WLC 2504 CLI "show ap join stats summary all" displays AP name with ASCII replacement character.

[pcayen]

Setup:
WLC: AIR-CT2504-K9 (Product Version 8.3.143.0)

AP: AIR-AP2802I-A-K9 (8.3.143.0)

WLC output:

(Cisco Controller) >show ap join stats summary all

Number of APs.............................................. X

Base Mac AP EthernetMac AP Name IP Address Status
XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX QALab@� 1.2.3.4 Joined

Seems like this only occurs for specific names. 

"New" & "QALab" have caused ASCII characters to appear in the output, but other names do not cause it. 

Any name ending in "lab" causes this issue on our end.

Renaming the Access Point will resolve the problem temporarily, until the unit is restarted.

The ASCII replacement character does not appear in the output of other CLI commands.

Has anyone else experienced this?

[patoberli]

Never seen that, but also never used that software release. I guess it's just a cosmetic issue without any influence to the production network.

[pcayen]

Ya, unfortunately, it's breaking a script we have on our end. The script can't associate that string to the AP name within the "show rfid summary" command, so it loses any RFID tracking data that is tied to it. I'd expand the script to truncate the junk characters at the end, but the @ symbol is a valid character for an AP name...

After digging a little deeper, I've noticed that the AP name is also clean when directly connected to the Access Point via serial. Very strange!

[patoberli]

Can you try another SSH client? Maybe it's an issue of the used client, but I honestly doubt it.

[pcayen]

the same issue occurs with Putty on windows (I'm on Linux, using SSH from the command line), but the replacement character is slightly different.

[Ric Beeching]

TAC case unfortunately, they may have to fix this one. If you have APs that support it maybe consider an upgrade of code to see if that assists? 8.5.140.0 is recommended but 8.3.143 MR4 is also available via TAC if you need to stay on that version.

Ric

[pcayen]

I tried updating them to the version you recommended, but the problem still persists.
I'll be attempting to open a TAC case shortly.

Cheers!

[patoberli]

Is that the only AP with this weirdness? Otherwise I'd simply try to rename it.

[pcayen]

Unfortunately, we have no control over the Access Point names... I wish the solution was that simple :(