Zero Touch Provisioning with AirWave and Central

Aruba offers on-premise and cloud-based management solutions for switches, access points, and controllers.

AirWave is an award-winning on-premise Network Management Solution (NMS) that manages both Aruba and third-party network devices. AirWave is ideal for Campus networks and for organizations which prefer to have complete control over the hardware and software and have their NMS within premises (for example: either in the head office or data center or one of the large campuses).

Aruba Central is a popular cloud-based management solution for Branch and Distributed Enterprises which prefer simplicity, programmability, and integration with third-party cloud-based solutions for automation. Central offers cloud portal subscriptions through which one can manage the entire network of Aruba devices, without having to set up, upgrade, scale, or manage an NMS.

In this chapter, the focus is primarily on the Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP) and connection to either AirWave or Central using ZTP for check-in, configuration download, and management.

What is ZTP?

ZTP enables the auto-configuration of factory-default switches without requiring any manual setup process. It helps the administrators to deploy their fleet of switches at multiple branches without requiring a technical expert onsite. It is of use for distributed enterprises (for example: hotels, hospitals, retail stores, educational institutions, and other enterprises) where an administrator is not available at every site.

Aruba offers ZTP solution which reduces the overall cost of ownership. Aruba ships infrastructure devices such as switches, access points, and controllers directly to the site of usage. With ZTP, even a nontechnical user (for example: store manager in a retail chain or a class teacher in a school) can deploy devices at site. When the devices are connected to AirWave or Central, ZTP automatically sets up the required firmware and configurations, and services without the need for technical expertise on site.