Understanding Auto AP Profiles
If you set up an Auto AP profile for a wireless controller, discovered distributed access points that are not specifically configured on that controller use a temporary configuration from the Auto AP profile. When you set up an Auto AP profile for these distributed access points, you provide only the basic information that an access point needs to operate. Auto AP access points do not include all the information that individually configured access points do. In addition, these Auto AP access point configurations are not persistent on the controller—they go away when the access points are not present.
A controller can have only one Auto AP profile.
This topic describes:
How Are Specifically Configured Access Points Different from Access Points Configured with Auto AP?
Controllers give preference to specifically configured, persistent access points over those access points using an Auto AP profile. If a configured access point is discovered by a fully utilized controller, the controller disconnects an access point using an Auto AP profile and accepts connection from the configured access point instead.
In this case, the disconnected access point begins the boot process again to find another controller with an Auto AP profile. When the access point is disconnected, the access point clients experience a service disruption, and attempt to associate with another available access point to reconnect to the SSID. If another access point is not available to a client, the client can still reconnect after the disconnected access point locates a new controller and finishes the boot and configuration process.
How Should I Use Auto AP Profiles?
The Auto AP feature is useful when you need to add multiple access points all at once. Typical use of the Auto AP profile would be to:
Configure an Auto AP profile, assign the profile to a controller, and then deploy the controller configuration. To configure an Auto AP profile, see Creating and Managing Wireless Auto AP Profiles. To assign an Auto AP profile to a controller, see Assigning an Auto AP Profile to Controllers. To deploy the controller configuration, see Deploying Configuration to Devices.
Convert access points found by Auto AP on that controller to persistently configured access points following the directions in Converting Automatically Discovered Access Points to Manually Configured Access Points .
Turn off the Auto AP profile by editing the profile—see Creating and Managing Wireless Auto AP Profiles.
How Does Auto AP Work?
When an Auto AP profile is assigned to a controller, the controller assigns a valid number and a name to unassigned, distributed access points. The controller also configures the access point settings and radio parameter settings supplied in the Auto AP profile.
The Auto AP profile does not configure SSIDs, encryption parameters, or any other parameters managed by the WLAN Service profile. You still need to configure a WLAN Service profile for each SSID.