SDN Platform - Not a fan
Is anyone else as much of a hater of the new SDN platform as I am?
I have a small SOHO network with a controller and two EAP245's. I planned to buy a third or fourth AP, but the change to SDN gives me pause. I have around 25 wirelessly connected devices on my network. I started with the controller running on my Raspberry Pi, but after a while I decided a dedicated device would be better for my network and so I purchased an OC200. The thing ran great.
But when new firmware for EAP245's and the OC200 came out, I upgraded my controller and AP's to the new SDN platform and went through the forced re-configuring of everything just to find that I did not like it. Despite backing up my config, I still had to set it up all over again. The new interface had nicer charts and graphs, but too much space was taken up with features I don't need and can't use, like managing TP-link switches and routers (I use an EdgeRouter 4 for my network). On the old platform, even though a previous update broke expectations on how a guest/client-isolated network should work, @R1D2 provided the necessary steps to fix it. If I remember correctly, this set up was even worse on the SDN platform.
After a few days, I reverted back to the old controller firmware, v1.2.3, and I've much happier. The interface is much simpler and easier to use, and very very stable. Unfortunately, this keeps my EAP245's stuck on older firmware as well. They've already removed the ability to connect to the controller locally with the mobile app. I'm worried that at some point I'll miss out on important security updates and features.
The last update to the previous platform was June 2020. Are there any plans to continue to update the previous platform?
Or, have those of you that updated to SDN learned to like it over time? If so, what features do you like over the previous platform?