Aruba InstantOn

NogBadTheBad

Anyone using Aruba InstantOn access-points & switches ?

I've decided to junk my Ubiquity CloudKey & UAP-AC-Pro after a few iffy firmware upgrades.

Just curious about peoples views, the AP22 should turn up tomorrow

Their line of switches seem to be quite competitive, £576 for a 48 port POE switch with 4 x 1G / 10G SFP+ ports.

NogBadTheBad

AP22 installed and working fine, way easier to set up than the Unifi devices and the interface isn't a mess either.

The only issue I had is a client that isn't compatible with Wi-Fi 6 so I had to create a non Wi-Fi 6 SSID.

Found a review here that sums up the AIO devices:-

https://evanmccann.net/blog/2021/7/aruba-instant-on-overview

A few screenshots if anyone is interested.

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NogBadTheBad

johnpoz

@nogbadthebad said in Aruba InstantOn:

UAP-AC-Pro after a few iffy firmware upgrades.

Just curious which upgrades where those - I always run bleeding edge firmware on my AP, and really have in maybe 4 years rolled back once..

Don't get me wrong - the the Aruba instant on stuff does look interesting.. And the price point on the AP22 does look nice.

NogBadTheBad

@johnpoz The latest update for my AC-Pro 5.43.43.12741 seemes to cause lots of dropped packets had to downgrade back to 4.3.20.11298.

Also the Unifi GUI is a total mess, I know we gon't often go there but its a bit of a mare.

johnpoz

@nogbadthebad said in Aruba InstantOn:

5.43.43.12741

? My AC pro is on 5.71.1.13253

And yeah the gui new vs legacy is a really a complete shit show if you ask me. But I just use legacy running on 6.4.54 currently and really having zero issues.

Does the instant on actually have a local controller - or is it cloud based only?

edit: side note - just added one of their switches to the network, the flex-mini - and not impressed at all.. While the thing is tiny, and switches and haven't had any connectivity issues with it. The way it handles vlans and identification of what network its on itself - is horrible.. Kept seeing it move back and forth between networks. I believe their higher end switches allow for custom - but the uplink I had to allow all vlans, I could not say only x or y... I had to control which vlans would be seen on that switch via the upstream (non unifi switch)..

I can see reasons for wanting to try something other than unifi.. But firmware on their AP have been pretty sock solid from my experience... As to their whole environment with switches and stuff - maybe that is were the problem is?

But the instant on if cloud based only would really be a show stopper for me..

NogBadTheBad

@johnpoz The APs are cloud only, the switches are local or cloud.

NogBadTheBad

@johnpoz Oh also forgot to mention for one of the largest accounts the company I work for are rolling out Aruba switches, the non InstantON ones.

It means I can lay my hands on compatible DAC & SFP+ modules FOC ;)

NogBadTheBad

@johnpoz Managed to get my hands on a couple of Aruba Instant AP345 access-points to play with, the virtual controller on the access-point is quite nice.

They are a bit OTT for home use.