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Cisco Mobility Express integration

Alexandre de THOMASSON
  • Updated

Describes how to configure your Cisco Mobility Express to activate the Cloudi-Fi splash page feature.

Use case

The following sections provide step-by-step instructions for integrating Cisco Mobility Express with Cloudi-Fi.

Prerequisites

Before starting, ensure that you have the following prerequisites:

1. Get the Cloudi-Fi required URL and Radius Secret

To create a new location in the Cloudi-fi Admin interface if it doesn't already exist, follow these instructions:

Go to the "Location" section in the Cloudi-fi Admin interface.
Create a New Location and enter the required details for the new location:

  • Location Name
  • Type (Redirect URL)
  • Portal template
  • Country 

Location URL: this URL will be used to configure an External Captive Portal

  • Access the Cloudi-Fi administration console
  • Select the location
  • Click on the menu button for the location
  • Select "Copy Splash page URL"

Aruba Instint Deployement_Cloudi-Fi Get captive portal url.001.png

Transform the URL as follows:

Cloudi-Fi

https://login.cloudi-fi.net/start/ch/ebd2egzrfgrgq2/lh/qgrzqrgegs/sp/spsomething.com

Cisco Mobility Express

https://login.cloudi-fi.net/start/ch/ebd2egzrfgrgq2/lh/qgrzqrgegs/sp/spcisco.com

 

2. Get Radius information

You will need the Radius information (Server IPs, Secrets, Ports) to set up.

You can get the Secret by asking in the Chatbot; Cloudi-fi’s Support team will provide you with the necessary information.

Cloudi-Fi - Get radius information for Huawei iMaster NCE-Campus

What shared secret is used for the Radius server? (Please save this confidential information securely and do not share it publicly).

 

3. Radius configuration

Log in to your Mobility Express web interface and enable "Switch to Expert View" at the top right.

On the left-side menu, go to Management Admin Radius and configure as follows:

  • Authentication Call Station ID Type: AP MAC Address: SSID

  • Authentication MAC Delimiter: Hyphen

  • Accounting Call Station ID Type: AP MAC Address: SSID

  • Accounting MAC Delimiter: Hyphen

Cisco Mobility Express integration_Configure Cloudi-Fi RADIUS server

Click Apply and add Radius Authentication Server:

  • State: Enabled

  • COA: Disabled

  • Server IP Address: Provided by Cloudi-Fi Support

  • Shared Secret: Provided by Cloudi-Fi Support

  • Confirm Shared Secret: as above

  • Port Number: 1812

Cisco Mobility Express integration_add IP adress Radius.png

Click Apply and add the secondary Radius Authentication Server.

 

4. ACL rule

Cisco Mobility Express integration_Add ACL rule.png

 

5. SSID configuration

Go to Wireless Settings WLANs. Click Add new and configure with :

On the General tab :

  • Profile Name: Guest Wi-Fi

  • SSID: Your SSID name

  • Admin State: Enabled

  • Radio Policy: ALL

  • Broadcast SSID: Enabled

On the WLAN Security tab:

  • Guest Network: Enabled

  • Captive Network Assistant: Enabled

  • Radius Compatibility: Cisco ACS

  • Captive Portal: External Splash page

  • Captive Portal URL: Splash page URI copied from the Cloudi-Fi interface

  • Access Type: Radius

Under ACL Name (IPV4), select the Pre-auth profile you've created in step 3.

Under Radius Server, select the Radius Authentication Servers.

On the Advanced tab:

Cisco Mobility Express integration_configure SSID.png

  • Allow AAA Override: Enabled

 

Troubleshooting 

If you’re facing issues with your captive portal, it may have several root causes.

 

Before beginning, please check that the following Firewall rules are active, as mentioned in the Solution prerequisites section.

if problems persist after configuring, follow these steps and share the following details with the Cloudi-Fi support team:

Captive portal display issue before or after authentication

The problem may be related to DHCP or DNS.

  • Check that your IP address is valid.
  • Check that login.cloudi-fi.net is resolved.

Assuming the DNS and IP address function correctly, you still have a captive portal problem.

  • You must type http://neverssl.com in your browser to apply the redirection to the portal.
  • If the captive portal still does not appear, check the authorizations in "ACL Rule''. 
  • Follow the path below and check if Cloudi-Fi’s domains or IPs are authorized before authentication.

Error after authentication on the page

Once connected to the SSID, if you notice a Cloudi-Fi error page instead of your captive portal. Check if: 

  • The URL transformed at the beginning is not misconfigured.
  • Radius does not receive requests from Cloudi-Fi.

Check the configuration of the Radius server:

  • The IP address of Radius 
  • Radius port (default port 1812)
  • The shared password.

Test authentication 

To conduct this test, connect to the SSID, then try to authenticate yourself on the captive portal page and check that the authentication process is successful.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact us - How to contact your support? 

 

What’s next?

Please refer to this page for additional details regarding Cisco and Cloudi-Fi configurations.