Working with controlled APs
Discovery of controllers by controlled APs
6-6
Discovery of controllers by controlled APs
This section describes how the discovery process works and how it can be customized.
Discovery is the process by which a controlled AP finds a controller (or controller team) on a
network and establishes a secure management tunnel with it. To see how the discovery
process fits into overall controlled mode operations, see Key controlled-mode events on
page 6-4.
In most cases, the factory default configuration of an AP will result in automatic discovery of
a controller with no configuration required. However, for some network topologies it may be
necessary to configure the discovery process as described in this section.
See Discovery recommendations on page 6-10 for examples of topologies that can use
automatic discovery and those that require discovery to be configured.
Note If you intend to manage controlled APs via local mesh, see Local mesh on page 13-1.
Provisioning can limit the discovery of potential controllers. See Provisioning APs on
page 6-31.
Discovery overview
Although the specifics of the discovery process vary depending on whether an AP is
unprovisioned (in its factory default state) or provisioned (had its connectivity or discovery
settings changed from their factory default settings), the discovery process can be
summarized as follows:
1. The AP uses various methods to locate one or more controllers that are reachable on the
network. The preferred way to monitor AP discovery is via the controller management
tool (see Monitoring the discovery process on page 6-13). When in visual range of the
APs, you can watch the status lights for an indication of discovery progress. See the
status light information in the AP Quickstart (provided and available online).
Discovery complete. Wireless services
become available. For the MSM317, the
switch ports also become active.
Controller AP
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