Aruba guest portal

[ITGuyNW]

Hi all

 

For those that use Aruba for your Wi-Fi solution, could you let me know how you run the guest portal please?

 

Our existing system is Cambium and I can easily produce codes for guests, but this doesn't seem the case with Aruba? Could anyone enlighten me please?

[Davit2005]

What flavour of Aruba are you using.

 

Instant APs with one acting as a controller

Instant APs with central controller

InstantOn

 

We do use ClearPass here but that is prob overkill for your average school, lol. Users get a prompt when joining if the MAC address is not registered.

 

 

Edited June 30, 2025 by Davit2005

[timbo343]

3 hours ago, ITGuyNW said:

Hi all

 

For those that use Aruba for your Wi-Fi solution, could you let me know how you run the guest portal please?

 

Our existing system is Cambium and I can easily produce codes for guests, but this doesn't seem the case with Aruba? Could anyone enlighten me please?

 

Our primaries run Aruba IAPs (One AP acting as the controller) and there is no formal Guest Portal. We found it weird because we run Ruckus vSZ systems at the secondaries.

 

Aruba IAPs are certainly missing a trick here and the way we got round it is to issue out specific AD guest accounts that the school changes after each day. They are supposed to change the password after each day the accounts are used.

[RedwayNetworks_Michael]

18 hours ago, timbo343 said:

 

Our primaries run Aruba IAPs (One AP acting as the controller) and there is no formal Guest Portal. We found it weird because we run Ruckus vSZ systems at the secondaries.

 

Aruba IAPs are certainly missing a trick here and the way we got round it is to issue out specific AD guest accounts that the school changes after each day. They are supposed to change the password after each day the accounts are used.

Yes its a strange one i was having this conversation just the other week with one of my engineers, Aruba pretty much the only ones without a built in system. 

There are some 3rd party systems available that can integrate into the Aruba.

 

otherwise its just Clearpass but its an expensive solution for a guest portal. 

[ITGuyNW]

If we did go with Aruba, we would be using Central.

 

So does Central have the facility but the system with one acting as the controller doesn't?

[RedwayNetworks_Michael]

1 minute ago, ITGuyNW said:

If we did go with Aruba, we would be using Central.

 

So does Central have the facility but the system with one acting as the controller doesn't?

Unfortunately not even using Aruba Central is limited and wont do the voucher system like Cambium or most other vendors sadly, In order to get that you would need to purchase Aurba Clearpass. 

 

Its a shame too as would have been a nice finishing piece to the Aruba solution

[maxrebo]

On 01/07/2025 at 12:37, RedwayNetworks_Michael said:

Unfortunately not even using Aruba Central is limited and wont do the voucher system like Cambium or most other vendors sadly, In order to get that you would need to purchase Aurba Clearpass. 

 

Its a shame too as would have been a nice finishing piece to the Aruba solution

How much is it?

[Davit2005]

31 minutes ago, maxrebo said:

How much is it?

Make sure your system is compatible with ClearPass.

 

ClearPass is not only a NAC solution it can auth TACACS too, MAC based auth, 802.1x. It is very configurable. I don't know how much it costs TBH but it is cheaper than our previous system Bradford Networks. Guest accounts creation, self device registration for devices that don't have web capability, guest user creation, wired ports 802.1x, roles, etc. Our controllers uses it's roles based on AD group membership then those roles on the controller can be assigned ACLs. It can also integrate with some firewalls for policy enforcement based on User Groups or for access logging.

 

But it might be overkill for most schools.

Edited January 27 by Davit2005

[RedwayNetworks_Michael]

6 minutes ago, Davit2005 said:

Make sure your system is compatible with ClearPass.

 

ClearPass is not only a NAC solution it can auth TACACS too, MAC based auth, 802.1x. It is very configurable. I don't know how much it costs TBH but it is cheaper than our previous system Bradford Networks. Guest accounts creation, self device registration for devices that don't have web capability, guest user creation, wired ports 802.1x, roles, etc. Our controllers uses it's roles based on AD group membership then those roles on the controller can be assigned ACLs. It can also integrate with some firewalls for policy enforcement based on User Groups or for access logging.

 

But it might be overkill for most schools.

Yep its a decent product but its very complex, they do so many types of licences its confusing for alot to just get a quote. When comes to schools thye mainly just want the guest features which often isnt enough to justify the costs. 

 

Im just trying to get a ball park idea for us all but already ive been given 1000 questions in regards to getting a rough cost haha whatever happened to just getting a price haha

[RedwayNetworks_Michael]

12 minutes ago, maxrebo said:

How much is it?

Well thats the next question as its per user licence with a minimum number required to just get started licencing it

 

below is an idea for a VM and a 500 end point licence, this is based on list price so with an Aruba partner you could probably take maybe 40% off this and that should give a good idea of costs. 

There is so many versions and licences though so anyone interested i would advise to speak with Aruba to confirm licences are correct,

 

Part Number	Description	Unit Price	Quantity	Sub Total
JZ401AAE	HPE Aruba Networking ClearPass Access License 500 Concurrent Endpoints E-LTU	£10,109.00	1	£10,109.00
H9XB2E	Aruba 1Y FC SW CP NL AC 500 CE E-LTU SVC  [for JZ401AAE]	£809.00	1	£809.00
JZ399AAE	HPE Aruba Networking ClearPass NAC Cx000V VM-Based Appliance License E-LTU	£3,110.00	1	£3,110.00
H9WX2E	Aruba 1Y FC SW CP Cx000V VM Appl E-LTU SVC  [for JZ399AAE]	£250.00	1	£250.00

[maxrebo]

So I think ClearPass will be out of our Budget.

What's the next best alternative, third party products that integrate nicely with Aruba?.

We`re using AP-515 with one acting as a controller.

 

Thanks

[RedwayNetworks_Michael]

21 hours ago, maxrebo said:

So I think ClearPass will be out of our Budget.

What's the next best alternative, third party products that integrate nicely with Aruba?.

We`re using AP-515 with one acting as a controller.

 

Thanks

There is a few 3rd party options, none i would say are budget friendly.

I find the issue with 3rd party ones is they all aimed at Hospitality and retail which i think puts the costs up.

 

One we have looked at before who was keen to help schools was Ucopia but im sure there are other alternatives too.