Profile Adoption (Auto Provisioning) Configuration

About this task

Adoption is the process an access point uses to discover an available controller or service platform, pick the most desirable one, establish an association and optionally obtain an image upgrade and configuration. Adoption settings are configurable and supported within a device profile and applied to other access points supported by the profile. Individual attributes of an access point's auto provisioning policy can be overridden as specific parameters require modification.

At adoption, an access point solicits and receives multiple adoption responses from controllers and service platforms available on the network. These adoption responses contain loading policy information the access point uses to select the optimum controller or service platform for adoption. By default, an auto provisioning policy generally distributes AP adoption evenly amongst available controllers and service platforms. Modify existing adoption policies or create a new one as needed to meet access point adoption requirements and profile settings.

Note

A device configuration does not need to be present for an auto provisioning policy to take effect. Once adopted, and the device's configuration is defined and applied by the controller, the auto provisioning policy mapping does not have an impact on subsequent adoptions by the same device.

To define the access point profile‘s adoption configuration:

Procedure

Select Configuration → Devices → System Profile → Adoption from the web UI.

Device Configuration - System Profile - Adoption Screen
Define the Preferred Group used as optimal group of controllers for the access point's adoption. The name of the preferred group cannot exceed 64 characters.
The preferred group is the controller group the access point would prefer to connect upon adoption.
Select the VLAN option to define a VLAN the access point‘s associating Virtual Controller AP is reachable on. VLANs 0 and 4,095 are reserved and cannot be used. This setting is disabled by default.

Set the following Auto-Provisioning Policy settings for access point adoptions:


Auto-Provisioning Policy	Select an auto provisioning policy from the drop-down menu. To create a new auto provisioning policy, select the Create icon or modify an existing one by selecting the Edit icon.
Learn and Save Network Configuration	Select this option to enable allow the controller tor service platform to maintain a local configuration records of devices requesting adoption and provisioning. This feature is enabled by default.
Hello Interval	Select this option to define the hello packet exchange interval (from 1 - 120 seconds) between the controller or service platform and an adoption requesting access point.

Define the Hello Interval value in seconds.
The Hello interval is the interval between two consecutive hello keep alive messages exchanged between the access point and the adopting wireless controller. These messages serve as a connection validation mechanism to ensure the availability of the adopting wireless controller. Use the spinner to set a value from 1 - 120 seconds.
Define the Adjacency Hold Time value. This value sets the time after which the preferred controller group is considered down and unavailable to provide services. Use the spinner to set a value from 2 - 600 seconds.

Enter Controller Hostnames as needed to define resources for adoption. Click +Add Row to add controllers. Set the following parameters to define Controller Hostnames:


Allow Adoption of Devices	Select either access points or Controllers (or both) to refine whether this controller or service platform can adopt just networked access points or peer controller devices as well.
Allow Adoption of this Controller	Select this option to enable this controller or service platform to be capable of adoption by other controllers or service platforms. This setting is disabled by default and must be selected to allow peer adoptions.
Preferred Group	If Allow Adoption of this Controller is selected, provide the controller group preferred as the adopting entity for this controller or service platform. If utilizing this feature, ensure the appropriate group is provided within the Controller Group field.
Hello Interval	Select this option to define the hello packet exchange interval (from 1 - 120 seconds) between the controller or service platform and an adoption requesting access point.
Adjacency Hold Time	Select this option to set a hold time interval (from 2 - 600 seconds) for the transmission of hello packets.

Select + Add Row as needed to populate the table with IP addresses or hostnames of adoption resources.
Select OK to save the changes made to the general profile configuration. Select Reset to revert to the last saved configuration.