CAP to SAP conversion across continents

[Dean Romanelli]

Hi All,

I have two CAP 2602's in Africa that I need to convert to SAP due to a dead WLC.  I have connectivity to them in their present state via telnet to their command lines over VPN from the US. Problem is, all of the tutorials I've found that show you how to convert CAP to SAP involve being in rommon mode. If I do that though, I will lose connectivity to the AP from the US because the IP configurations are held in the running-conf of the CAP image.  Yes, I am aware I can use the set command in rommon and ether init but that doesn't help me to initially get to the AP remotely where I'd be in a position to set those commands.

Is there really no other way I can get the SAP .tar extracted and into flash from the existing image's prompt (i.e. not be in rommon), point the boot to the new image and then reload?  If not, that's a massive inconvenience and I will have to hire someone to go out there and run the procedure. 

[patoberli]

I sadly don't know of another way, I think because of not enough free space and files in use.
One way would be to add a DHCP server into the management vlan, where you'd provide the file via dhcp. Could even be a virtual machine inside that VLAN, but you'd need a console access to the AP to achieve this.
One alternative would be to get a Mobility Express based AP, configure it at your place and then send it there. The two other APs would then connect to the ME AP, unless you've hard-configured the other, dead, WLC. Then you'd probably need to reset the AP.
One other alternative, if you can build a CAPWAP tunnel from the remote site to your main site, you could attach them to your main WLC and run them in Flexconnect. Not recommended over such a latency, but might work.

[Dean Romanelli]

Thanks Pat, for those suggestions.  One thought; if it is indeed do to not having enough space, then theoretically I could delete the CAP image off of flash and then load the SAP image on before reboot, and then I'd have enough space, since the running config doesn't break until reload whether the image has been removed from flash or not?

[patoberli · Accepted solution]

I'm not sure if the APs work the same as the switches, where this indeed works.
I'm fairly sure though, that it will not work while the AP is running, because probably some files are "in use" and can't be removed/replaced.
But! I just found this here: https://www.speaknetworks.com/converting-cisco-wireless-access-point-lightweight-mode-autonomous-mode-vice-versa/
This person migrated from LW to Autonomous while the AP was running, so you might get lucky :)

[Dean Romanelli]

Thank you Pat.  Looks like it is going to work out.