On-Board Kdc; Standby Management; Event Manager - Symbol WS5000 series Reference Manual

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WS5000 Series Switch System Reference Guide
MU switches between access ports when the MU analyzes the reception quality at a location and decides to
communicate with another access port based on the best signal strength and lowest MU load distribution.
The AP 100, AP 200, AP 300 and AP 4121 access ports support multiple ESSIDs.

1.3.4 On-Board KDC

The WLAN Switch has an on-board Key Distribution Center (KDC) or Kerberos authentication server. Properly
configured, the WS5000 Series Switch provides a secure means for authenticating users/clients associated to
a WLAN or ESS with the Kerberos security policy applied.
The on-board KDC can be configured to use up to three Network Time Protocol servers (NTPs). A separate
switch with an on-board KDC can be configured as a Slave KDC to support the Master KDC in case of a Master
KDC failure.

1.3.5 Standby Management

"Failover" or Standby Management enables the network administrator to significantly reduce the chance of a
disruption in service to the switch and associated MUs by placing one or more additional WS5000 Series
Switches as backup to a Primary wireless switch if it fails.
After configuring a Primary and Standby switch, the Primary switch issues a Discovery packet on each
configured interface. Assuming there is a properly configured Standby switch, the Standby receives the
Discover packet and starts sending heartbeats to the Primary. This establishes connectivity between the
Primary and the Standby. The Primary switch executes various internal monitors, in addition to any necessary
to communicate with the Standby switch.
If heartbeats fail after being properly established, a failover event is incurred by the Standby wireless switch,
and thus assumes the duties of the Primary switch including adopting all access ports. The Standby switch
sends an administrative alert—SNMP trap, etc.—to the administrator that a failover event has taken place.
Warning! A WS5000 model switch is not compatible to be configured as a
standby for a WS5100 model switch.

1.3.6 Event Manager

An event notification system monitors an administrator-configured set of events in network performance. The
switch uses the Event Notification manager to log and collect application and system events on remote or local
system log (Syslog) collectors or servers.
Events are conditions that the network administrator wants to be notified about. The network administrator
can configure the wireless switch to send event notifications using SNMP to an SNMP trap server, to the
switch local log, or to a Syslog server. The network administrator chooses which events to be notified about
and the appropriate severity level.