AP3800 Mobility Express - agonisingly slow boot time

[Matthew Millman]

I've recently replaced a number of Aironet 1250's (which ran in Autonomous mode) with 3800's now running Mobility express

In this setup the access points aren't frequently used and are only powered on when needed (by PoE injector).

The first thing I've noticed is these seem to take significantly longer to boot than what they are replacing.

On the console I see this:

[*05/11/2019 06:47:14.1845] DOT11_CFG[0] Radio Mode is changed from FlexConnect to FlexConnect
[*05/11/2019 06:47:14.1849] DOT11_CFG[1] Radio Mode is changed from FlexConnect to FlexConnect
[*05/11/2019 06:47:14.2059] AP IPv4 Address updated from 0.0.0.0 to 192.168.0.159

several minutes delay - then eventually the WLC starts up and it comes to life

[*05/11/2019 06:49:55.6689] chatter: tohost_virtual :: ToHost: device 'virtual' went down
[*05/11/2019 06:49:55.7089] chatter: tohost_vlan0 :: ToHost: device 'vlan0' went down
[*05/11/2019 06:49:55.7697] chatter: tohost_vlan1 :: ToHost: device 'vlan1' went down

From what I've read this is the "FlexConnect" feature, which first tries to associate the AP to a controller, times out, then starts the local WLC

If this is the case, is this mandatory? If not, how can I cut this apparently unnecessary delay from the boot time?

[Some_Guy]

@Matthew Millman wrote:

I guess I got lucky with the AP1250's (and perhaps I shouldn't even be upgrading them) - obscure requirements which they happened to meet.

Heh, I just had to reboot some 1131 APs that had been up for several hundred days. Compared to what I've gotten used to with more modern APs, it felt like the reboot was practically instant. Now I get where you're coming from! :-)

[wdawes]

We have found that any Mobility Express AP takes several minutes to boot. It is informative to login to the Console port and what the syslog messages. In our case we are wanting to create a standalone AP to be used for "AP on a stick" (APoAS) wireless surveys. In the past, autonomous AP OS was available, and these APs would boot in two minutes or less. In Mobility Express mode, for both the model 2802i (our primary AP in campus spaces), and the 1815M (used in dorms) ... the boot up time of the standalone APoAS would have the following syslog for 3 minutes:

"Waiting for preferred uplink IP configuration", and the AP LED light is blinking red.

Since I have the AP on the DATA OUT port of a AIR-PWR-INJ6 power injector, if I connect a laptop to the DATA IN port of the injector, then the AP sees a "network", stops sending the "Waiting for preferred uplink IP configuration" messages, LED light stops being RED, and ... I shave off one whole minute of boot time. Not much improvement over the several minute boot time. Obviously we will need to do something about power (such as a portable "brick") to our APoAS setup, so that the our survey AP stays powered up. Still, the length of boot up time for Mobility Express mode is less than desirable.