@ms264556--I have a couple of questions for you: if I decided to run the r730 in dedicated master mode, am I limited by my oldest APs as far as what version of Unleashed I can run? I.e. if I want to run the fancy new Web UI of 200.18, would I need to upgrade to xX50 APs from my old Wave2 APs?
Yes, 200.18 is for x50/x70 APs only. You can see the supported APs for each version of Unleashed in
my guide.
And what happens when your dedicated master goes down if you're running in dedicated master mode? Do the APs stay up but you're unable to access the Web UI? Or can it still failover to the APs that are up? Thanks!
Unleashed Dedicated Master is an evolution of ZoneDirector, so
the controller gets involved in the association and authentication flow. If your Dedicated Master goes away, and you have't provisioned a standby Dedicated Master, then no new clients can join APs.
I wouldn't personally run Dedicated Master unless I (a) couldn't put my APs into a single subnet/VLAN, or (b) need to tunnel some client traffic back to a central point.
Since Ruckus Unleashed cloud management is so good now, I think in many situations where you have a handful of remote APs to manage then you're better off just cloud managing them.
So this just leaves tunneling. Once you have your
central firewall setup, it's far easier to hand out an AP which has a centrally managed local SSID and tunneled SSID than to configure and manage a VPN endpoint at each remote location.
By the way, it's absolutely a credit to the stability of these old Ruckus APs that I haven't paid attention to this thread for months/years at a time. They just keep on trucking, providing rock-solid WiFi.
This is my view. I still run an old ZoneDirector at home, because it works flawlessly.
I think a central R730 with a handful of H510s where necessary at the edges is
perfect - the R730 provides a very fast conection for most clients, and H510 signal is weak enough that mobile clients quickly migrate back to the R730 minimizing any sticky client issues.
If you want to spend all day tinkering then an R730 with Unleashed 200.14 isn't the latest, shiniest, toy.
If you wanted something to tinker with then I recommend configuring your router/firewall with VLANs so you can segregate your AP client traffic from your AP management traffic. I spent the last couple of months pulling apart AP <=> Controller protocols for my 3rd-party AP controller project, and they're not particularly secure. This shouldn't be a shock: if an AP is capable of automatically enrolling into a controller-less mesh, then malicious software can do the same thing.