LWAPP Discovery request - discarded ?

[marcusl]

Greetings all,

I'm starting to grow a huge headache over a WLC-implementation (4402-12). From my point of view, the controller seems to be configured correctly and the DHCP-scope has been set up with the correct pointers as well as as the DNS-record, all pointing towards the AP-Manager i/f (tagged vlan20 on port 1, mgmt untagged) - still, no access-points will associate. The AP is pingable from the controller. A debug of lwapp events and details shows the following;

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Sat Jan 7 19:36:17 2006: Received a message from AP of length 97 on inteface = 1

Sat Jan 7 19:36:17 2006: Entered spamGetLCBFromMac file spam_lrad.c line 433**

Sat Jan 7 19:36:17 2006: Received LWAPP DISCOVERY REQUEST from AP 00:0b:85:5a:bd:50 to ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff on port '1'

Sat Jan 7 19:36:17 2006: Discarding L3 Mode LWAPP DISCOVERY REQUEST on intf '1', vlan = '20', Management vlan = '0'.

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Anyone with a clue regarding what might be causing this? I'm also a little confused regarding the destaddr (bcast) since the AP should've received the ucast address of the controller. We have to handover this system to the cust. fairly soon .. 🙂

WLC Version: 3.2.78.0

TIA & Best regards,

/M

[laaustin]

Let me throw in something here... I just finished wrestling with a problem that looks similar to this one... And the answer to my problem... get one of the APs primed, then use OTAP. As it turns out, I possess a bunch of AP1000s containing pre-3.0 firmware... thus DNS controller discovery cannot be done. If your controller sits on a different VLAN, then the only recourse for the older AP firmware - get it up >= 3.0 or use dhcp option 43. If you get one AP up, then enable OTAP on the controller to allow that AP to get the others up.

Even the poor guys at TAC didn't realize the impact of the older firmware with respect to DNS lookup... It only took a few weeks for me to get going (I've got about 90 APs in-place and another few hundred to go!)

[laaustin]

Actually, if you can get the initial AP firmware updated to support DNS discovery, then you shouldn't need option 43 - so two methods exist if your controller management interface sits on different VLAN from the APs...

[bhbachman]

Yes on the newer Cisco 1010 and 1131 APs the DNS lookup is great you don't have to set the DHCP option on the DHCP scope for the AP's VLAN. It doesn't however seem to work on the Nortel Branded 2230 APs. DHCP 43 or OTAD seem to be the only option for those APs.

Although I am in the middle of an Interesting case where APs wouldn't attach to their Primary controller as specified in their config. They would only attach to their secondary or any other that would answer. Cisco's answer was to enable DHCP Option 43, and that it is required to get the APs to associate to a specific controller each time they boot.

This is bogus and I am trying to get the TAC guy to come forward with correct info.

I use the Option 43 just for initial installation and then remove it once the APs are up. Then they actually do associate to the correct Primary once they are configured.

[laaustin]

The Nortel gear lacks the correct firmware level to support DNS lookup... Now whether these APs can interoperate with the Cisco-branded code is another question...The AP support for the full set of discovery options is my point...

[bhbachman]

We have upgraded about 100 of the Nortel branded 2230 APs and have not had any major problems. I have been told the 1131AG will be the preferred AP to use with the system in the future as it has more memory to handle new features in the code.

We have the 2230 APs associate to both the 4136 and 4404 switches with no problems. They don't seem to support the DNS lookup because of the boot firmware version.