CAPsMAN on RouterOS 6.4x working well for me for two+ years now with four different types of Mikrotik APs after my initial challenges setting it up. Once you get the hang of it, it's somewhat smooth sailing. I haven't been brave enough to try it on RouterOS 7.x, yet, though.
My tips from my little experience is (1) avoid using underpowered routers/devices as the controller and (2) configure local forwarding instead of CAPsMAN forwarding. In my case local forwarding is achieved via the wireless clients on the two SSIDs onto a bridge on the cAPs with two separate VLANS, then next, transfer the cients to the bridge on the central 'access-concentrator(s)' via MPLS/VPLS (what I term the 'data/forwarding plane') where the clients get assigned IP addresses via DHCP. That way too the client devices don't get reassigned IPs (thereby disrupting the connections) if 'roaming' from one cAP to the other. I'd usually see see "
disconnected, registered to other interface, signal strength" in the CAPsMAN logs, but no IP reassingment. Perhaps that's a misconfiguration?
What I also like about CAPsMAN is that the cAPs don't advertise the wireless SSIDs if for any reason the connection from the cAPs to the controller/core network is interrupted. However, preferabley there should be an option to enable/disable that as it seems to be an issue for some use cases (
any trick to make cap client keep settings while capsman is down?)
Regarding flexibility of the wireless settings just like you'd have if the AP were standalone, for the wireless settings CAPsMAN can't/doesn't control (like antenna gain on a basebox, for example), you set it on the AP itself, then reactivate CAPsMAN management of the cAP. Perhaps that defeats the purpose of CAPsMAN?
My objective for the CAPsMAN-controlled wireless network is more of ease of admin/control and stability of the wireless network for general use than speed/high bandwidth, and so far so good.
I really look forward to RouterOS finally getting
wireless interworking profiles/HotSpot 2.0 to work with/when the cAP is under CAPsMAN control.
Here's a recent Mikrotik video with Normis explaining CAPsMAN:
MikroTips: managing many access points with CAPsMAN.