Cisco EWC

[Maurice Ball]

I have a customer that accidentally enabled EWC on one of his C9120 access points. The issue I am encountering is every time I reset the access point that is running the EWC. A new one takes its place. Is it a way to stop the EWC from starting up on a new access point?

[balaji.bandi]

Disable EWC and run CAPWAP :

Converting EWC Back To Lightweight CAPWAP Mode

If AP running in EWC mode needs to be converted back to lightweight capwap mode, it can be done via:

AP1#ap-type capwap
AP is the Master AP, system will need a reboot when ap type is changed to CAPWAP
. Do you want to proceed? (y/N) y

Important: This command will perform a complete factory reset of both AP and EWC partition. Make sure to backup existing EWC configuration before conversion.

A new one takes its place. Is it a way to stop the EWC from starting up on a new access point?

Can you post boot log here.,

[Maurice Ball]

Yes, but if I run this command on the master the secondary controller will then be promoted to master.

[balaji.bandi]

what controller ?

your original post - I have a customer that accidentally enabled EWC on one of his C9120 access points.

so you convert back EWC to Cap wap that is a command.

what are you looking please explain ?

[Maurice Ball]

Yes, but when you enable EWC on a group of C9120 access points it creates a primary EWC and a secondary EWC therefore when you take down the primary node the secondary is promoted to primary. I am trying to determine is it a way to stop that from happening.

[Arshad Safrulla]

I would suggest you to read my post here.

Airprovision Problem.

"In your case easiest option would be to wait until all the APs register in to one EWC then login to the new EWC WLC and go to Configuration>>Wireless>>Access Points

Select all the APs and click on convert to capwap. Or you can ssh to EWC and type (ap-type capwap)This will make sure that there are no EWC capable APs in your network (actually APs will not participate in EWC process) 

For other APs let it find the WLC via broadcast or you can use any other method like option 43 or DNS to advertise the WLC WMI."

[Scott Fella]

So your customer converted a 9120 to EWC for testing purposes or just for fun and connected it to the same subnet as the controller?  What vlans/subnets are the ap's on and also the controller (aireos or ios).  If you look at what has been posted and understand the design of EWC, you can actually put the EWC on its own vlan that has not option 43 or connectivity to the controller to isolate it and then convert it.  If you now have a bunch of ap's joined to the EWC, then move them to a different vlan and follow the steps that others have mentioned.  There are various ways you can go about it, from factory rest, ssh to the ap and delete the image, etc.  Hope this sort of helps.

[Maurice Ball]

They say it was by accident but long story short. The Embedded Wireless Controller (EWC) was enabled on one of the access points. Note: By default if you enable the EWC on an access point it will automatically create a secondary node if the access points in that VLAN support the EWC feature. The access points are in production so they can not just be move to another VLAN and most of them are connected to the Catalyst 9800 Wireless LAN Controller. Again the issue I am having is when I remove the current EWC access point another is promoted in its place.

[Scott Fella]

Well even if its in production, your environment is unhealthy if ap's are not functioning properly.  You need to identify the EWC ap's and make a decision on what you will do.  There is no other option you have.  If the EWC is on the same subnet as the 9800, the ap will always try to join a reachable controller first before it boots up as an EWC controller.  So if your environment now is being affected by the EWC and is affecting user experience, then you and the customer needs to make a decision.  That to me is break fix.

[Maurice Ball]

Ok, one more time. The only access point that is not in production is the one that is running the EWC. When I reset that access point. A new one takes its place. What I am trying to determine is it a command that I can run on the primary EWC that will stop failover?

[Scott Fella · Accepted solution]

The only way is to convert back to capwap like what others mentioned in their post.  You said your EWC is not in production, but it seems like its controlling other production ap's.  To me, a non production controller will not have any communications to production or at a minimum, ap's in production would not be able to join the non-production controller.  IF the EWC is in the same subnet as your other ap's, then I say its in production and you have to isolate the ap's in order to remediate the situation you are in.  You might not like that answer, but as you already know, another ap becomes the leader.

Open a TAC case and get their suggestion.

[Xavier115]

The Cisco Embedded Wireless Controller on Catalyst Access Points (EWC), is supported on the Cisco Catalyst 9100 series APs. The active AP election process determines which of the Cisco Catalyst 9100 series APs is elected to run the EWC controller function.

BusinsssPost

Acess points that support cisco EWC:

Access points supported as primary	Supported model numbers	Scale
Cisco Catalyst 9115AXI Access Point	C9115AXI-EWC-X	50 access points, 1000 clients
Cisco Catalyst 9115AXE Access Point	C9115AXE-EWC-X	50 access points, 1000 clients
Cisco Catalyst 9117AXI Access Point	C9117AXI-EWC-X	50 access points, 1000 clients
Cisco Catalyst 9120AXI Access Point	C9120AXI-EWC-X	100 access points, 2000 clients
Cisco Catalyst 9120AXE Access Point	C9120AXE-EWC-X	100 access points, 2000 clients
Cisco Catalyst 9120AXP Access Point	C9120AXP-EWC-X	100 access points, 2000 clients
Cisco Catalyst 9130AXI Access Point	C9130AXI-EWC-X	100 access points, 2000 clients
Cisco Catalyst 9130AXE Access Point	C9130AXE-EWC-X	100 access points, 2000 clients

[barrykaauamo]

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[Rich R]

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

Converting EWCs to CAPWAP using option 43

DHCP option 43 is a vendor-specific option and is used for providing WLC IP addresses to the access point. Using option 43 with a specific subtype option, you can have the EWC convert to CAPWAP and join a WLC appliance or virtual controller. After the AP receives DHCP option 43 and subtype 0xF2 at bootup, the AP type will be converted to CAPWAP, and the AP will follow the regular joining process.

The DHCP configuration on the switch is shown below.

Switch(dhcp-config)#option 43 hex F2056464645801

[Rich R · Accepted solution]

By the way that means not just one but all the APs are now EWC enabled.