I have four Mikrotik AP’s configured, 3 different types of hardware. I’m still struggling with how VLAN’s are handled, but I have everything working nicely, including running ospf with my core OPNsense router/firewall for a mobile setup.
I started looking, while setting up my new home, at faster/better roaming. I do not exactly have a problem but if I can encourage clients to move better it would be nice. I’ve already adjusted TX power so it’s not too bad. I didn’t start with capsman as the first two were completely different, and by the 3rd it was too easy to do them locally.
Please tell me if I understand:
capsman, I thought, was a provisioning system, but
802.11r/k/v appear to require capsman to work, so it is a coordinating system or at least a mechanism to communicate required info
(Aside: I think 802.11r? can use radius without capsman for faster roaming, but not sure, but not using radius but do not care).
It APPEARS you cannot use capsman only for the fast roaming features and leave all provisioning local
So if I want to try to get better roaming, I must use capsman, and if I do so I need to turn provisioning over to capsman.
Am I correct so far?
I do not have a ROS main system such as core router or switch, only access points. But I think I can use an access point for capsman. However, that would appear to leave me very much dependent on that one device. not awful, not pleasant. Is there an easy recovery process if the capsman server bites the dust? Does a regular backup include all the provisioning info?
And I guess the final question relates more to the domain of capsman – is it ONLY responsible for the things in the “Wifi” tab of the web config? when I hit that button to adopt an existing (working, in use!) AP into capsman am I starting over? Will VLAN/bridge/tagging be changed when they are adopted?
My inclination is leave well enough alone, but knowing there may be a better way and ignoring it annoys me. Advice and illumination welcomed.
Yes. But if you want that “backup” to be usable for migrating capsman to another device, you have to create textual configuration exports. Binary backup is only good for restoring config back on the very same device (conditionally on another device of same model).
capsman only provisions wifi parameters. And it adds wifi interface to configured bridge (pre-existing on cap device) optionally setting VLAN settings if provisioned (e.g. set PVID value). It doesn’t build a new bridge nor does any other configuration changes. So if your AP devices are currently configured consistently (e.g. having bridges with same name, etc.), it should be pretty straight forward to push them into “capsman cloud”.
You would obviously have to tune the capsman rules (and you’d sacrifice another device temporarily to get things right), but when one remote cap device gets provisioned as desired, getting the rest of devices on board will be more or less trivial task.
Just a reminder: device running capsman has to be provisioned locally … but new capsman shares almost all configuration with local radios which makes this kind of setup almost the same as if local radio was provisioned by capsman. And local radio does cooperate in “seamless roaming cloud” together with capsman-driven devices just fine.
That helps, including the caution that I need to temporarily sacrifice one device to get this going.
So what happens if the device (which will be an AP as that’s all I have) running capsman fails, e.g. hardware, cable, whatever. Do the capsman devices still work normally with the exception of the roaming information distribution stops?
I really wish the roaming information distribution was not tied to requiring provisioning with capsman. But I guess it was a convenient place to hang it.
Depends on how you configure them. You can use capsman-or-local as manager which will then use capsman if it’s available. If it’s not reachable, local settings will be used.
If however you use capsman as manager setting, then all wifi is dead when capsman becomes unavailable.
You don’t need capsman for roaming.
At the most bare level you can already use roaming within 1 AP and its 2 radios as long as they are using the same SSID.
You need a single ROS instance controlling radios for roaming.
A capsman controller just happens to be able to handle a lot of radios, within the same instance.
Or let me ask more clearly… I know you don’t need anything for roaming, 802.11r/k/v is not necessary, the client will decide if it should switch AP’s.
The r/k/v stuff is supposed to make it happy faster and more quickly if there is a better AP for it (at least if the client uses those standards). At least that’s my understanding.
So I know capsman is not needed for roaming, but it is needed for 802.11r/k/v? Or am I mistaken?