Magic number of devices per AP

[systemscsn]

Hi all,

So, we are a school and have a bunch of AP650(AH)'s.  My question is, what is the magic number of maximum devices you would want connected to an AP.

I believe the default is 100 per AP. 

Also, in checking on that, the only place ive seen where the number of max clients is set, is within the Policy >> Device Template >>SSID >> Optional settings:

Seems a weird place, because logically that says to me, that you are saying the limit of devices on the SSID is 100 and NOT the device... Whats the reason for having that setting there, and not somewhere else?  

thanks,
Jason.

[systemscsn]

Well, here we are again....... doing a config update and the majority of AP's are not reflecting that change i made to the radio profile inside the AP template, inside the Network Policy....

if you want to read about it, i posted that here: https://community.extremenetworks.com/communities/community-home/digestviewer/view-question?Contribu... 

So fed up with doing updates, that dont update all the AP's... this is insane.

J.

[systemscsn]

Hi Sam,

I hope all is well with you, and thanks for getting back to me, its appreciated.  Sorry ive been away for so long, seems at times i only come here to ask questions, but ill do better to help with answers.

Just so i understand it, by setting that limit on an SSID, what it is doing is actually setting that maximum per radio on the SSID.  So if I set the limit to 100 devices in the SSID and have -  as an example - 4 channels, i basically have a limit of 400 devices, right?

if the above is true, this raises another question in regard to changing it at the radio profile level.  For example, I make a change in the radio profile, and say go from 100 to 200 as the max, is that calculated and the max number of devices automatically changed within the max devices with the SSID?  or do I have to go back to the radio profile and multiply the max devices by the number of channels in use, and the sum of that, I then enter into the max devices within the SSID?

Last thing, you said that the max count for the AP650(AH) is now 250 per radio!! i get thats in a lab, but i have a few places where im getting capacity alarms.  So im going to get into that Antenna profile and up that to at least 150 and see if I still get the capacity alerts.  Was that change from 100 to 200 on the AP650;s documented, or clients told about it (I know i wasnt), as it really is somethign that any Extreme customer shoudl be told about if they own that type of AP.

Thanks again for replying.
Best, Jason.

[SamPirok · Accepted solution]

Hey Jason, good to hear from you. For the older models the max was 100 per radio, you are correct; but for the newer models, and the AP650 specifically, the max client count is 250 per radio. That count is in a lab environment though, production environments typically won't want to go all the way to the max client count if the clients are passing anything beyond a minimal amount of traffic. 

For the Client Related Network Settings, specifically the maximum client limit, that is going to be per SSID. This is an excerpt from the help file for that XIQ page:
Maximum client limit: Set the maximum number of clients that can associate with an SSID on an device. The default is 100 clients, which is the maximum number of clients that a single radio supports. You can change this to another maximum between 1 and 255. For example, if you want one SSID to be able to serve a certain number of clients—say 40—you can limit all the other SSIDs on that radio so that the sum of their maximum client settings does not exceed 60. Doing this ensures that the first SSID is able to serve 40 clients before the 100-client per radio maximum is reached.

To set the maximum number of clients you want on the AP radio in general, you'd want to go to the Radio Profile and set the Maximum Number of Clients to what you'd like it to be:

Is that what you were looking for? Please let me know if I can clarify anything!