Why, when AP joins EWC, the AP gets an EWC image

[Shiden]

Hi all,

This is my first time working with EWC, and I'm a bit confused about the joining process of the access point.

First, here are the hardware components I'm working with:

Access Point: C9120AXE-E

EWC: C9130AXE-EWC-E

Version: 17.9.4a

I don't understand why when the access points join the EWC, they get an EWC image. Is this image necessary for the access points to function with an EWC, or would CAPWAP be sufficient?

Here's what's happening after the access points join the EWC:

When I display the joined access points, I see:

These access points should only function as simple access points.

Is it recommended to change the image type to CAPWAP?

What is the difference between the EWC and CAPWAP image types?

I already say thanks to the people who will take time to answer this post.

Best regards

[Rich R]

Ok interesting!  Another gotcha to watch out for with EWC!

[Shiden]

Hi @Rich R ,

I just saw that the secondary EWC switched from the EWC to the CAPWAP image over night even he should stay EWC. So it's important to set the IP address of the EWC and the access point to a static IP address.

I really do not get why Cisco designed it this way. It would be so much easier if you could upload the needed CAPWAP images of the access points to the EWC  and configure that they should only download the CAPWAP image.

[carstenp · Accepted solution]

Hello Shiden,

I can absolutely confirm your findings. Sorry that I saw this and confirmed it so lately...

For me it is the reason to never sell again cisco in small business and tell customers that there are cheaper, less time consuming and smarter products availible at market.

The point is in my case, that there were 2 out of 12 C9120 ordered as EWC, the other 10 APs C9120 as capwap. The sso construct of the two EWC were relatively easy to set up (Nothing really works like described in Documentation). As soon as i connected one of the capwap to the sso-network (static IP addresses) they first took the corresponending capwap image from EWC and after the automatic restart the AP was loading another image (no other tftp nor Internet connection), which leads into an EWC-Image and being part of the sso. So - there were 3 Controller in sso state. This applied to all capwap APs. Why is this? Is it clever having more than 3 Controllers in a sso state? By the Way: In the Web-Gui not even the name of the EWC is showed as the Active Controller, it is the name of the AP. Makes sense, since the sso should use same name, ip and mac. But how ti identify the active one? Yes simply take the Name of the AP - wich has nothing to do with the sso contruct. More strange: Factory default there was a Version 17.9.5.027. At u-boot there was a message "Image use only for development". After an upgrade to the official 17.9.5, it showed a Version 17.9.5.047. Of course i couldnt find any Information about this. And additional: this version is always installed bundle mode - no way to change this. After the whole process, which took about nearly 30min, i had to change the "accidently" EWC back to capwap at GUI. It never took me so long to setup 12 APs - not even 20 years ago, where i had to configure all by hand at every Access-Point.

This shows were Cisco is heading since years: sell expansive Products and get the QA by users.

Regards Carsten

[Rich R]

@carstenp you'll probably be pleased to hear that EWC is not supported at all on the newer CW916x APs.

I notice they have introduced Cisco Catalyst 9800 Wireless Controller for Private Cloud - Ultra-Low
Profile in 17.12.3 - which is possibly intended to be a 9800-CL substitute for EWC.

[carstenp]

Hello All,

just to complete some things and clarify my confusion with the Images. The factory Image was a  17.9.4.27, not a 17.9.5.027