Cambium Wi-Fi in Schools

[DavR]

3 minutes ago, colly72 said:

You could add Aerohive and Meru into the mix too!!

 

We had Aerohive for 9 years, and in that time they switched from an expensive AP model, with cheap licensing, to a cheap AP model with expensive licensing, thereby fleecing us both coming and going. That betrayal stung on each renewal cycle tbh, as much as the hardware did it's job perfectly wellk.

 

So then we scrapped that and got Cambium, with no ongoing license fees and lifetime warranty. Until last week, anyway.

 

Please don't let ask me to choose another wireless supplier any time soon, I'm not sure I could bear being wrong a third time 😂

[synaesthesia]

Whelp, I don't think going local is the answer unless I've missed something.

To install the local appliance, it needs to connect to the cloud - and it refuses to do that due to missing cookies. I've pushed some Maryland's into the floppy drive but it's still not having it despite it making clear "nom nom nom" noises.

 

 

[synaesthesia]

Update - that's my misunderstanding and should sometimes take the time to RTFM

Needed to create a user specifically for onboarding (click profile, create account, select "Anchor" (not an anchor being so unfortunately Hugh Jackman isn't going to arrive)

That's done the job immediately so now I'm down to seeing how enrolment works and exporting/importing setups. Naturally I'm documenting the process for our trust so I'll share the same process here in case it saves someone else a lot of trial and error, but with luck it won't be needed.

 

[Andycat]

14 minutes ago, synaesthesia said:

Update - that's my misunderstanding and should sometimes take the time to RTFM

Needed to create a user specifically for onboarding (click profile, create account, select "Anchor" (not an anchor being so unfortunately Hugh Jackman isn't going to arrive)

That's done the job immediately so now I'm down to seeing how enrolment works and exporting/importing setups. Naturally I'm documenting the process for our trust so I'll share the same process here in case it saves someone else a lot of trial and error, but with luck it won't be needed.

 

This would be massively helpful here please. We're just stuck in a mess of resignations and ipads at the moment quietly panicking about the wifi!

[JazzFlute]

17 hours ago, synaesthesia said:

So far they know about as much as we do - our CtC install is still effectively ongoing, but both our framework supplier and the end installers have been entirely transparent. When they get more information I'm confident they'll pass it on. It seems like difficulty is stemming from the parent company's lack of transparency and/or communication on it, which speaks volumes.

Hopefully, once they have more information and if the on-premises solution proves to be the best option, they will contact all of the schools they have previously worked with and offer it as a service.

[JazzFlute]

16 hours ago, DavR said:

 

We had Aerohive for 9 years, and in that time they switched from an expensive AP model, with cheap licensing, to a cheap AP model with expensive licensing, thereby fleecing us both coming and going. That betrayal stung on each renewal cycle tbh, as much as the hardware did it's job perfectly wellk.

 

So then we scrapped that and got Cambium, with no ongoing license fees and lifetime warranty. Until last week, anyway.

 

Please don't let ask me to choose another wireless supplier any time soon, I'm not sure I could bear being wrong a third time 😂

I got stung with Aerohive too and just crossed my fingers everything kept working but couldn't see or manage annything!

[synaesthesia]

At least the Aerohive kit can be used singularly to good effect - I had a pair of Aerohive APs running my home wireless until I replaced it with UniFi (and may end up going back to it if we need to put the unifi back in at school! )

[Andycat]

Spoke to our reseller today, plus another larger reseller. Both said the DfE didn't know any more than them about this (which is very little) and that they can't see a resolution in form of a buyout after speaking to distributors. ☹️

[synaesthesia]

Statement from Cambium:

https://www.cambiumnetworks.com/wp-content/uploads/Cambium-Networks-Company-Statement-Sep-16-2026.pdf

 

Probably the most pertinent bit:

The intention is that cnMaestro Cloud will continue to operate at least through 1 October.

[synaesthesia]

This is a quick and dirty guide to setting up cnMaestro local appliance and enrolling an/some APs - please excuse formatting, doesn't much like copy & pasting from google docs. This is also a work in progress as I've been going along and some parts may or may not be necessary. I don't know if you need to create an onboarding user if setting the onboarding details locally on the AP, have yet to test. This gets you up to the point of having a device enrolled on your newly created local install on a blank canvas - my next job is to try and work out exporting/importing configs.

For reference, our devices are X7-35x and 55x on the latest firmware, with local appliance version 6.0 (latest version available to download)

 

 

 

Creating a new cloud anchor account

Log into cloud cnMaestro click profile name then Create Account. Go through the process of making a new account, doesn't matter if it uses same email address/contact details as any admin/yourself in cloud. For Cambium ID enter something like SCHOOLNAME_LOCAL_CNMAESTRO. Account type must be Anchor. Account view Enterprise.

 

Log in to new account, and under Onboarding note the Cambium ID and Account ID, these will be needed for the local install.

 

Using the virtual appliance

Download the local appliance from Cambium - as of 16/9/26 latest is cnmaestro-on-premises_6.0.0-r6_amd64.ova

 

If using VMWare, extract the OVA (any zip extractor will work inc 7zip) and grab the two VMDK files. Create a VM with both disks, disk1 is boot drive. 2 CPU, 4GB ram recommended.

 

If using HyperV, use SolarWinds V2V converter to convert those VMDKs to VHDX. Create a Gen1 VM, 2CPU, 4GB ram, attach both drives (IDE) and fire it up.

 

For networking, use the same IP range as the management IPs of the APs.

 

Follow installation instructions from the userguide - "cnMaestro On-Premises User Guide 6.0.0.pdf" and set up with relevant network address, set passwords etc - default is cambium/cnmaestro

 

Log into the UI via the set IP address, default credentials are admin/admin. It will immediately prompt you to connect to a cloud account for provisioning. Enter the cambium ID and password set for the created anchor user.

 

Onboarding Access Points

(Might not be necessary if onboarding manually?)

In local cnMaestro UI:

 

Add user for onboarding devices - Administration > Users > Add User

Onboard > Settings > tick Enable Cambium ID based auth to onboard devices

Add user and enter onboarding key (create your own), click Save

 

Onboard > Claim device > Select device type (usually Enterprise WiFi (X7 Series)) and enter or scan mac address(es) in box. Click claim devices

Click Approve All

 

On local AP to be onboarded:

 

Assuming the AP is factory reset AP should receive IP via DHCP. Browse to it with https://ip. Default user/pass is admin/admin

If it’s still present in cloud cnMaestro it will warn as such on the first page - ignore and click through to login page. They may need removing from Cloud beforehand otherwise they will sync up again and pick up config again including login credentials.

 

For note - factory reset by holding AP reset button in for over 10 seconds

Default credentials are admin/admin

 

If device is in place and not reset you may be able to do this assuming you have the local credentials for SSH access to the AP

 

(Couldn't get this bit to work but assume this should be correct)

Log into UI, configure > system > set country Code to United Kington, put in the admin password, tick remote management and validate server certificate, entry https://server_ip for cnMaestro URL, your cambium ID created above and the key in relevant boxes, hit save.

Only worked for me doing it via the ap's CLI with following commands:

country-code GB

cambium-id CAMBIUM_ID_HERE CAMBIUM_ONBOARDING_KEY_HERE

management http

management https

management cambium-remote url https://server_ip

management cambium-remote validate-server-cert