Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controller AP Join Problem

[alex0001]

Hello,

I am trying to get a AIR-AP1542I-E-K9 working with a Catalyst 9800-L controller. I have no previous experience with a wireless controller, only having worked with Cisco routers and switches before. 

I cannot get the ap to even pop up on the GUI dashboard of the controller or provision it

They can ping each other, the ap has the correct default Primary Controller name and IP address of the controller. The ap sends CAPWAP discovery requests to the right IP but doesn't seem to get anything back.

I have set device authentication, ap policy and attribute list name to what I think is right. Added the MAC address and SN to the controller.

I haven't done anything with licenses if that might be it? I am very clearly missing something and searching online produces very unclear results as I don't know what I should be searching for. 

I'm happy to provide more info on the situation. Any direction on what I should try would be greatly appreciated.

[Rich R]

Edited - I mistakenly posted links to 9800-CL guides instead of 9800-L mentioned although David saying he actually has 9800-40!  Always be specific about what hardware and software versions you are working with folks.

[Scott Fella]

This might be a stupid question, but you do have other ap's joined to that controller?  This isn't a new setup/install?  That is also an outdoor AP, so you need to add the ethernet mac address to the controller.

Configure Mesh on Catalyst 9800 Wireless LAN Controllers - Cisco

[David Ritter]

ooh..  Tks Scott,  I overlooked the 'outdoor' aspect of this issue, and I have one to pickup from the warehouse and configure today..  I guess I won't forget to enter the MAC..  We only have one 1532 deployed out of 900 plus normal devices.. 

[Scott Fella]

That’s our problem…. We are so use to things… I would of just plugged in the ap and then after a few hours figured out my mistake:)

[alex0001]

No other AP's joined. This is a new setup/install. I've got the mac address of the access point added to the controller for authentication. Not sure about a specific ethernet mac address though.

[Scott Fella]

Here is what you need to successfully join that ap to your controller.

1. NTP
2. Country Code matches the AP model
3. Wireless Management interface defined.
4. Place AP on the same subnet as the controller wireless management interface (makes the join easy and you can move it later)

[alex0001]

Alright, thanks. I'll work through that list and double check everything. I really appreciate the quick responses. 

[Scott Fella]

The hard part is that its a new install.  If you had a few ap's connected, then that eliminates other variables, but since there are no other ap's, you have to start isolating issues at the beginning.  Output from the console can help also.

[alex0001]

Yeah, I just finished configuring NTP so that's all working now. Got it set up to use time.windows.com as a Peer and made the WMI a authoritative NTP server. It's synced and appears to be working but still no APs appear on the dashboard or anywhere else. 

Country code is Europe as you said, I'm in the UK so that's fine. WMI is defined and on the same subnet as the AP. They can ping each other, the AP sends out CAPWAP discovery requests to the right AP address but does not receive anything. 

I haven't done anything with licensing. I've looked at the AP Join policy and AAA policies but they don't seem to have affected anything. I've added the MAC address and serial number of the AP to the controller. 

I'm on Gib 16.12.4a software version.

Is there anything else I can provide you with to help you better understand my situation? 

Thanks.

[Rich R]

Packet captures and debugs is what you need ...

And why start with such an old IOS - at least 17.3 latest or I'd recommend 17.6 latest.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/wireless/catalyst-9800-series-wireless-controllers/214749-tac-recommended-ios-xe-builds-for-wirele.html?referring_site=RE&pos=1&page=https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/wireless/wireless-lan-controlle...