Aironet 1830 series lost its IP address after power loss

[smorinval]

Hello,

We had a power loss on our site - equipped with 6 * Aironet 1830 Mobility express Series.

The "master" Aironet lost power, so we had to reboot the whole 6 APs.

The method is as follows :

- first shut down the 5 "slave" APs

- verify that the "master" AP is on green LED (fixes or blinking does not seem really important, looks like it blinks if no client is connected, and then goes fix if a client connects)

- plug back the 5 "slaves"

So the master booted fine, then I booted the 5 slaves, and got ping only on 4 out of 5 slaves.

The last slave (so the problematic AP) is blinking alternatively red, yellow, green, and is shown as a "rogue" on the virtual controller (confirmed by the MAC address of the rogue, which is the same that the MAC connected on the SG200-08's port).

I'm almost sure this AP lost its IP address, and the network on which is it plugged does not have any DHCP server.

Is there a way, just with its MAC address, to "send back" a configuration on the AP without having to serial to it?

The AP is fixes at about 5m high, so if I can solve this by the network it would be better...

Thank you

[marce1000]

- Could you first check if the AP is in the correct vlan again. Also
check DHCP server logs and make sure a correct has been provided or a dhcp
request from the AP did arrive ?

M.

[smorinval]

Hello,

Just checked my SG200-08's config, the port where the AP is plugged is still configured with trunk, port 1 untagged and all our custom ports are tagged, so this point seems good.

I can't check the DHCP server's log because there is no DHCP server on the management VLAN... that's where I'm stuck

[Rich R]

This is why static IP addressing is not recommended <smile>
Best to always use DHCP.  To recover your AP without console you will have to configure a DHCP server to provide an IP address to the AP.  Without an IP address the AP won't be able to do anything.  Then as long as it's in the same VLAN as the ME WLC it will just join the ME controller as soon as it gets an IP.  At this point you could configure a static IP again if you wanted to risk it again.

You should also consider that the AP may have failed as 1832 have a higher than normal failure rate so if the AP needs to be RMA you'll need to be getting up there anyway...

Note that even when an AP is configured with a static IP, fallback to using DHCP is an automatic recovery mechanism the AP uses to discover a WLC if it cannot find one on the static IP.

[smorinval]

One point about DHCP server, but a static IP is a good way to always know which IP you AP has.

Unfortunately I don't have admin access on the DHCP server so I can't set it by myself, but I'll ask for this.

Your sentence about high failure rate and RMA is scarying me, do you know how I can ensure the AP is still working?

And, as we have only Aironet 1830 series for our wifi (and we can NOT do without wifi because of some wireless-only machines), if we must change the APs, could you please advise me about affordable but good quality APs?

Thank you

[marce1000]

                      >... could you please advise me about affordable but good quality APs?
             https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/wireless/access-point-controller-selector.html
     https://meraki.cisco.com/product-collateral/meraki-wireless-cloud-family-datasheet-managed-wireless-access-points/?file

 M.
 

[smorinval]

Thank you for the info, it will help me if we have to upgrade our wireless network.

I have one more question: I can not connect anymore on the web interface of the virtual controller (which is on one of the 5 working APs).

It responds to ping, I can connect via SSH, but I don't know where I should look to check if the web interface is correctly configured?

Thanks

[marce1000]

 - Check running config  and verify http related statements ,

 M.

[Rich R]

Well the 1832 is covered by limited lifetime warranty even if you don't have it on support contract:
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/wireless/aironet-1830-series-access-points/datasheet-c78-735582.html#Warrantyinformation
and the hardware is still supported:
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/wireless/aironet-1830-series-access-points/aironet-1830-series-access-points-eol.html
So for now you can still RMA any failed AP.

> do you know how I can ensure the AP is still working?
You'd need to get access to the AP console or SSH to check the complete logs.

[smorinval]

From what I found :

- secure web mode is on enable, so I have to connect via https,  not http

- Then, there is AP virtual IP : this point is worrying me : it shows 0.0.0.0, should'nt it be the virtual controller's IP, like 10.a.b.20 (not showing all my network topology for security reasons)?

Then I see Web auth secure Web : enable - sounds good to me because it would mean that it is related to https, am I right?

After that, I can see WebPortal Online Client : 0 - does this mean there is no limit to the number of online clients?

Then WebPortal NTF_LOGOUT Client : 0 - does this mean an open session on the web management won't expire?

Another point is worrying me : interface name virtual

IP Address 192.0.2.1 - I guess it should be 10.a.b.20, no?

I have a last question about those http-related statements : Web-Portal-Server is set to 0.0.0.0, does this relate to a web authentication portal for clients who would try to connect to my wireless network?

If so, it would be good for me because we don't have any portal.

Thank you for your answers and sorry for some maybe silly questions, I didn't configure an AP by SSH since a long time...