Any way to test CAPsMAN virtually?

RouterOS Wireless Networking
1

I have four MT AP’s, they are in and running fine, though roaming could be better.

I want to experiment with CAPsMAN, but having some MT experience in the past I do not want to count on the process being quick, and do not want to lose the existing AP’s while I educate myself.

I found I can run CAPsMAN on CHR. That’s nice. At least I think I can, I got CHR running and created an instance but haven’t done anything with it.

But is there anything I can use for testing? Any way to have a VM with fake radios or similar?

Or do I need to get a testing CAP in order to experiment?

On a sort of related question: It always bothered me that CAPsMAN seems to rely on a specific hardware device. I am wondering if a HyperV instance of CHR is not a good alternative, since I can spin that up on different machines if I have a hardware failure. Unless – is there any kind of replication/synchronization/failover now for CAPsMAN?

Any reason NOT to make that my home CAPsMAN assuming I get it running well?

Linwood

2

Capsman controller does not require any specific HW at all.
It just needs to be able to run ROS so CHR can be used as well.
But … especially with the AX line, those devices are so powerful they can easily double as controller and AP, so why use a separate controller only for that purpose ?

For a test setup, you do need a device with at least 1 physical radio. I don’t think there are virtual lab tools to test that part. ROS, yes. Radio part of capsman with AP, don’t think so.
But you can take any of your current APs, make backup (safe also away from device !) and then reset to caps mode for testing.
If things are not working out, restore that backup and the old setup is back.