Moving a Client to specific UAC/MD on Aruba 8.x Cluster

Moving a Client to specific UAC/MD on Aruba 8.x Cluster

The previous post cover bucketmap and UAC computation concept of Aruba 8.x Architecture.

http://the-ethernets.com/2020/09/aruba-bucketmap-uac-computation-concept/

Many a times there are situation/requirement where we would like to have control on what MD, the APs and clients should connect. This might be needed for some validation test or other use cases.

The Cluster feature does allow option to disable loadbalancing for the APs, use ap-move command, this gives you control of pointing a specific AP to a specific controller via the LMS or static configuration. However there is no straight forward method to control the clients, the Cluster feature does not have an options to disable loadbalancing feature for the clients. Also there is no client-move command as available for the APs.

There is however a method via which you can define what UAC should a station/client index be assigned. Thus giving you control of defining the UAC for a specific client/station index.

******Please note this is not a recommended practice and should not be performed regularly. This command is also disruptive and would impact other clients as well********

This method moves the client from one UAC to another, but unfortunately, it changes the UAC and Standby UAC of all clients in the same bucket index, not a single client, because UACs and Standby UACs of clients follow the bucket index.

Following are the steps:

  1. Identify the bucket index / station index for your test client.

(Test)[MDC] #cluster-debug calc-sta-uac 5a:10:5e:5a:21:c9 TEST
STA Index:178
STA A-UAC:10.1.2.36
STA S-UAC:10.1.2.35

The above command gives the bucket index / station index 178 for the client mac 5a:10:5e:5a21:c9 connected to the TEST SSID.

2. Identify the UAC ID assigned to the MD where you want to move the test Client.

(Test) [MDC] #show aaa cluster essid-all bucketmap
Bucket map for Test, Rcvd at : Tue Sep 22 08:41:14 2020
Item Value
—- —–
Essid Test
UAC0 10.17.10.10
UAC1 10.17.10.11

From the above you can see for the Test SSID, MD 10.17.10.10 is assigned ID of 0 and MD 10.17.10.11 is assigned ID of 1.

3. Identify the Cluster Leader.

From my experience I have noticed the cluster leader is assigned the UAC ID of 0, however it always better to confirm.

(Test) [MDC] #show lc-cluster group-membership
Cluster Enabled, Profile Name = “Test_Cluster”

peer 10.17.10.10 128 L2-Connected CONNECTED (Member, last HBT_RSP 75ms ago, RTD = 1.241 ms)
self 10.17.10.11 128 N/A CONNECTED (Leader)

4. From the Cluster Leader, assign the new UAC to the bucket index/station index.

(Test)[MDC] #cluster-debug bucketmap essid Test bucketindex 178 active 1 standby 0

In the above command we are assigning the bucket/station index to a new active UAC ID and Standby UAC ID. You can check the show user-table to validate the new UAC is pushed to the client.

Please note that above command has to be executed on the Cluster Leader.

******Please note this is not a recommended practice and should not be performed regularly. This command is also disruptive and would impact other clients as well********

Happy Reading….