Cisco 9115

[ScottUK]

Hello

Have had a bunch of 9115AXI's come into a client. Gone through the Day 0 config of the first to enable and configure and the EWC.

Powers a load more up and one took on the Standby role. The others joined. I configured a WLAN Profile, Policy Profile and Policy Tag and applied the Tag to the others. When client came in next day most of them had unjoined and in fact could not be seen.

Looking at them, it looks like all of them have the EWC Image loaded out of the box. Is that right? I assumed that just meant it had the image, but not enabled. I'm wondering now if it means that it's enabled but not configured, so the rest are just joining each other which is why I can't see them.

Also when when takes on the standby role, does it automatically take on the EWC config from the Active and just leave it on standby or do I need to check it's pushed the whole config?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[balaji.bandi]

Only Controller AP should have EWC images. AP download the image from WLC.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/wireless/embedded-wireless-controller-catalyst-access-points/white-paper-c11-743398.html

what code running on the AP - check the latest code document :

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/ewc/17-6/config-guide/ewc_cg_17_6/image_download.html

Also when when takes on the standby role, does it automatically take on the EWC config from the Active and just leave it on standby or do I need to check it's pushed the whole config?

The config will be synched from Active EWC. when the standby become active you already have the config on Standby, nothing required to change.

[marce1000 · Accepted solution]

                - Review this documentation for obtaining insights :
       https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/wireless/embedded-wireless-controller-catalyst-access-points/white-paper-c11-743398.html

   - Use capwap mode only and or convert to capwap for APs never to intend to become part of VRRP failover.
     

 M.
      

[ScottUK]

Thanks I think this is the answer I assumed was was looking for.

Do you know why they would come with EWC downloaded out of the box? That seems a little odd as in most deployments most APs will be Capwap

[marce1000]

    >...Do you know why they would come with EWC downloaded out of the box?
         - Depends on the part number they where ordered with,.

 M.

[ScottUK]

Ahh that makes much more sense. I read a document that I thought it meant that Cisco were just shipping with EWC loaded. But I think you're saying we should have looked at the part numbers more carefully. We needed 32 AP's so we could have bought 32 with Capwap, and enabled two ourselves, or 2 with EWC preloaded, and then  30 Capwap

[ScottUK]

That's great thanks. I think I should have been clearer what I'm seeing is a lot of the subsequent AP's we're powering up have an Image Type of EWC on them already. That's what it's showing in the web console when I look at the AP's on boot up.

I read somewhere that a lot of the newer ones are coming with EWC Image loaded. I wasn't sure though if it just mean the image is on there ready for enabling. Or if I should remove the image and do an ap-type capwap on them.

So with them I think I need to change them to Capwap.

[Rich R]

They come with the EWC or CAPWAP image according to the SKU you ordered:
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/wireless/catalyst-9100ax-access-points/datasheet-c78-741988.html#Productspecifications

Part numbers

Cisco Catalyst 9115AXI Access Point: Indoor environments, with internal antennas ●  C9115AXI-x: Cisco Catalyst 9115 Series Cisco Catalyst 9115AXI Access Point: Indoor environments, with internal antennas, with embedded wireless controller ●  C9115AXI-EWC-x: Cisco Catalyst 9115 Series

[ScottUK]

Ahh that makes more sense. Thanks Rich I'll talk to our purchasing guy tell him that. I thought Cisco were putting EWS on all.

Thanks for clarifying 

[Rich R]

Agreed it's better to only use EWC on the APs you want to be controllers, the rest as CAPWAP.
A warning I frequently give on these threads - EWC capable APs have a bad habit of switching back to EWC, even after you have changed them to CAPWAP mode, if they cannot find a WLC when they try to join.  
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/wireless/catalyst-9120axi-access-point/217537-repairing-c9120-c9115-access-points-from.html can be used to completely erase all EWC software from the AP and installs 8.10.130.0 CAPWAP image. Then upgrade to 8.10.190.0 CAPWAP image then to the CAPWAP version you're using on EWC.