MAC Flapping between WLC and flexconnect AP

[saifeddinehakim]

Hello,

We are facing a MAC flapping issue between WLC 2504 version 8.2.151.0 and flexconnect APs

The logs in the access switch connected to APs:

*May 4 21:59:16.369: %SW_MATM-4-MACFLAP_NOTIF: Host e094.6778.7b34 in vlan 255 is flapping between port Fa0/13 and port Gi0/1
*May 4 21:59:53.162: %SW_MATM-4-MACFLAP_NOTIF: Host e094.6778.7b34 in vlan 255 is flapping between port Fa0/13 and port Gi0/1
*May 4 22:00:11.440: %SW_MATM-4-MACFLAP_NOTIF: Host e094.6778.7b34 in vlan 255 is flapping between port Fa0/13 and port Gi0/1
*May 4 22:00:12.682: %SW_MATM-4-MACFLAP_NOTIF: Host e094.6778.7b34 in vlan 255 is flapping between port Gi0/1 and port Fa0/13
*May 4 22:01:00.992: %SW_MATM-4-MACFLAP_NOTIF: Host e094.6778.7b34 in vlan 255 is flapping between port Fa0/13 and port Gi0/1
*May 4 22:01:19.581: %SW_MATM-4-MACFLAP_NOTIF: Host e094.6778.7b34 in vlan 255 is flapping between port Fa0/13 and port Gi0/1
*May 4 22:02:09.460: %SW_MATM-4-MACFLAP_NOTIF: Host e094.6778.7b34 in vlan 255 is flapping between port Gi0/1 and port Fa0/13
*May 4 22:02:33.258: %SW_MATM-4-MACFLAP_NOTIF: Host e094.6778.7b34 in vlan 255 is flapping between port Gi0/1 and port Fa0/13
*May 4 22:02:45.799: %SW_MATM-4-MACFLAP_NOTIF: Host e094.6778.7b34 in vlan 255 is flapping between port Fa0/13 and port Gi0/1
*May 4 22:03:07.182: %SW_MATM-4-MACFLAP_NOTIF: Host e094.6778.7b34 in vlan 255 is flapping between port Fa0/13 and port Gi0/1
*May 4 22:03:37.364: %SW_MATM-4-MACFLAP_NOTIF: Host e094.6778.7b34 in vlan 255 is flapping between port Fa0/13 and port Gi0/1
*May 4 22:03:50.962: %SW_MATM-4-MACFLAP_NOTIF: Host e094.6778.7b34 in vlan 255 is flapping between port Fa0/13 and port Gi0/1
*May 4 22:05:26.810: %SW_MATM-4-MACFLAP_NOTIF: Host e094.6778.7b34 in vlan 255 is flapping between port Gi0/1 and port Fa0/13
*May 4 22:05:33.152: %SW_MATM-4-MACFLAP_NOTIF: Host e094.6778.7b34 in vlan 255 is flapping between port Gi0/1 and port Fa0/13
*May 4 22:06:35.790: %SW_MATM-4-MACFLAP_NOTIF: Host e094.6778.7b34 in vlan 255 is flapping between port Fa0/13 and port Gi0/1
*May 4 22:06:51.460: %SW_MATM-4-MACFLAP_NOTIF: Host e094.6778.7b34 in vlan 255 is flapping between port Fa0/13 and port Gi0/1
*May 4 22:07:10.468: %SW_MATM-4-MACFLAP_NOTIF: Host e094.6778.7b34 in vlan 255 is flapping between port Fa0/13 and port Gi0/1
*May 4 22:08:30.437: %SW_MATM-4-MACFLAP_NOTIF: Host e094.6778.7b34 in vlan 255 is flapping between port Gi0/1 and port Fa0/13

The port Fa0/13 is connected to an AP and Gi0/1 is the uplink of the switch

The logs in the switch connected to the WLC:

