EWA causing access points to join instead of the vWLC

[absuizo14]

Greetings,

we are implementing a wireless project using 9800 wlc but because of Cisco's ridiculously long delivery times we used one of our APs as a EWC. now that we have a vWLC we associated the APs to the vWLC but the EWC is causing problems. some of the APs are joining it instead of the vWLC. we tried removing it from the network but the other APs gets elected as the master even though we configured the AP with "capwap primary-base.." its like a virus that jumps from AP to AP and causing random wifi downtime.

Regards.

[marce1000]

 - In general  2 controllers on the same (broadcasting)-subnet ,albeit EWC involved or not  , will give problems. Even if you used that capwap primary-base command.  Try to phase the project in such a way , that you can get rid of EWC completely when using 9800-solutions.

 M.

[Flavio Miranda]

1 Connect to the Console Port, Telnet or SSH to the AP.
2 Login to the Mobility Express controller console.
3 In the Mobility Express controller console, use the command apciscoshell to connect to the AP console.
4 Login to the AP console using the username Cisco and password Cisco. Both are case-sensitive.
5 Enter enable.
6 Enter the command ap-type capwap, and confirm

config ap unifiedmode
switch_name
switch_IP_address

[Rich R]

Simultaneous use of ME and WLC is not supported.

So as per @Flavio Miranda instructions you must convert every ME AP to CAPWAP mode.

[Karsten Iwen · Accepted solution]

You can easily get out of this situation. Log in to the actual EWC, go to Configuration -> Wireless -> Access-points and at the bottom you find the "Migrate Network" option. Specify your new vWLC and the system will move over to the new WLC.

[absuizo14]

Yes i actually did this and it worked when I did this to the current EWC that ap will no longer become and EWC, the problem is that i have to do it one by one as an AP become an EWC. currently there are a few APs in this subnet so it was not an issue but what if we had hundreds of APs. 

[Rich R]

You can convert them all at once from the ME controller CLI:

To convert multiple access points running Mobility Express image to CAPWAP simultaneously from the Mobility Express controller CLI, execute the following command:

(Cisco Controller) > config ap unifiedmode <switch_name> <switch_ip_address>

From https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/access_point/mob_exp/810/user_guide/b_ME_User_Guide_810/appendix.html#topic_A575EE4B2A054DE5BAF1931A7D384DB5