Main Help Topics

Clients associated to the standby access point lose their connection during the hot standby setup process. For preliminary setup, browse to the AP Radio Identification page on the standby access point and follow the steps below:

1. On the Summary Status page, click Setup.

2. On the Setup page, click Identification in the AP Radio row.

3. Select no for the Adopt Primary Port Identity option.

4. Click Apply and the access point reboots. After the access point reboots, the radio has its own identity: the radio IP and MAC addresses are different from the Ethernet addresses. The default IP address for the radio is 10.0.0.2.

In three situations, you might need to change the radio IP address from its default setting:

a) You must change the radio IP address if you need to use 10.0.0.2 for the Ethernet IP address. The Ethernet and radio ports on the standby access point must have different IP addresses.

b) You must change the radio IP address if you need to browse to the standby access point through its radio port. If you need to browse to the access point through the radio port, passing the port an IP address on the same subnet as the Ethernet IP address.

c) You must change the radio IP addresses on each standby access point if you are setting up more than one standby access point on the same subnet.

5. Browse to the Hot Standby page.

Hot Standby mode designates a device as a backup for a root access point or bridge. The standby device is placed near the access point or bridge it monitors, configured exactly the same as the monitored device. The standby device associates to the monitored access point or bridge as a client and queries the monitored device regularly through both the Ethernet and the radio. If the monitored device fails to respond, the standby access point or bridge comes online and takes the monitored device's place in the network.

Except for the settings specified below, the standby device's settings should be identical to the settings on the monitored access point or bridge. The standby access point must also be able to associate to the root access point as a client.

Settings

Service Set ID (SSID)

The SSID is a unique identifier that client devices use to associate with the access point or a VLAN supported by the access point. The SSID helps client devices distinguish between multiple wireless networks and VLANs in the same vicinity and provides access to VLANs by wireless client devices. Several access points on a network or sub-network can share an SSID. You can configure up to 16 SSIDs on each radio of an access point. An SSID can be any alphanumeric, case-sensitive entry from 2 to 32 characters long.

MAC Address for the Monitored AP

Enter the monitored device's MAC address.

Polling Frequency

Enter the number of seconds between each query the standby device sends to the monitored access point or bridge.

Polling Tolerance Duration

Enter the number of seconds the standby device should wait for a response from the monitored access point or bridge before it assumes the monitored device has malfunctioned.

Current State and Status

These settings are informational and determine whether Hot Standby is initializing, not running, monitoring, or protecting. The change appears after you refresh the screen.

Note: After the monitored access point malfunctions and the standby access point takes the root access point's place, the hot standby access point's hot standby mode must be manually set when the monitored access point is repaired or replaced. The standby access point does not revert to standby mode automatically.

Note: Wireless client devices associated to the standby device lose their connections to the hot standby device when hot standby is started.

Note: An access point with dual radios may display a large number or spurious MIC errors in networks that have MIC enabled. These errors are caused by the hot standby unit and the root access points forming a redundant network connection. The errors do not affect normal or hot standby operation.

Note: If you set up two standby systems on the same subnet or if the default IP address is 10.0.0.2, you must manually set the default radio IP addresses to avoid an IP address conflict. When a hot standby unit takes over, it uses its default IP address (10.0.0.2), which is the default for all access points. Therefore, if two hot standby access points come on line at the same time (for example, as the result of a power failure), a duplicate IP address exists and a conflict occurs.

Note: For 2.4-Ghz radios, the IP address is set on the Radio Internal Identification page. For the 5-Ghz radio, the IP address is set on the Radio Module Identification page. You must configure each radio separately.

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