AP Priority

Failover Priority for Access Points

Each embedded controller has a defined number of communication ports for access points. When multiple embedded controllers with unused access point ports are deployed on the same network and one controller fails, the dropped access points automatically poll for unused controller ports and associate with them.

The following are some guidelines for configuring failover priority for access points:

  • You can configure your wireless network so that the backup embedded controller recognizes a join request from a higher-priority access point, and if necessary, disassociates a lower-priority access point as a means to provide an available port.

  • Failover priority is not in effect during the regular operation of your wireless network. It takes effect only if there are more association requests after an embedded controller failure than there are available backup controller slots.

  • You can enable failover priority on your network and assign priorities to the individual access points.

  • By default, all access points are set to priority level 1, which is the lowest priority level. Therefore, you need to assign a priority level only to those access points that warrant a higher priority.

This section contains the following subsections:

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