For a big harbour place a good WIFI reception is required. For a test I've 3 SXT2 WIFI devices. I'm building a test environment to get familiar with Mikrotik as well as to test stability etc. Once these 3 SXT2's prove they can do the job and we have a stable WIFI signal in the harbour I want to buy and install more if these devices, maybe up to 10 or so.

My high level question is: what is the best way to setup, to configure, the SXT2's?

At a number of points in the harbour I've a wired HP Switches 2520 located to which I connect the SXT2's. On the network there is a default VLAN for the internal computers, printers, the HP switches and there are three VLAN's, one VLAN is for the WIFI access, for the people connecting on the WIFI network.
There is currently one DHCP server handing out the IP addresses on the different VLAN's.

First question: is it good or bad to have one central DHCP server in the network for all the different SXT2's?

My view is it is good because if WIFI clients change antenna's they keep the same IP address. I expect stability problems if each SXT2 has its own DHCP server with a different IP range, is this a valid concern? For example people moving around connecting to different SXT2 can cause running out of IP's.

Do I put the SXT2 in router or bridge mode?

Currently I've the SXT2 configured as "WISP AP", is this correct?

The HP switch I can configure the port on which the SXT2 is connected in TRUNC mode, is this required for the SXT2? I'v tried both but do not really see/notice a difference.

In my experiments I'm having problems getting an IP address from the central DHCP server when connecting to the SXT2. I don't understand why? I even tried to use use a DHCP relay option but didn't solve the problem. Question on the DCHP relay configuration, which port do I need to select? The bridge, the wlan, the VLAN?

The ethernet interface I want to have in the management IP range (the default VLAN) and the WIFI interface on the WIFI VLAN.

Some guidance, some help would be really appreciated. I'm stuck at the moment in the best way to set this up.

Sxt should be set in Ap bridge mode. Maybe you can use capsman on some other mikrotik device and manage all APs by it. Hope you have sxt with level 4 license (not lite version).

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, the SXT 2's all have level 4 license. I've learned something again

What about the DCHP server? Do I have one central DHCP server or have each SXT its own DHCP server? And what is the effect when clients are moving from different SXT's, am I not running out of IP's?

What speed will you serve to the customers (your uplink total bandwidth)?
Will you provide public ip addresses to the customers? How many public ip addresses do you have available?
Are you going to anyhow restrict / distribute the bandwidth?

Generally you can easily include the SXTs to your network - just make inner bridge between the wlan and corresponding vlan on the ethernet, you can use other vlan for management purpose - simply put a dhcp client on that vlan. Or you can make the whole network more complex, use some mikrotik router as the network core and SXTs in capwap mode driven by capsman.

In both cases, when the clients will be roaming, they will be still in the same L2 network so they will not need to renew IP address and they keep it. Probably they will even not notice that they have changed the ap. One central dhcp is good, unless you want to do something special. Do you?

What speed will you serve to the customers (your uplink total bandwidth)?

Unfortunately my uplink bandwidth is not so high, we are to far away from the telecom providers infrastructure so there is not much bandwidth. 2 ADSL lines 8Mb down, 1,5 MB up.

Will you provide public ip addresses to the customers? How many public ip addresses do you have available?

No I'm not going to use public IP addresses for my WIFI clients. Will all be on our local network.

Are you going to anyhow restrict / distribute the bandwidth?
/quote]
Longer term if we are not able to upgrade the uplink I will start limiting the bandwidth for each WIFI client. But not right now.

Generally you can easily include the SXTs to your network - just make inner bridge between the wlan and corresponding vlan on the ethernet, you can use other vlan for management purpose - simply put a dhcp client on that vlan. Or you can make the whole network more complex, use some mikrotik router as the network core and SXTs in capwap mode driven by capsman.
/quote]
I've a bridge on the WLAN and VLAN, on this same VLAN I've a DHCP server, but for some reason I do not get an IP address when a client tries to connect to the WIFI network. I also tried to setup a DHCP relay server, but also no luck. When setting up a DHCP server on the SXT device itself it is working great, but I don't want to have a DCHP server on each SXT.

In both cases, when the clients will be roaming, they will be still in the same L2 network so they will not need to renew IP address and they keep it. Probably they will even not notice that they have changed the ap. One central dhcp is good, unless you want to do something special. Do you?

Ok great, I will keep one DHCP server, this was my logical as well. I need to resolve getting the IP address from the central DCHP server. This is my major problem at the moment. I also have a situation that the IP address on the ether1 as well as on the WLAN is set to 0.0.0.0. This is really strange and seems to be incorrect to me. See screenshot.

Quickset is not good way to make settings. Better to reset the device with no defaults and set it manually from blank.
It will be bridging, so it doesn't need any ip address at all. But you can add management ip for better accessibility, snmp and whatever else reason.

Looks like my problem is solved. The HP port on which the Mikrotik was connected was set in Trunc mode (if I'm correct), in other words it was not configured correctly and that is why the Mikrotik didn't got an IP address from my management network. It is all sorted out now and it is working perfectly and stable.