Mixed vendor wireless environment with single SSID?

hmc250000
Getting noticed

Mixed vendor wireless environment with single SSID?

Can you have a mixed vendor wireless environment (Meraki/Extreme) with a single SSID?One of our sites has 150 AP's and we're not sure if we would be able to replace all in one shot because they are 24x7 and have a very small maintenance window.

9 REPLIES 9
BrandonS
Kind of a big deal

In theory, yes. Be careful that authentication protocols are the same and consider devices/apps needing fast roaming like voip that may not work as expected.

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Inderdeep
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

@hmc250000 : It will work if same security configuration but seamless roaming will not work always.

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hmc250000
Getting noticed

We will need roaming to work. 

KarstenI
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

In addition to what was already suggested, it is best to have continuous areas with the same AP. Do not replace one AP here and one AP there. Better, for example, begin the replacement at the end of the building and then move to the front.

hmc250000
Getting noticed

Makes sense. Thanks.

MarcP
Kind of a big deal

We made this last year, replacing Sophos AP´s with Merakis, in one location.

As described we did it also - area for areas has been replaced. I didn´t recognize any bigger problems and have not been told. 

For this I disabled the splash page (captive portal in Sophos world) and enabled it after we were done. This was in fact the only problem. Some users (only a couple) needed to acknowledge the page again after moving between the areas for the first time.

PhilipDAth
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

You'll want to disable Merai Marshal as it will think there is constantly an attack happening.  Once all APs are swapped out you'll be able to turn it back on.

https://documentation.meraki.com/MR/Monitoring_and_Reporting/Air_Marshal 

 

You'll also need to make sure any IPS features are disabled on the other system so that it also doesn't think there is an attack happening.

Came here to say this! We had a mixed setup whilst we were waiting for our new MR's to come in. Air Marshal went wild until we figured out what it was and turned it off!

Troyco
Conversationalist

Your biggest problem will be that the clients makes the decision on where they are going to roam, and as much as enterprise wireless system can try and persuade that, ultimately it's up to the client vendor if there firmware will recognise those features and obey them.

Also, roaming will not work between the two system as there is no authentication key caching happening between the two systems, therefore you are disassociating and re-associating between different vendor AP's

 

I have a deployment of Cisco and Meraki between two floor and roaming and association between floors is an issue 

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