Aruba ClearPass Reviews

I mainly use ClearPass to issue and authenticate certificates.

ClearPass has simplified our security as an automatic email is now sent to concerned users when something goes down. For example, if your AP or controller is down, a log is immediately generated stating what's happened, and we can use that to work with local engineers or OEM to resolve it. This reduces the impact on business and has simplified around 70% of our work.

ClearPass' best features are authentication, support for multiple devices, and monitoring.

ClearPass' GUI could be more user-friendly.

I've been using Aruba ClearPass for almost three years.

ClearPass is stable - we haven't had any issues since deployment.

ClearPass' scalability is up to the mark.

The initial setup was a bit complex and took a couple of days.

I implemented ClearPass myself.

I would rate ClearPass nine out of ten.

We use the solution for security.

It provides a single access point and is highly available.

The period of firmware updates is very short.

I have been using Aruba ClearPass for one year.

It consists of one-time passwords, so you don't have many challenges.

I rate the solution’s stability an eight out of ten.

We have 700-800 users, out of which 50 are concurrent.

I rate the solution’s scalability a nine out of ten.

The initial setup is easy.
If you take a controller concerning the APN, that is a one-time setup. Once you set it up, it doesn't give you any problem going further. The one-time setup takes around four to eight hours.

Compared to other solutions, it has a standard price.

Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

We use Aruba ClearPass for customers to ensure that whatever devices are entering the network have the correct posture. For example, they have the correct operating system and antivirus, and the firewalls turned on.

The most valuable features of Aruba ClearPass are its ease of use and the general network access controls.

A specific component is part of the solution called ClearPass Onboard, which can sometimes be complex and challenging to set up. If they could simplify the process and make it easier, that would be a benefit.

In an upcoming release, they need to include support for Android devices. Android devices are not fully supported at this time.

I have been using Aruba ClearPass for approximately five years.

The stability of Aruba ClearPass is good.

Aruba ClearPass is scalable. It's very good to scale because you can add additional units and integrate them.

I have used the support many times and they can help remotely which is helpful.

I rate the support from Aruba ClearPass an eight out of ten.

Positive

Aruba ClearPass is very easy to set up.

The time it takes to deploy the solution entirely depends on the customer's needs. Installing the software is very quick which can take about an hour. However, customizing and configuring it with all the different options can take from one day to a week or two depending on what the customer wants.

I do the implementation and configuration of the solution for customers.

You can get Aruba ClearPass either where you purchase it outright or you can be subscription-based. The cost will vary according to what is selected, but it's licensed per device. For example, for a hundred users or a hundred device license, it would cost approximately $2,000.

I have evaluated Fortinet and is good. It is simple and easy to use.

The maintenance could be more user-friendly. If you don't attend a course or if you don't have any technical knowledge of it. If a customer is going to maintain it themselves, they should attend some training.

My advice to others is to make sure they have the skill. Once they have the skills and have done the training, it's fairly simple to use the solution. If they try and do it on their own and try to figure things out, they are going to hate the solution because it's not built for them to figure things out on their own.

The second piece of advice is to make sure they understand what devices are supported and to what level because with smartphones, not all smartphones are supported and you can end up buying the solution to find that certain versions or certain models of smartphones are not supported.

I rate Aruba ClearPass a seven out of ten.

Aruba ClearPass is used for managing and identifying users.

The most valuable feature of Aruba ClearPass is its ease of use and the GUI is user-friendly.

I have been using Aruba ClearPass for approximately three years.

Aruba ClearPass is stable.

The scalability of Aruba ClearPass is good. We can add more users if we want.

We have two technical staff members using the solution.

We have used the support from Aruba ClearPass and they have helped us with our issues.

I rate the support from Aruba ClearPass a five out of five.

We have had some issues with the installation of Aruba ClearPass. 

There is a license to use Aruba ClearPass.

I recommend Aruba ClearPass to others.

I rate Aruba ClearPass a nine out of ten.

Before ClearPass we were using the native captive-portal on our Wi-Fi controllers (Aruba) to authenticate users but this was causing httpd daemons to overload the CPU on the controllers. This situation created a denial of service condition on the Wi-Fi which was a major call driver for us.

Before ClearPass we were using the native captive-portal on our Wi-Fi controllers (Aruba) to authenticate users but this was causing httpd daemons to overload the CPU on the controllers. This situation created a denial of service condition on the Wi-Fi which was a major call driver for us.

Ability to drill down on items like “System CPU Utilization” or “Device Family” stats from the dashboard. As of right now you need to pick up to 5 items listed on the Dashboard but they seem to be static.

The interface is a little confusing as is setting up some of the options but this is partially due to the flexibility of the product. There are wizards available to create policy which is helpful. We’re primarily using it for RADIUS based AAA for 802.1x Wireless.

One and a half years primarily using the Policy Manager module, and one year using the Guest module. No Onboarding use as of yet.

MS AD integration was a bit of a problem at the beginning until our SE realized that the ClearPass servers need to be joined to the domain before AD lookups can be done.

I haven't experienced any issues.

I haven't experienced any issues.

Mixed – our current SE does not seem to have much knowledge about configuration of ClearPass and I have been referred to their “ClearPass Expert” on a couple of occasions but I have yet to speak to him/her. Aruba TAC has been able to help the few times I’ve called.

