Aruba Central and Cloud Management
Aruba Central and Cloud Management tests how devices are onboarded, organized, configured, and monitored in Aruba's cloud platform. Expect questions on groups versus sites, templates and variables, subscriptions, firmware compliance, and AIOps features.
Onboarding and hierarchy
- Devices must be onboarded to Central, typically by claiming them in the inventory with a subscription. APs, switches, and gateways are then assigned to a group and a site.
- A group is a configuration container: devices in the same group share a configuration model. A site is a location container used for monitoring, maps, and reporting. A device belongs to one group and one site.
- Aruba Activate helps with zero-touch onboarding and licensing for supported devices. Central on-premises is available for customers who cannot use the public cloud.
Configuration model
- Groups can use UI-based configuration, templates, or a combination. Templates use variables so the same template can serve multiple sites while substituting site-specific values such as VLANs or IP addresses.
- Configuration audit and firmware compliance show drift and let you schedule upgrades. Firmware compliance is evaluated against the group's chosen version.
- ArubaOS 10 designs use Central as the management plane and gateways/APs as the data plane; AOS 8 devices can also be monitored in Central with different capabilities.
Monitoring and AIOps
- Central dashboards show network health, clients, APs, switches, and gateways. Client 360 combines connectivity, authentication, and RF data for one client.
- Alerts and AI insights surface anomalies; floor plans and heat maps help with RF placement.
- Reports and historical data depend on the subscription tier and retention.
Worked example
A retailer adds 20 APs at a new store. The administrator claims the APs, assigns them to the 'Retail' group for configuration and the 'Store 42' site for monitoring, then applies a template with variables for store VLAN and hostname. The APs inherit the group firmware version, and Central's compliance view flags two APs that are out of date. The reasoning: group controls configuration, site controls location and reporting; templates scale the configuration without duplicating it.
Traps that cost marks
- Using a site as a configuration container or a group as a map location.
- Expecting Central to configure a device that was never claimed or licensed.
- Assuming all AOS 8 features are identical under AOS 10.
- Forgetting firmware compliance is group-based.
- Ignoring subscription tier limits on features and retention.