Why are Access Points Pinging Client VLAN Gateways

[Paul_Kyte]

Hi,

I have Extreme Access Points managed by ExtremeCloud IQ and these broadcast two SSIDs and drop Clients on to two VLANs/ Subnets depending on which SSID they authenticate to. The APs and VLANs/Subnets are in different VRFs. The APs have a management address in the Management VRF. The Client VLANS/Subnets are one in a Private VRF and the other in the Public VRF. Communications between all these VRFs are controlled by a Firewall. Whilst tidying up rules for the Management VRF I can see that the APs on their Management Address are pinging the Client VLAN/Subnet Gateways in the other VRFs.

Is this normal behaviour? Does the AP Management need to ping the gateways of the VLAN/Subnets that the Clients are placed into? Why is this? and finally can I block these pings as unnecessary communications?

Answers will be gratefully received.

Thanks

[Paul_Kyte]

Thanks James, that second article gave me the information to see that the AP is pinging the gateway on the clients LAN.

[systemscsn]

Are you running a Bonjour Gateway?  That does have to access all VLAN's to pass traffic after inserting itself in the VLAN ranges in the DHCP server.

[James_A]

I think it's part of this feature, which can't be disabled according to the KB: https://extreme-networks.my.site.com/ExtrArticleDetail?an=000077007

[Paul_Kyte]

Thanks for you answer but the article you have given a link to only mentions the AP pinging the DNS Server. What I am seeing is the AP pinging the the clients subnet gateway. So this is two different things and doesn't explain what I'm seeing.

Does anyone have an answer for what I'm seeing?

Thanks