Hi  @am4c130d 

1. Is it possible to switch back and forth between the on-premises software controller and the Cloud Essentials controller without disturbing the gateways, switches and APs?

>>>No, Omada cloud Essentials doesn't have backup and restore function. And you will lose connection;

2. When I looked at it, it appears Essentials limits the WiFi configuration to a single SSID, is this correct? I currently have one SSID on 2.4 GHz and another on 5 GHz - too many devices have poor WiFi implementations and mistake signal strength with throughput or just get confused by the two bands.

>>> This is same as Omada on-premises software controller;

3. WiFi roaming continues to function identically to the on-premises controller?

>>> It supports fast roaming. But not identically. This is how the Essentials looks like:

4. The quick setup was really basic (I aborted just before I completed the config, so may have missed all the detail setup) - is there any other configuration that I cannot do in Essentials that I can with an on-premises controller?

>>>You can apply for an Essentials controller and go through the steps again. It's for free.

5. I will lose VPN except WireGuard the detailed app level statistics? But all other stats remain?

>>>Yes. all others will lose.

Anything else I should be aware of before switching?

>>> Not all SDN devices are compatible with Omada cloud Essentials. Before you switch to it, please make sure you have looked at this compatibility list:

Omada Devices Supported by Omada Cloud Essentials

  @Vincent-TP Thank you for the detailed response. Is the only difference on fast roaming that the non-sticky roaming is not available - I presume it's still standard 802.11k/v?

I'll duplicate my configuration and see.

Thanks for the info.

 @Vincent-TP it looks like I can provision my network nearly identically which is great. I have two things I would like confirmation/clarification on:

1. With regard to the ALG - there's no option to configure it in Essentials - so what happens to those protocols? Are they just passed transparently, blocked by the unconfigured ALG or the ALG works, but I cannot disable it for a given protocol? I have an ER7206V1.0 gateway and I need it to pass IPsec traffic initiated from the LAN to the WAN.

2. And confirming, no DHCP address reservation? Either I manually configure those IPs or they are assigned randomly from the DHCP pool?

There seems to be one extra feature? It appears that I can disable the SFP-WAN port on the ER7206?

Thanks

Alan