2602E WAP Issue

[travislyles]

I have four 2602E WAP's that I can't get to connected to a local wireless controller.  I believe it may be an issue with the software between the two.  I currently have 5 WAP's in production and do not want to disrupt them.  Would it be a better option to downgrade the image on the access points and see if the local controller will recognize it?  I have a wireless controller offsite with upgraded software and it connects to that one fine.  The only issue is that I need these four to connect locally as a new install on a project.  Any ideas or suggestions would be welcomed and appreciated.  If downgrading the software is the way that I need to go if there is a procedure available to do that then please include a link.  Thanks for any help.  This is something I need to have resolved this week.

Thanks,

Travis

[Justin DeVaughn]

Hi Travis,

The required WLC software for 2602 APs to successfully join is 7.3+ so you may want to make sure the WLC you're trying to connect to is at least that high on it's code version.  Otherwise, console into the ap and issue the command "capwap ap ip controller (ip address) (subnet mask)" to ensure it has the WLC IP address that you want it to connect to.

After that if it doesn't work look at the Monitor, Statistics, AP Join page in the WLC GUI and see if your new APs are showing up.  If so, click on them and scroll to the bottom and let us know the reason statement for why they aren't joining.

Regards,

Justin

[travislyles]

Justin,

Thanks for the reply.  I tried running the command but it was unsuccessful.  The bad character showed up under the controller part of the command.  I went to the screen in the WLC and can see the AP under the AP Join page but it has the right ip address but the wrong Base MAC and wrong hostname.  The unsuccessful message to join was that "Layer 3 discovery request not received on management VLAN".  I appreciate the response.  Any help is appreciated.  I'll keep plugging away in the meantime.

Thanks,

Travis

[Justin DeVaughn]

Sorry Travis,

Try this CLI command "capwap ap controller ip address (ip address) (subnet mask)"

I recalled the command incorrectly.  I do apologize!

Also, you might want to make sure you have connectivity to the management interface of the WLC as well as the AP Manager interface.  They are usually one and the same but if you have them as two distinct interfaces in the WLC then you may have the AP setup to have access to one but not the other...and thus you're getting the message that the WLC isn't receiving the CAPWAP join requests on the right vlan (Controller --> Interfaces --> Vlan field).

When you're CLI'd into the AP...try to ping the management interface and/or AP Manager interface of the WLC.  If you don't get a reply then there's something wrong with your switching/routing from the AP back to your WLC.

Regards,

Justin

[travislyles]

Justin,

Thanks for the help you suggested.  I learned through this that I had to go to an intermediate step of upgrading the controller software before the AP's would be seen properly.  Once the intermediate software was put on the controller I could go to the version that I originally selected.  For example, the upgrade was from 6.0 to 7.0, then from 7.0 to 7.4.  Anyway, I was able to do this through the GUI and everything went fine.  All of the existing AP's are working and the four new AP's that will be installed for this project are setup and ready to go.  Again, thanks for all the help.  It was greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Travis

[Justin DeVaughn]

Travis,

Outstanding news!  Did you upgrade the FUS code to the correlating version as well?  It's important to remember FUS (firmware) can be specific to both the controller hardware model (i.e. 5500, 5750, 2500 etc...) and the version of code you are running like 7.4 in your example.

You can check the release notes of 7.4 to discover what FUS you should be on and then check out what your upgrade path is in case there are any intermediate steps on the FUS release notes.

To discover what FUS you are on it looks something like this:

(controller)>show sysinfo

[ ... ]

Firmware Version................................. FPGA 1.3, Env 1.6, USB console 1.27

This indicates that the FPGA version is 1.3 (which is less than 1.7), so the FUS upgrade must be performed.

Just a reminder, please mark any helpful or correct answers as you see fit.  Good luck in your future endeavors.