Ruckus Virtual Smartzone or Hardware Controller?

[Divaldo]

I have recently inherited a school network with a Ruckus Virtual Smartzone Essentials (3.5.0.0.832) and 21 Ruckus ZoneFlex r510 APs.

 

In the past I have used HP or Meru for wifi, and always separate hardware controllers so this is new to me.

 

Does anyone have any experience with the Virtual Smartzone, especially the Essentials version? Any pros or cons over a hardware controller?

Are those APs old and in need of updating soon?

 

It all seems to be running nice and smoothly and I've created a separate guest wifi network with no issues, just wanted peace of mind though.

 

Thank you.

[Net-Ctrl]

Hi @Divaldo, we're a Ruckus partner so if you have any questions with the running of the vSZ, please let me know and I'll be happy to help.

 

That deployment is pretty recent - i'd suggest only a couple of years old so as long as it was properly planned in terms of AP distribution that should keep you going for years to come.

 

The R510 was a mid-to-high range AC Wave 2 AP. The virtual SmartZone and the Harware Appliance run off the same code base, so as you're running it in a virtual environment already I would say no need to change there. You are running some of the older FW code. Most recent is 5.2, with 5.0 being the next major release after the version you're running. You will need a support contract to upgrade. If you're not sure whether you have one, if you PM me with your vSZ details (serial number) I can look this up for you and we can provide some assistance with the upgrade should you need it.

[Divaldo]

Fantastic, thank you very much for the info, hugely appreciated.

 

I'll check support info and be in touch.