000285: *May 4 01:42:40: %SW_MATM-CLUSTER_MEMBER_4-4-MACFLAP_NOTIF: Host 4cbb.585d.3c6b in vlan 255 is flapping between port Gi0/21 and port Gi0/24
000286: *May 4 01:43:33: %SW_MATM-CLUSTER_MEMBER_4-4-MACFLAP_NOTIF: Host 4cbb.585d.3c6b in vlan 255 is flapping between port Gi0/24 and port Gi0/21
000287: *May 4 01:56:59: %SW_MATM-CLUSTER_MEMBER_4-4-MACFLAP_NOTIF: Host 3894.96ed.b776 in vlan 255 is flapping between port Gi0/24 and port Gi0/21
000288: *May 4 21:06:06: %SW_MATM-CLUSTER_MEMBER_4-4-MACFLAP_NOTIF: Host e094.6778.7b34 in vlan 255 is flapping between port Gi0/24 and port Gi0/21
000289: *May 4 21:33:41: %SW_MATM-CLUSTER_MEMBER_4-4-MACFLAP_NOTIF: Host e094.6778.7b34 in vlan 255 is flapping between port Gi0/24 and port Gi0/21

The port Gi0/21 is connected to the WLC and Gi0/24 is the uplink of the switch

Any ideas how to resolve this problem? Thanks

[Spooster IT Services]

Hi saifeddinehakim,

Vlan 255 is used for management or Wireless client traffic?

Is your AP configured for local authentcation?

[saifeddinehakim]

Hi Spooster

Vlan 255 is used for Wireless client traffic and the AP is configured for local authentication

Here is the mapping of VLANs in the AP

And this is the configuration of the WLAN 

[Spooster IT Services]

I see the Mac flapping alerts are only for Vlan 255 and there are total four ssid's configured with different vlans.

Are the other SSID's also in use?

Are the other SSID's also set for flexconnect local switching?

Did you enable the flex connect at AP level too?

[saifeddinehakim]

Are the other SSID's also in use?

Only G-AIR (with dynamic VLAN attribution) and G-HOST (for guest users)

Are the other SSID's also set for flexconnect local switching?

yes, all of its

Did you enable the flex connect at AP level too?

yes, it is enabled and every SSID is mapped to a VLAN

[Kundan Prasad]

Hey Saifeddinehakim

Your AP is in flexconnect mode, and it uses local switching which means traffic does not come to WLC, try changing AP mode into local, but as i see you have many ssid's running with different VLANs meaning you want all ssid to work with this AP, you should select flexconnect when your AP is located not in your network, like in branch offices or in other location. In that case you can map vlan as per the switchport.

In your case AP and WLC is located in same place because of which you have looping/MAC Flapping (when you receive packets from two different interfaces with the same source MAC address), the solution would be either you change the AP in local mode, create AP group and place that AP in the group and select the SSIDs whichever you would like to broadcast.

Create interfaces for each SSID as per the required VLAN and map it with the SSID.

or the simplest solution would be to change the inheritance to AP-SPECIFIC and change the VLAN, create different VLAN for your SSID, assign it to switchport...if you want AP to be in flexconnect mode...!!

[saifeddinehakim]

Hey Kundan,

In fact, it was working without any problem in local mode. But we change it to flexconnect to protect the network from being down when the controller is down.

The problem is happening only in the WLAN "G-HOST" which is for guests.

We don't have any problem in the WLAN "G-AIR" for example which uses local switching too with Vlan based Central Switching for dynamic VLAN attribution.

Create interfaces for each SSID as per the required VLAN and map it with the SSID.

We already did it

the WLAN "G-AIR" is mapped to management interface and the  WLAN "G-HOST" is mapped to guest interface

the management interface is associated to VLAN 4

and the guest interface is associated to VLAN 255

[Kundan Prasad]

Hey Saifeddinehakim

Your AP is in flexconnect mode, and it uses local switching which means traffic does not come to WLC, try changing AP mode into local, but as i see you have many ssid's running with different VLANs meaning you want all ssid to work with this AP, you should select flexconnect when your AP is located not in your network, like in branch offices or in other location. In that case you can map vlan as per the switchport.

In your case AP and WLC is located in same place because of which you have looping/MAC Flapping (when you receive packets from two different interfaces with the same source MAC address), the solution would be either you change the AP in local mode, create AP group and place that AP in the group and select the SSIDs whichever you would like to broadcast.

Create interfaces for each SSID as per the required VLAN and map it with the SSID.

or the simplest solution would be to change the inheritance to AP-SPECIFIC and change the VLAN, create different VLAN for your SSID, assign it to switchport...if you want AP to be in flexconnect mode...!!

[lavance.davis]

You ever get this resolved? I having the same problem with my flexconnected AP's