Ruckus Zone Director home license help

[dwabraxus]

Hey,

I am a network engineer and power wifi user. I run a full radius backend with packetfence and 3 SSIDs at my home. I am currently using a Cisco WLC 2504 with 2x 3800 APs in my apartment. However, with this controller going EOL and my moving into a new home, I figured now was a good time to try out another wifi vendor. After a bit of research I settled on a Ruckus ZD1200 controller and a pair of R750s. Now onto the complex part. I purchased all this via ebay to save money and got a bunch of extras. My ZD1200 came with 8 AP license, and a few R500s and T300s. So now I need to figure out how to license all this.

I know I will need a 801-1205-1000 or 801-1205-3000 to get my controller able to install updates firmware. I assume I need to get at least 1 of each of my APs on a support contract to be able to download firmware for them too. What is the bare minimum I need to be able to get this all working and able to install updated firmware? Do I need to have a support license for my R750 and R500 to get firmware for different AP models? Or is it ok to just have my ZD controller under a support contract? Keep in mind this is home use and not commercial, but I do want the roaming features of ZD over Unleashed.

 

[j_h_o]

The ZD1200 license will cover n number of APs - you don't need to license additional APs as you described; the ZD1200 firmware includes firmware for all supported APs which it will push. So just license your ZD1200 for the number of APs you want to use.

Latest ZD1200 supports these APs:



My ZD1200 is licensed for 5 APs using 851-1205-1000. I'm not sure what you should use.

 

[dwabraxus]

Perfect! Thanks

 

[nerdalertdk]

Hey,

I am a network engineer and power wifi user. I run a full radius backend with packetfence and 3 SSIDs at my home. I am currently using a Cisco WLC 2504 with 2x 3800 APs in my apartment. However, with this controller going EOL and my moving into a new home, I figured now was a good time to try out another wifi vendor. After a bit of research I settled on a Ruckus ZD1200 controller and a pair of R750s. Now onto the complex part. I purchased all this via ebay to save money and got a bunch of extras. My ZD1200 came with 8 AP license, and a few R500s and T300s. So now I need to figure out how to license all this.

I know I will need a 801-1205-1000 or 801-1205-3000 to get my controller able to install updates firmware. I assume I need to get at least 1 of each of my APs on a support contract to be able to download firmware for them too. What is the bare minimum I need to be able to get this all working and able to install updated firmware? Do I need to have a support license for my R750 and R500 to get firmware for different AP models? Or is it ok to just have my ZD controller under a support contract? Keep in mind this is home use and not commercial, but I do want the roaming features of ZD over Unleashed.

Do t think you need a license for firmware?
I don’t have one for my ruckus switch or R720

In the unleash dashboard I can just auto upgrade.


Out of curiosity, what can the controller do that unleashed can’t?

 

[j_h_o]

Unleashed AP or switch firmware does not require licensing, ZD1200 firmware requires licensing.

Tunneling all AP traffic back to controller, and some RADIUS dynamic VLAN and other features require ZD. The "gap" is changing though so I'm not 100% sure.

My 5 AP license is around US$160/yr.

 

[ms264556]

The only real reason for buying ZoneDirector support is to get software updates.

The R500 will not, in all likelihood, be supported in the next major ZoneDirector software release (I was surprised it was still supported in 10.5).
So you're probably going to be stuck on 10.5 until you replace your R500s.

Once you factory reset the ZD1200 it should give you a 30 day support contract, so you can install the latest 10.5 software.

Any further 10.5 updates will most probably be related to security issues, and Ruckus security updates generally install without a valid support contract. In my experience, installing these free security updates also gives you a 30 day support license, so next time there's a security scare you can probably upgrade to a new major version for free.

So my (cheapskate) suggestion is that you ignore all licensing, and just run without any until you run into a situation which requires you to buy support.

 

[ms264556]

Also, since this is for your home use... if you think you'd like to have more than 5 APs then you can get in touch with me privately - I can let you know how to permanently increase your AP license count (which will involve factory resetting your ZD, so you want to do it before you've configured everything).

 

[Vesalius]

Digressing here, Any truth some Reddit convo’s I’ve seen that ruckus is kind of letting ZD wither while shifting resources and focus to Ruckus cloud contracts and/or unleashed? Maybe just idle speculation.

 

[sth]

I heard that was the aim in favour of vSZ or cloud.I was actually surprised to see the 1200 wasn't EOL'd yet.
I think unleashed is starting to fill the gap at the less enterprise end of their market which is why we're seeing it get additional features bolted in.

I've been running vSZ for a few years now and its been great, it manages all my APs (r720/r730 & r750) and Brocade switches (7150, 7450, 7650) without any hassle. I would like a containerised version though to make it super easy to integrate and deploy. Its not the lightest VM.
I'm currently looking to add a vSZ dataplane to enable remote management of a second home too - if anyone has any experience with it I would appreciate it.