9800L WLC - Configuration on Ge0 Interface

[RGilbert]

Addendum, not configured by me:)  I have my management interface that shows this below.

GigabitEthernet0 unassigned YES TFTP down down, which the operational status is obviously down.

The TFTP piece of this, need it to be DHCP.  Is this something that can be configured in cli (I can't seem to locate that config) or is something I can only change when configuring for the first time/Day0 config?  Thanks for any help. 

[ammahend]

see “Gigabit Ethernet Management Interface Overview” section

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/9800/9800-40/installation-guide/b-wlc-ig-9800-40/power-up-and-initial-configuration.html

[RGilbert]

This is actually not a very helpful document.  This goes into all the physical portions of 9800.  Going to keep looking.

[RGilbert]

Thank you for this doc, reviewing momentarily!  Super fast on this and I appreciate that!

[ammahend]

you are welcome that’s why I asked you to look at specific section  

[Arshad Safrulla · Accepted solution]

TFTP means configuration for that interface came from the configuration file provided by the TFTP server. If you assign an IP manually it will change to manual and then if you save and restart it will show NVRAM. If you add ip address dhcp under the interface it will show you DHCP.

Now regarding GE0, this is the out of band management port (similar to service port in AireOS WLC's). With the new 9800 platforms IOS-XE became the preferred IOS, so to maintain complete out of band connectivity GE0 resides in it's own VRF called "Mgmt-intf". If you need to get it working I would suggest you do the below.

!

ip route vrf Mgmt-intf 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 dhcp 

!

interface GigabitEthernet0
vrf forwarding Mgmt-intf
ip address dhcp

no shutdown
negotiation auto

!

Services (means NTP, TACACS, Radius etc.) available via this interface changes from IOS to IOS, So I recommend you read the release notes of the IOS-XE code you are running to get more clarity.

[Rich R · Accepted solution]

To add further explanation to @Arshad Safrulla's reply - the Mgmt-intf VRF was not fully supported by services in earlier versions of IOS-XE for 9800.  The very latest releases have all the basics working now but you'll need to check for any specific things you want to use in that VRF to make sure they're supported.  As Arshad said - refer to the release notes (new features and resolved caveats) to confirm which versions added the management VRF support.