What AP is that? (For Eddie)

So you've just had a contractor install 173 Access Points! Congrats! But, they haven't taken note of which one is where, nor did you create a table to show them which specific unit belongs in which location. Bummer dude! The problem with not knowing where each AP is is that you can't make finer adjustments of the system and troubleshooting location specific issues can be a nightmare.

There's an app for this problem... Well, maybe an API... 

Aruba Access Points have a function where each Access Point can advertise it's hostname in the beacon. It's still a manual job to go around and find each one with a survey tool or something like Wi-Fi Explorer, but it makes it easier than searching BSSIDs!

To enable this handy feature on an Instant AP (or cluster) you can use the Command Line Interface (CLI). 
Go to the specific WLAN context and use the "advertise-ap-name" command.

config
wlan ssid-profile <SSIDname>
advertise-ap-name
end
wr mem

If you're using Aruba Central then you can't adjust the AP config via CLI. So you can use the API! For this particular feature (as of the date this is published) there is no specifically targeted API. You can use the AP Configuration API called "Replace AP configuration". With this essentially you are replacing the entire CLI for the Group or Swarm within a group. You can retrieve the existing CLI using "Get AP configuration", make your adjustments to include "advertise-ap-name" in the appropriate locations (for one fo the SSID profiles in the configuration) and then push it back to the AP using "Replace AP configuration".

The specific use of the API is outside of the context of this blog post!
Now go find an installer who documents their work!