Cisco VMWLC-K9 Full English Product Description
1. Short Official Part & License Label
VMWLC-K9: Cisco Virtual Wireless LAN Controller (vWLC) AireOS Virtual Appliance Software Image License, Legacy CUWN Virtual Controller, Supports VMware ESXi Hypervisor, Capacity Controlled via Separate AP RTU Licenses, Small Scale up to 200 APs / Large Scale up to 3000 APs, Max 64,000 Concurrent Wireless Clients, AireOS Operating System, FlexConnect-Optimized, CleanAir RF Management, aWIPS Wireless Security, AP Stateful Switchover (AP SSO), End-of-Sale Legacy Virtual CUWN Controller
2. Full Product Overview
The Cisco VMWLC-K9 is the ordering SKU for the legacyCisco Virtual Wireless LAN Controller (vWLC)software appliance running AireOS, the virtual form factor of the Flex 7500 hardware controller family. It is deployed as a virtual machine on VMware ESXi hypervisors, designed for datacenter centralized control of geographically distributed remote branch APs, primarily built for FlexConnect distributed switching architectures.
This virtual controller does not include embedded AP capacity. Administrators must purchase separate Right-To-Use (RTU) AP licenses to define the number of lightweight Aironet APs to be managed. Two capacity profiles are available: Small vWLC (max 200 APs) and Large vWLC (max 3000 APs). It terminates DTLS-encrypted CAPWAP tunnels from remote branch APs, enabling FlexConnect local switching to forward user traffic at the remote site instead of backhauling all wireless traffic to the datacenter, greatly reducing WAN bandwidth consumption.
The vWLC supports unified RF policy management, wireless security, Layer 2/3 mobility, VoWLAN QoS, guest access and embedded aWIPS threat defense. Supported high availability is AP Stateful Switchover (AP SSO), which replicates AP registration and CAPWAP tunnel state between redundant virtual controllers; wireless client session state is not synchronized.
Important Lifecycle Status: The original AireOS vWLC (VMWLC-K9) reached End-of-Sale (EoS) October 10, 2017, End-of-Support (EoL) January 31, 2022. It is succeeded by the modern IOS-XE based Catalyst 9800-CL-K9 cloud virtual wireless controller. The vWLC interoperates only with legacy Aironet Wave 1 / Wave 2 APs and doesnotsupport Catalyst 9100 Wi-Fi 6/6E access points.
Key Differentiator vs physical Flex 7510: Pure software virtual appliance, no physical rack hardware, flexible VM resource allocation for virtualized datacenter environments. Compared to modern C9800-CL: Runs legacy AireOS, limited hypervisor support, no ISSU non-disruptive upgrades, lacks ETA encrypted traffic analytics and Wi‑Fi 6 support.
3. Virtual Machine Resource Specifications
Supported Hypervisor
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VMware ESXi 5.x / 6.x (No support for KVM, Hyper-V, public cloud)
Virtual Hardware Resource Requirements
Small Instance (≤200 APs)
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vCPU: 4 vCPUs
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RAM: 8 GB
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Storage: 160 GB virtual disk
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vNIC: 2 vNICs (10G compatible)
Large Instance (≤3000 APs)
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vCPU: 8 vCPUs
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RAM: 16 GB
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Storage: 250 GB virtual disk
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vNIC: 2 vNICs (10G compatible)
Virtual Interfaces
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Data Uplink vNIC: CAPWAP tunnel termination, user control traffic
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Service Port vNIC: Isolated out-of-band management traffic
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Supports LAG EtherChannel, 802.1Q VLAN tagging
Environmental & Compliance
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Virtual workload; no physical power/thermal constraints
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Regulatory certifications inherited from underlying ESXi host
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Regulatory Certifications: UL 60950-1, CE, FCC Class A
Official Licensed Capacity & Performance Benchmarks
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Maximum Supported Lightweight APs: Up to 3000 APs (capacity governed by purchased RTU AP licenses)
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Maximum Concurrent Wireless Clients: 64,000 total across all managed APs
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System Throughput: 1 Gbps forwarding capacity
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Supported Unique WLAN SSIDs: Up to 512 WLANs
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Maximum 802.1Q VLANs: Up to 4,096 VLANs
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Max Independent FlexConnect Branch Groups: 2,000 groups
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Roaming: Layer 2 intra-controller roaming, Layer 3 inter-controller mobility, 802.11r fast roaming
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Supported Wi-Fi Standards: 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wave 1
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Max Detected Rogue APs: 32,000; Max Rogue Clients: 24,000
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Supports CleanAir RF monitoring, wIPS, Hotspot 2.0
4. Complete Unified Wireless & Security Feature Suite
1. Centralized AP Lifecycle Management
DTLS CAPWAP tunnel termination for remote FlexConnect APs; zero-touch AP discovery via DHCP Option 43; bulk AP firmware upgrade, unified RF templates and global WLAN policy. Primary deployment mode: FlexConnect Local Switching. Wireless mesh mode isnot supportedon vWLC. Supports OfficeExtend teleworker APs.
