There is also a mode where you connect your Mobility Express Controller to to automatically download access point images on the go as needed, but that requires having an active SmartNet contract tied to the serial number of your access points, which is a whole other story and not covered in this article. Without a TFTP server up and running on your network, other access points (even if they are the same model as the access point acting as the Mobility Express Controller) will not be able to join your deployment. This is why the storing part is instead handled by a separate TFTP server that needs to be installed on your network. In Mobility Express, however, the storing part has to be moved to a separate TFTP server because an access point acting as a Mobility Express Controller does not have enough resources to store and manage all of the different kinds of images needed in networks that are running lots of different types of access points. In a normal WLC deployment, the WLC itself is in charge of storing and distributing appropriate software images to all access points in the deployment.
One of those things is access point software image management. Using the Mobility Express technology, you can configure most of the common settings found in a typical office wireless network, but since a simple access point is the one in charge, there are of course some features that are not available to their full extent. This article does not cover the process of converting a regular Cisco Access Point to Mobility Express Controller mode, there are already plenty of guides out there about that.įor those that don't know, Cisco Mobility Express is a wireless deployment method where instead of using a separate wireless controller (also called WLC, which includes the 3504, 5520, 8540, and the newer 9800 models) to control and configure all of your access points (APs), a single access point is converted to a so-called Mobility Express Controller and after that acts as the single point of management for all the other access points in the network. Recently I spent some time setting up a Cisco wireless network using their Cisco Mobility Express technology and in this article, I'd like to highlight some "gotchas" I ran into regarding access point software images while putting the network together.
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