7 Essential Aerohive Tips And Tricks

There are many benefits to using Aerohive, including the option for private cloud or public cloud access, improved band steering, and drastically improved fairness when it comes to airtime. To get the most out of Aerohive, however, you need to be aware of some essential aspects of its functionality. Here are seven essential Aerohive tips and tricks…

1. AP firewalls

If you’re using a firewall policy that has a mixture of rules concerning application services and networks, then it is possible to put all of your network services first. The process of filtering by your network services is considerably faster, due to the lower rate of consumption of CPU resources. The firewall will permit or deny access depending on whether or not something matches a rule connected to a network service. There is no need to filter by your application services in order to do this.

2. Role-based access controls

By using role-based access controls in your HiveManager NG, it is possible to assign levels to users for network access. There are different administrative roles available for monitors, operators, and guest managers, enabling each different role to enjoy access under a separate group of permissions. 

3. Older APs and AVC

AP 120, AP 110, and AP 170 devices, which run HiveOS 6.x software, are capable of supporting IP firewall policies, alongside application services. The services supported by a device are determined by the application signature file version that has been uploaded for it.

4. Firewall rule recommendations

You ideally want to limit your firewall rules as much as possible, as a greater level of packet filtering results will have a greater impact on your throughput. That being said, APs can still function very well, even if you are applying the maximum number of rules per policy (which is 64). Positioning your rules to take advantage of common forms of traffic as a priority will also help to accelerate your packet processing, and consequently improve your throughput.

5. Tips for Budget Gateway

Budget Gateway enables you to place all infrastructure devices in a single VLAN/subnet, as well as make certain advertised bundle services, such as AirPlay and AirPrint, available for your users, using different VLANs/subnets. In order for this to work, your APs need to be located in different management VLANs. This is because your Hive members in the single management VLAN will elect one BDD. Having all of your users as a single management VLAN will result in a single BDD.

6. Band-steering

Band steering can be used for “urging” devices into a 5 GHz band. This will reduce traffic in lower performing 2.4 GHz spaces, and simultaneously solve some of your problems concerning devices dropping their connections. To set this, simply open up the 2.4 GHz profile form, entering your optimising management traffic settings area.

7. Complete configuration push

Your default configuration upload needs to be Delta, which doesn’t require rebooting. There are major changes to the configuration benefits coming from a full configuration upload. Just remember that a full upload will require a reboot, and should only be utilised outside business hours.

If you require professional advice about Aerohive, get in touch today, we’re here to help. Or visit our web site for more details about Aerohive.