2. Cisco CleanAir RF Spectrum Intelligence
2.4GHz/5GHz real-time interference monitoring, dynamic transmit power control, auto-channel assignment, coverage hole detection, rogue AP detection, classification and wireless containment, historical RF analytics for multi-branch planning.
3. Enterprise Wireless Security Stack
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Authentication: 802.1X EAP-TLS/PEAP/EAP-FAST, local user database, RADIUS/TACACS+ AAA
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Encryption: WPA2-PSK/Enterprise, AES-CCMP, TKIP; WPA3 unsupported
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Threat Defense: Built-in wIPS wireless intrusion prevention, rogue AP mitigation, client isolation, dynamic per-WLAN VLAN assignment, downloadable ACLs
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Compliance: PCI DSS validated for multi-branch retail POS wireless deployments
4. Mobility, Voice & Video QoS
WMM traffic prioritization, VoWLAN CAC call admission control, VideoStream multicast optimization, per-client bandwidth policing, 802.11r fast roaming to reduce voice call drops.
5. Application Visibility and Control (AVC)
Layer 7 application recognition, DSCP marking, rate limiting, NetFlow v9 export for branch traffic visibility.
6. Guest Wireless Services
Centralized guest splash web authentication, time-limited guest accounts, cross-branch guest anchor tunneling for unified visitor access.
7. High Availability
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Active/Standby AP Stateful Switchover (AP SSO): Replicates AP database and CAPWAP tunnel state; client sessions are not failover-replicated
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Mobility groups for cross-controller Layer 3 roaming and guest anchoring
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LAG support on virtual uplink interfaces
8. Monitoring, Logging & Compliance
Embedded HTTPS web GUI; syslog, SNMP v3, NetFlow export to SIEM systems. Audit logging meets PCI DSS, HIPAA requirements.
9. Management & Licensing
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Local management: AireOS WebUI, SSH CLI, serial console via VM console
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Centralized management via Cisco Prime Infrastructure
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Licensing: RTU Right-To-Use AP licenses, separate license pool independent of virtual appliance
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No native RESTCONF/YANG support; limited programmability compared to IOS-XE 9800-CL
5. Typical Deployment Scenarios
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Datacenter virtualized FlexConnect controller managing thousands of geographically distributed retail, banking or enterprise branch APs
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Legacy CUWN multi-branch architecture consolidating multiple small physical WLCs onto VMware virtual infrastructure
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Lab and test environments for legacy AireOS FlexConnect multi-site wireless validation
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Legacy migration intermediate platform before upgrading to modern Catalyst 9800-CL virtual IOS-XE controller
6. Short Sales Listing Tagline
Cisco VMWLC-K9 Legacy VMware Virtual AireOS Wireless LAN Controller Software License, Virtual Appliance for ESXi Hypervisor, Zero Built-In AP Capacity (Requires Separate RTU AP Licenses), Supports up to 3000 Lightweight Aironet Wave1 APs & 64,000 Concurrent Clients, 1Gbps System Throughput, FlexConnect Multi-Branch Optimized, CleanAir RF Intelligence, aWIPS Wireless Security, AP SSO High Availability, AireOS Operating System, End-of-Sale Legacy CUWN Virtual Controller for Distributed Branch Wireless Networks
Note: VMWLC-K9 is thelegacy AireOS virtual WLC. The modern replacement virtual wireless controller SKU isC9800-CL-K9 (Catalyst 9800 Cloud Controller)running IOS-XE, supporting Wi‑Fi 6/6E, multi-hypervisor and public cloud deployments.
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