Where is individual access point config saved ?

[Khoa Pham]

I have 50 WAP connected to a WLC 5508. When I backup the config I don't see the custom settings I put in some WAP. Where are the WAP settings saved at ?

[Leo Laohoo]

But Leo: taking the bacukp of the WLC does not include backup for the APs. Does it?

You've got a point and you are right.  However, where did the WAP get the config?  From the WLC, right?  Now if you can't take a backup copy of the config from the WAP, you might as well get a backup copy of the config from the WLC.

The good part about this is that instead of having copies of config from ALL the WAPs, you only have a copy of all the WLC.

Now, note that the config of the LWAP is taken from the WLC.  It may not be in the same syntax as an autonomous because the WLC "massages" the config and pushes the config to the WAP.

[Scott Fella]

Well if you have FlexConnect and your APs failover to another wlc that either doesn't have WLAN(s) defined or AP Group(s) defined, you loose your vlan mappings. Now this isn't a bug, but it's due to getting the configuration from the other wlc. The hostname and power should be kept, but you know there are instances that an ap can all of a sudden show up with the default name, default location, and back to dhcp. I have had this happen in the past, but having good documentation helps identifying the ap and putting the configuration back.

I use the CLI for a lot of the config and what I have in a spreadsheet is all the ap configurations CLI commands. That is my backup.

Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPhone App

[Stephen Rodriguez]

just to weigh in on this

The AP stores it's own config, granted in local mode all it really needs is the name/ip address of the WLC in the mobility group.  If you set static IP, Channel, Power, this is also stored.  The file system on the CAPWAP AP is protected, so that you can't get in and alter it.  ALl changes are made via the WLC.

As for backing it up, there really is no need, as you can't restore it anyway.  If you backup the WLC, that is enough.  If you have to replace the WLC, reload the config, and all should be good.

As for FlexConnect, yes it does store it as well, and yes you lose your mappings if the WLC it joins does not have the same WLAN in the same order. 

HTH,
Steve

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[Naveen Kumar]

The config of the WAP is stored in NVRAM.

[tranminhc]

Hi,

I have to config SNMP to manage each APs. But whenver AP reboot or power cut off, I lost SNMP configuration.

My question is how to keep some same configuration patterns to all AP on WLC?

Thanks you!

[Rasika Nayanajith]

Hi tranminhc

If your APs are managed by a WLC, then WLC is the one who pushes config to each AP, so you do not want to manage configuration in each individual APs.

Whatever local configuration you do on a lightweight AP will not save on NVRAM, so if AP reboots all local configuration you have done will be lost.

Only WLC could make permenenant config changes on a LAP

HTH

Rasika

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[tranminhc]

Ok I got it. So now, I want to push some SNMP configurations to APs. How to do that job in Wireless Controller?

Thanks

[Rasika Nayanajith]

What are the configuration you want to push for these APs ?

Normally you should not push any configs to WLC managed APs unless it is part of configuraton you done on WLC.

If you want to get specific AP related trap information then you can do that via WLC GUI (Management -> SNMP -> Trap Control -> AP)

HTH

Rasika

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[tranminhc]

Hi,

We have Solarwind as a NMS. Solarwind can monitor deeply WLC and basicly WLC's AP. I can get alert from Solarwind, when WLC go down, but APs doesn't. Our campus have over 60 APs with different models and types (outdoor, indoor), at different locations. In addition to geting Down alert, I also want to include location, Machine types information in that alert. That's why I need to config SNMP on each APs.

Hope you understand me.

Thanks

[Leo Laohoo]

In addition to geting Down alert, I also want to include location, Machine types information in that alert. That's why I need to config SNMP on each APs.

I understand what you're saying.  I understand what you are trying to do.  Howevever, we need to tear away from this concept of "monitoring a CAPWAP" because this DEFEATS THE PURPOSE OF CAPWAP.

If you want to monitor when the AP goes down then you do not go to the AP.  You go to the WLC.  You use SNMP to find the objects which the WLC communicates with the AP.  We have that here.  We monitor the WLC and sort out how many APs with similar site codes and compare the hard-coded figure.  This way, when your CAPWAP APs go down, we get alerts. 

[tranminhc]

Hi,

I will find out how WLC communicate with APs using SNMP.

Thanks for your help

[ciropagliuso]

Hi,

in case of a WLC replacement, once downloaded the backup configuration (run-config commands or .aes file) on the new one, it will push the config to all APs.

That's right, but if I'm correct the info about each AP is not provided (channel, power, name..).

So If I have an environment where each AP has got a specific channel and power how I can restore them after the WLC replacement?

We have more than 200 APs, so manually is not feasible

Thanks

[Jerome BERTHIER]

Hi all

After reading your answers, I still have the same question as several people here.

As specific AP config is not present in the WLC config file, how is it backup ?

For example, if you set a fixed radio parameter like channel, power assignment, channel width and so on, either on 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz, where is it stored ? and how to keep a backup from that ?

If it is on the AP itself, it might be an issue in case of loosing the AP. So it has to be stored somewhere because in LWAP mode, we do not configure the AP itself. The WLC has to know and store everything.