Mixed vendor wireless environment with single SSID?

[hmc250000]

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.

[BrandonS]

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.

[Inderdeep]

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

[hmc250000]

We will need roaming to work. 

[KarstenI]

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]

Makes sense. Thanks.

[MarcP]

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]

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.

[JonP]

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]

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