Upload WLC firmware to a PC

[Rafael Santos]

Hello,

I have two WLC model AIR-CT7510-K9 and am in the process of replacing the APs in the company.

In WLC 1 are the current APs in the process of replacement and in WLC 2 are the new APs that we are replacing by the legacies.

In WLC 2, I uploaded version 8.3.143.0.

The problem I'm having is that one of the new APs is only joining WLC 1, which has the old radios.

I already connected to the AP via SSH and forced the association for WLC 2, but this does not happen. I used the command below for this procedure:

capwap ap primary-base cisco-capwap-controller <ip controller>

My idea is to load the 8.3.143.0 image of WLC 2 into the new AP that was mistakenly associated with WLC 1 and in this way force it to associate with WLC 2.

I am not finding the image file of version 8.3.143.0 that is in WLC 2. Is there any way to upload the image from the controller to the PC? If so, how can I do this?

Thanks!

[Scott Fella]

The AP will only take an image from the WLC it is joined to. Ideally you want to have both controllers on the same version just in case AP’s bounce to the other. 8.3 isn’t a good code train and you should look at 8.5.140.0 as long as you aps support that version.

If you have aps already joined to WLC2 from other sites then make sure that there is nothing blocking the connection from the AP to WLC2. Make sure you have enough licensing also on both.

Since you set the high availability, it seems like there is something blocking between the where the AP is located and where the controller is located. Try moving another AP from that same site to WLC2.

[Rafael Santos]

Hello Scott,

Thanks for the tip.

Another issue I noticed is that through the controller, I configured the user and password to connect to the Access Point via ssh and until I can connect, but I can not go into configuration mode, only privileged. When I try to connect in configuration mode the message below appears, do you have any idea what I should do to enter the configuration mode of this access point via ssh?

% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.

The AP is model AIR-CAP1532E-Z-K9.

Thank you!

[Scott Fella]

Since the AP is “CAP”, that requires a controller to manage it. You will need to convert the AP to autonomous to make it as a stand-alone unit. Try this command:

capwap ap autonomous

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/technotes/7-6/b_1532_dg/b_1532_dg_chapter_01.html#topic_1FC68C80CCC3413F9E949F709FC8C34F

[Rafael Santos]

I am without console access to the device. Is it possible to do the conversion to standalone via ssh?

[Rafael Santos]

Or even through the controller?

[Scott Fella]

Read through the guide I shared. From what I know, console is the easiest or else you will need to download and image and upload that to the AP. You would need a support contract to have access to the image.

If the AP has already joined a WLC, you need to convert the image using the following command from the AP console:
AP#archive download-sw /force-reload /overwrite tftp:/// AP#archieve download-sw /force-reload /overwrite tftp://10.0.0.5/ap1g3-k9w7-tar
Note that the k9w7 denotes the autonomous image. The autonomous image can be found at cisco.com.

[Haydn Andrews]

if your just trying to get into config mode to issue a command to set the primary/ secondary controller then you can use:

debug capwap console cli

capwap ap {primary-base | secondary-base | tertiary-base} controller-name controller-ip-address

But if your looking to do further like configure radios, SSIDs etc then you need to convert to autonomous mode