note there is
”
The High Availability feature is not supported on Standalone Conductor-Standby deployments.
”
so at this case IF we didn’t do master redundancy or mobility master redundancy with VRRP, I’m still can above solution working fine from web and CLI as per guide for version 8.x and can have active/active scenario or active standby. the only thing that I need to duplicate the configuration of wireless between the two 9240 WLC
am I right?
also you are saying that it is not supported anymore, while it’s strill mention as option at mention document for stand alone controller and managed controller with web and cli option?
I’ll be waiting for your update and sorry for any interruption from my side
Regards,
Abdelwahab
Hi,
If you do not have a mobility conductor, you have to run the controller in standalone mode. This will run a kind-of conductor on the controller itself. Which will bring you in the situation as stated above “The High Availability feature is not supported on Standalone Conductor-Standby deployments.”.
Also takea look at this Airheads discussion:
https://community.arubanetworks.com/discussion/arubaos-8-ha-without-mmconductor
Many thanks,
Florian