Reboot 9800-CL without Rebooting Access Points

[sdsoderborg]

Dear Community,

We recently implemented a standalone IOSXE-based 9800-CL Virtual WLC. I found out the hard way that when rebooting the WLC rebooted LWAPS associated with the controller. Is it possible to reboot the WLC without rebooting AP's? I come with an extensive background working with AireOS WLC, where a reboot of the controller left the LWAPS unaffected during the reboot interval.

My specific scenario was updating smart licensing on the WLC required a reboot for licensing to be realized.

Thanks in advance for the help.

[Flavio Miranda]

Hi @sdsoderborg 

 The AP will be affected, both in AirOS or IOS-XE if they are in local mode. Reading you saying that it does not happen with AirOS I am considering that the AP might was in flexconnect mode.

 In flexconnect mode, the AP is not affected when the AP get disconnected from the WLC and it keep serving clients.

 So,  if your AP is in local mode, they will be affected. They will start looking for another WLC while the WLC is rebooting and they will reload as soon as they fail.

[sdsoderborg]

Hi @Flavio Miranda 

The AP's on the 9800-CL are in Flex mode.

Does the Flex Connect mode differ between AireOS and IOS-XE?

[Flavio Miranda]

@sdsoderborg  No. The concept of Flexconnect remains. The AP will survive in case it lose connection. 

[Leo Laohoo]

Stand up a secondary controller.  

Move the APs to the secondary controller. 

Reboot the primary controller. 

Move the APs back to the primary controller.

[Rich R]

Agree with @Flavio Miranda - flex APs should not reboot just because the WLC reboots.  They simply switch to standalone mode.
What version of software are you using?
What were you changing smart licensing from and to? (not that I think that should matter but I wonder ... it's not a common occurrence and quite likely something that Cisco hasn't tested well/at all)