Sunday, March 15, 2015

Configuring Aerohive Access Points-CLI Part 1: The Basics

The Basics- what's that? A simplified version of the Aerohive configuration manual. Without a further a do-let's start configuring.

We'll start with connecting to it. Use 9600 8N1 to connect.

After it boots up you should get a screen like this:

The default username is admin and the password is "aerohive" without the quotes. If those don't work try to reset it by pushing the reset pinhole fo r30 seconds while plugged in.

Next, you will want to disable it's communication with any HiveManager, local or in the cloud. You can do this by typing the command:
no capwap client enable
Confirm this by typing:
show capwap client
You should get an output like what is shown below:

Now, let's configure a basic wireless network.
Create your security. With Aerohive everything is separated, your security, radios, SSID's and more advanced things like users, user groups, and profiles are all separated; you need to join them manually, like making a 3 layer cake.
To create the security object(like a container where every security related setting is stored) type:
security-object MyWiFi

Now, we have our proverbial container-lets put some security inside of it:
security-object MyWiFi security protocol-suite wpa2-tkip-psk MyPassword
What this is saying is self-explanatory: Use WPA2 with TKIP and a Pre-Shared Key. The other options are as follows:
Please note that you won't see your password being typed in. It will be replaced with asterisks.
GREAT! We have our "security" now let's give it an SSID. Type:
ssid MyWiFi
to create it. This is what will be broadcast and visible to clients.
Next associate the security object with the ssid.
ssid MyWiFi security-object MyWiFi
Awesome! Now you can whip out you phone and try to connect. Wait have you been listening to me? Do you remember when I said something like this..... "With Aerohive everything is separated, your security, radios, SSID's and more advanced things like users, user groups, and profiles are all separated; you need to join them manually, like making a 3 layer cake." Of course you remembered, right? RIGHT? To associate your SSID to a wireless radio, that is what we call the device that actually transmits the signal, you need to issue the command:
interface wifi0 ssid MyWiFi
And this is where we go into the murky world of Aerohive products..... Each Aerohive product has a different radio configuration, on an AP230 there is 2 radios, a 2.4GHz that does b/g/n and a 5GHz that does a/n. I could go through this all day but to make thing easy, just search for you AP's data sheet. On the second page you should see something like this:
Usually the b/g/n radio is the first radio. In this case I want to enable wireless AC:
interface wifi1 ssid MyWiFi
If you followed my guide to a letter you can try connecting to the MyWiFi SSID with a password of MyPassword but be sure to have some network connected to the eth0 port(or the only ethernet port).

Please comment on what you want to see next! I could do VLANing, PPSK, multiple SSID's.....

Aerohive AP230

It's been a while since I last evaluated access points in 2010 and have decided to see what is available. When I reached out to Aerohive their rep offered me something I couldn't refuse-a free as in free beer AP230. This is a wireless N and AC access point and includes a 3 year subscription to HiveManager Online - their version of a wireless controller. Now, at this point is when I'd start ranting about Meraki and how they'll disable your network without a payment to them..... But, this access point is only configured by HiveManager Online AND can be configured with the CLI (more on this in another post). Now on to the review...

Out of the box it comes like any access point with a Wall/Ceiling mount, mounting screws, rubber feet, a special type of locking bracket and a 12VDC power supply-no PoE injector.


Upon plugging it in it will connect to HMOL at which point you'll need to to visit the address in the quick start guide to register and create your account.

At that point you can configure it like any Aerohive AP or configure it from the CLI which we will discuss in a later article.

Moving away from software the AP230 just looks different on a ceiling that any other access point-just Aerohive's way of differentiating their product from others. The LED is white when connected to HiveManager and orange when not connected- this doesn't mean that it isn't working. In terms of speed I've gotten everything from from 24 megs on a Nexus tablet to 270 on an EliteBook 8460 with the stock Intel N card and different configurations. It has 2 gigabit ethernet ports (only 1 can do PoE).



In the next post I'll go over configuring it with the CLI.