Session Persistence applies to the session state on the AP. RADIUS authentication is always handled through the appliance — this can be the local ExtremeCloud IQ Controller or a third-party appliance. Associated clients remain unaffected by a lack of connectivity to the appliance.
When using MBA or 802.1x, the authenticating appliance must be visible. When enabling MBA, the selected ‘MBA Timeout Role‘ provides the default role to which users are automatically assigned. The role can be permissive or restricted, depending on the administrative configuration. See WLAN Service Settings. When using 802.1x, if none of the appliances are available, then likely there is no path-to-authentication and new clients will be unable to authenticate on the wireless network. If the network association is set to OPEN or PSK SSIDs, no authentication is required and the AP will associate the device based on the ‘Default Non-Auth‘ Role setting configured for the network.