AP Priority

Failover priority for APs

A failover priority for APs is a configuration setting that:

  • assigns priority levels to APs for controller association

  • determines which APs will be favored when controller capacity is limited, and

  • allows administrators to ensure high-priority devices maintain connectivity during failover scenarios

Each controller supports a set number of AP connections. If you deploy multiple controllers on the network and one fails, your APs can automatically connect to another available controller.

Guidelines to configure AP failover priority

Use these guidelines to configure AP failover priority:

  • Failover priority does not impact normal wireless operation. It only applies when AP connection requests exceed the controller’s available capacity.

  • The system checks AP priority as each AP connects. When capacity is full, or the primary controller fails, APs connect to the secondary controller.

  • Enable failover priority and set priority levels for APs that need them.

  • By default, all APs have priority level one (lowest). Assign higher levels only where needed.

Set AP priority (GUI)

Assign a failover priority to an AP to ensure high availability in the event of a controller failure.

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Configuration > Wireless > Access Points.

Step 2

Click the Access Point.

Step 3

In the Edit AP dialog box, go to the High Availability tab.

Step 4

Select the priority from the AP failover priority drop-down list.

Step 5

Click Update and Apply to Device.

Set AP priority (CLI)

Assign a priority level to an AP to determine the order in which APs connect and operate using commands.


Note

Priority of APs ranges from one to four, with four being the highest.

Procedure

Step 1

Specify the priority of an AP.

Example:

Device# ap name ap-name AP44d3.ca52.48b5 priority 1

Step 2

Display common information for all APs.

Example:

Device# show ap config general

Step 3

Display the configuration of a particular AP.

Example:

Device# show ap name ap-name AP44d3.ca52.48b5 config general