Streamlining Unifi AP Adoption

[CyBeRkId2002]

We are currently considering Unifi wireless (among others) and I wondered if anyone had any recommendations on how to streamline the adoption process of Unifi Access Points across VLANs.

 

At present we have Unifi Controller running on a VM in a VLAN (lets say VLAN5), with the aim of having all access points on the same VLAN. What options do I have for streamlining the process so I can plug the AP into ANY switch port and have it ready for adoption? So far my thinking is:

• Manually configure switch ports for the correct VLAN. This is what I have done historically and would like to avoid it if possible.
  
• Use LLDP to dynamically assign the VLAN on the switchport. I am not 100% whether our current switch supports this and, more importantly, if memory serves me correctly - at least on the older AP's - they pickup their IP before the VLAN has changed and refuse to switch over when it has
  
• Add a second virtual network card to the VM on the default VLAN. This would allow devices to see the controller as soon as they connect to the default VLAN. It could then be changed by defining the Mgmt Vlan in Unifi
  
• 
  

 

Have I missed any options? Can you setup any kind of Pointer / Forwarder on the default VLAN so it can find it on an alternate VLAN?

[MatthewL]

I have a DHCP option set to point to my Unifi server so it knows where to look for adoption.

 

Any VLAN changes are done manually on the switch. Biggest thing is getting them adopted, I tend to plug in a switch and adopt 20 at a time.

 

By default it look for unifi so you could create a DNS record to point to your Unifi server that way.

[TheRobins]

• Manually configure switch ports for the correct VLAN. This is what I have done historically and would like to avoid it if possible.
  

 

Any reason to avoid this, the easiest, most reliable way to do it. I do this with my Ruckus Unleashed setup, when first joining them I just used my spare POE switch in the office which was untagged to the unleashed vlan, plug them in and 5 minutes later then are updated and joined to the system, then move them to their installed position.

[MatthewL]

DHCP option 43 and my server IP is set.