Onboarding Devices

Aruba Central supports the following options for adding devices.

• If you are an evaluating user, you must manually add the serial number and MAC Media Access Control. A MAC address is a unique identifier assigned to network interfaces for communications on a network. address of the devices that you want to manage from Aruba Central. For more information, see Adding Devices (Evaluation Account).
• If you are a paid subscriber, add the paid subscription key to the account so that Aruba Central can retrieve devices associated with your purchase order from Activate. For more information, see Managing Subscription Keys. Set up a sync to import devices from the Activate database. For more information, see the following:
  • Adding Devices (Paid Subscription)
  • What does device sync mean?

This section includes the following topics:

• Adding Devices (Evaluation Account)
• Adding Devices (Paid Subscription)
• Manually Adding Devices

Adding Devices (Evaluation Account)

Use one of the following methods to add devices to Aruba Central:

Using the Initial Setup Wizard

1. In the Add Devices tab of the Initial Setup wizard, click Add Device.
2. Enter the serial number of MAC address of your devices.

   You can find the serial number and MAC address of Aruba devices on the front or back of the hardware.

3. Click Done.
4. Review the devices in your inventory.

Using the Device Inventory Page

1. In the Account Home page, under Global Settings, click Device Inventory.

   The Device Inventory page is displayed.

2. Click Add Devices.

   The Add Devices pop-up window is displayed.

3. Enter the serial number and the MAC address of each device.

   You can find the serial number and MAC address of Aruba devices on the front or back of the hardware.

4. Click Done.
5. Review the devices in your inventory.

Adding Devices (Paid Subscription)

If your devices are not added to your inventory, set up a device sync by adding one device from your purchase order.

To set up device sync, use one of the following methods:

• In the Initial Setup Wizard
• From the Device Inventory Page

In the Initial Setup Wizard

1. Ensure that you have added a subscription key and click Next.
2. In the Add Devices tab, enter the serial number and MAC address of one device from your purchase order.

   Most Aruba devices have the serial number and MAC address on the front or back of the hardware.

3. Click Add Device. Aruba Central imports all other devices mapped to your purchase order.
4. Review the devices in your inventory.
5. Perform the following options:
   • Add Devices Manually—Manually add devices by entering the MAC address and serial number of each device.
   • Add Via Mobile App—Add devices from the Aruba Central mobile app. You can download the Aruba Central app from Apple App Store on iOS devices and Google Play Store on Android devices.
   • Contact support—Contact Aruba Technical Support.

From the Device Inventory Page

1. In the Account Home page, under Global Settings, click Device Inventory.

   The Device Inventory page is displayed.

   Aruba Central imports only devices associated with your Central account from Activate.

2. Do one of the following:
   • Click Sync Devices. Enter the serial number and MAC address and click Add Device.
   • Click Add Devices to manually add devices by entering the MAC address and serial number of each device.
   • If you are a paid subscriber, you can add devices using a CSV Comma-Separated Values. A file format that stores tabular data in the plain text format separated by commas. file. Click Import Via CSV and select the CSV file. For a sample CSV file, click Download sample CSV file.

   Manual addition of devices using a CSV file is restricted to 100 devices or to the number of available device management tokens. An error message is displayed if more than 100 devices are imported using the CSV file. You can view the status of the CSV upload in the Account Home > Audit Trail page.

3. Review the devices in your inventory.
4. Perform the following options:
   • Add Devices Manually—Manually add devices by entering the MAC address and serial number of each device.
   • Add Via Mobile App—Add devices from the Aruba Central mobile app. You can download the Aruba Central app from Apple App Store on iOS devices and Google Play Store on Android devices.
   • Contact support—Contact Aruba Technical Support.

Manually Adding Devices

Aruba Central allows you to set up only manual sync of devices from Activate database using one of the following methods:

• Adding Devices Using MAC address and Serial Number
• Adding Devices Using Activate Account
• Adding Devices Using Cloud Activation Key

Adding Devices Using MAC address and Serial Number

You can find the serial number and MAC address of Aruba devices on the front or back of the hardware.

To add devices using MAC address and serial number, use one of the following methods:

• In the Initial Setup Wizard
• From the Device Inventory Page

In the Initial Setup Wizard

If you are using the Initial Setup wizard:

1. In the Add Devices tab of the Initial Setup wizard.
2. Click Add Device.
3. Enter the serial number of MAC address of your device.
4. Click Done.
5. Review the list of devices.

From the Device Inventory Page

To add devices from the Device Inventory page:

1. In the Account Home page, under Global Settings, click Device Inventory.

   The Device Inventory page is displayed.

2. Do one of the following:
   • Click Add Devices to manually add devices by entering the MAC address and serial number of each device.
   • If you are a paid subscriber, you can add devices using a CSV file. Click Import Via CSV and select the CSV file. For a sample CSV file, click Download sample CSV file.

     Manual addition of devices using a CSV file is restricted to 100 devices or to the number of available device management tokens. An error message is displayed if more than 100 devices are imported using the CSV file. You can view the status of the CSV upload in the Account Home > Audit Trail page.

3. Click Done.
4. Review the devices added to the inventory.

   When you add the serial number and MAC address of one AP from a cluster or a switch stack member, Aruba Central imports all devices associated in the AP cluster and switch stack respectively.

Adding Devices Using Activate Account

 

To add devices from your Activate account:

1. In the Account Home page, under Global Settings, click Device Inventory.

   The Device Inventory page is displayed.

2. Click Advanced and select Using Activate.
3. Enter the username and password of your Activate account.
4. Click Add.
5. Review the devices added to the inventory.

Adding Devices Using Cloud Activation Key

Before adding devices using cloud activation key, ensure that you have noted the cloud activation key and MAC address of the devices to add.

See Also:

• Starting Your Free Trial
• Setting up Your Aruba Central Instance