Catalyst 9800-CL Cloud Wireless Controller

The Catalyst 9800-CL Cloud Wireless Controller is an IOS-XE-based virtual wireless controller. It supports the configuration and management of wireless access points, and it can aggregate the dataplane of wireless APs through the controller itself.

Starting with CML 2.9, you can find the virtual machine (VM) image for the Catalyst 9800-CL and the associated node definition on the ISO of supplemental reference platform images.

Using Catalyst 9800-CL nodes in CML

While CML does not offer images for access points (APs) or wireless clients, the 9800-CL can be used to manage physical access points via bridge external connectivity. Even without physical APs, you can use the 9800-CL to learn about wireless LAN configuration, creating RF profiles, etc.

Using the Console with the 9800-CL

Initially, the 9800-CL uses the VNC console. Even with the command platform console serial in the bootstrap configuration (which is included in the default node definition), the first boot will only output the full data and accept CLI input on the VNC console. Once the 9800-CL has booted and saved its day-0 configuration, you can restart the node. On subsequent boots, the node will use the serial console.

Configuring the 9800-CL

While you can configure the controller entirely via the CLI, the 9800-CL offers a web UI for configuring all aspects of the device. Once connected to a network, you can browse to https://IP_OF_CONTROLLER to manage the controller.

Limitations

The 9800-CL node definition uses 2 vCPUs and 6 GB of RAM by default, which puts it in Ultra-Low Profile. This profile does not support local mode AP deployments (i.e., you cannot have AP traffic tunneled over CAPWAP to the controller). If you increase the resource allocation of your CAT 9800-CL node to 4 vCPUs to 8 GB of memory, it will then support local mode deployments. In all modes, you can do FlexConnect deployments (i.e., where APs drop their traffic off of their directly-connected interfaces).

Additionally, high availability (HA) features of the physical Catalyst 9800 controllers are not supported by the 9800-CL node. The configuration options for HA are present, but they do not work.