Trying to Join an AIR-CAP2602i-A-K9 to WLC2504

[haggittmark@tm-america.com]

I have a new (?) AIR-CAP2602i-A-K9 access point.  I am trying to get it to connect to a Wireless LAN Controller (WLC2504).

It is not discoverer, and in the access point console, it gives the message, “%CAPWAP-3-DHCP_RENEW: Could not discover WLC using DHCP IP. Renewing DHCP IP.  Not in Bound state. “

I have tried to plug it into my laptop and enter a series of default IP addresses to get to the web console with no luck.

I have reset it a couple of times.

I have tried using archive download-sw /force-reload /overwrite tftp://192.168.130.106/ap3g2-k9w8-tar.153-3.JF12.tar to load a new image.

I have tried setting a static IP and entering the IP of the controller without luck.

The image on it is AP3G2-RCVK9W8-M.  I want it to eventually have image ap3g2-k9w8-tar.153-3.JF12.tar, like the other access points on my controller.

I have read several articles and have tried many suggestions.  I am at a loss as to how to utilize this AP.

[Leo Laohoo]

Is DHCP Option 43 enabled?

[haggittmark@tm-america.com]

Where is option 43 enabled?  In the controller?  What area would I find it in?  I have 15 other access points that connected okay.

[Jay Vivas]

DHCP option 43 would be enabled on the DHCP server. It is used to tell the APs the IP address of the WLC. Leo asked about it because the message you put there is referring to this. It only means that it could not discover the WLC's IP address through DHCP.

How do you expect the AP to know the IP address of the WLC? You said you set this up manually on the AP right? Did you use the command "capwap ap primary-base <wlc name> <wlc ip address>"? This command would tell the AP the name and IP address of the WLC but it is important that the name matches what is configured on the WLC.

As for the image, don't worry about this now. The WLC houses all the AP images. Once the AP joins the WLC it will see that the image it has doesn't match what the WLC has and it will pull the correct image from the WLC.

To find out why the AP is not joining you should debug capwap on the AP with the debugs listed below and pull the join statistics from the WLC.

From the AP:

debug capwap client event

debug capwap client error

!!Let these run for 5 minutes and make sure to log the output to a text file!!

"undebug all" to stop the debugs

On the WLC CLI:

show ap join stats detailed <AP mac address>

!! If you are unsure about the AP's mac address use the command below to find it based on the ip address!!

show ap join stats summary all

[haggittmark@tm-america.com · Accepted solution]

It was on the wrong VLAN after all, it has now joined controller. Thanks!