Our existing wireless infrastructure is Aruba so it made sense to use their solution for AAA. We did a trial with Win Server 2012 RADIUS and that worked as well, however it does not offer as many options as ClearPass does.

Initial setup was fairly straightforward following the “Start Here” wizard. Our only real “snag” was the Active Directory integration, but that was remedied by our SE.

The licensing model wasn’t explained terribly well to us so we vastly under-purchased. This has unfortunately caused us a bit of trouble over the last year. The licensing numbers are based on unique connected authenticating endpoints per day, averaged over 7 days. When we purchased the product we were under the impression that the licensed nodes were concurrent devices, of which we typically see 8000+ in the middle of the day. Our licensing ended up being 19000+ unique devices and we’ve had to put together a cluster of 4 Clearpass nodes to accommodate this.

The licensing model wasn't explained terribly well to us so we vastly under-purchased. This has unfortunately caused us a bit of trouble over the last year. The licensing numbers are based on unique connected authenticating endpoints per day, averaged over 7 days. When we purchased the product we were under the impression that the licensed nodes were concurrent devices, of which we typically see 8000+ in the middle of the day. Our licensing ended up being 19000+ unique devices and we’ve had to put together a cluster of 4 ClearPass nodes to accommodate this.

Tread carefully when estimating the number of unique device nodes for licensing. If using Active Directory for MSCHAPv2 authentication make sure that you add Clearpass to the Windows Domain.

Our primary use case is for security.

The aspect of Aruba ClearPass that I like most is that it has a lot of options, it is very versatile.

One thing that could be improved in Aruba ClearPass is that we would like to have an option to recognize all the assets on the customer's site in one click. That is an easy way of recognizing all the assets on a customer site. We would like an easier way of recognizing the assets of the network so we could know in which VLAN we want to configure the port or the suite and which policies apply to that port. We'd like ClearPass do that automatically.

We first installed ClearPass about two years ago.

In terms of stability, it is quite stable.

One a scale of one to five, I would give the scalability a three. It is not scalable enough.

The technical support is good.

The initial setup was quite complex, it is not that easy.

It took maybe two weeks. It takes a long time because it depends on the customer's industry or location or on the user's computers. It's not that fast normally.

Aruba ClearPass is expensive.

On a scale of one to ten I would give Aruba ClearPass an eight.

It is a good solution for applying security to the network. I would recommend it.

1. To improve overall security by segmenting the Guest and Corporate Vlan.

2. To Manage BYOD in the organization. 

3. To provide visbility on my corporate network using one management dashboard   environment for the devices

Secure organization by completely segmenting the guest and corporate vlans SSID. 

Less management and support effort on the management of BYOD. 

Clear visibility on the LAN .

The most valuable features would be: 

• Wireless segregation
• Bandwidth segmentation
• Prioritization
• BYOD management
• Overall visibility.

I would like the area of managing wired technology to be improved. Wireless is very good but I'm still struggling a bit to do my end to end configurations in the wired technology area.

The Virtual Machine for the Clearpass sometimes has issues with loosing the management IP

This solution is stable. 

Scalability is fine because it's batched upon endpoint devices, and licensing. If you max out the endpoint devices that you want to manage, you just upgrade the license and get more scalability. The core server is running on virtualization, so you can expand the resources for you to be able to grow your server needs.

We previously used Cisco ISE. We switched because it was complex. Even the deployment was not straightforward. When I had Cisco ISE, it was still in the first version, 1.2. I heard people mention that version 2.2 is much more friendly, easy to deploy, and easy to use but I didn't get a chance to test that. I used Cisco ISE when it was what I would consider a very complex solution, difficult to install, and even understand. Even then, it was not meeting my requirements.

The initial setup was straightforward and the deployment took almost a month. 

Cisco ISE V1

I would rate this solution a nine. 

I've used the solution in the retail industry. We use it in hospitality as well. It's very secure in terms of authentication. 

The authentification is great. We're able to separate guests from employees on wireless. 

It's stable.

Support is decent.

The solution can scale well. 

The setup of ClearPass can be a bit convoluted at times. It needs to be simplified a bit more. 

It is a very expensive product.

I've used the solution for six or seven years. 

The stability is great. There are no bugs or glitches. It's pretty robust. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

The solution is extremely scalable. It's capable of growing as the environment changes. 

Aruba support is okay. 

Neutral

The deployment is a challenge. Some of it is environmental and specific to the end-user. It can be hard to get all of the information together and pre-check the environment. Depending on the size and complexity o the environment, it can be a bit easier or harder. 

From an implementation perspective, about one to three people are needed depending on the size. One would need to be really experienced. You'd need a pre and post-sales engineer working hand in hand.

From a maintenance perspective, it's mostly set and forget. You might need to check it from a firmware perspective or if there are changes in the environment. 

There is an ROI from an end-user perspective, depending on the vertical. For example, for retail, when presenting guests with a splash page that tells them about sales and deals available to them, it could lead to increased sales.

The solution is not cheap. My understanding is that it is expensive and an investment. 

I am using the updated version of the solution. 

We're resellers. 

I'd rate the solution six out of ten. There are a lot of different manufacturers that do it a little bit differently and a little bit better.