WLC 2504 Crashes

[Dimitri Taghon]

Hi

I recently bought a WLC 2504 with a few AP 1702. During installation I noticed that WLC 2508 had a firmware 7 and the AP's had firmware 8. Due to this reason they wouldn't communicate with each other. Yesterday I received from my supplier the right firmware, after the upgrade, my AP's connected almost instantly with the WLC. Unfortunately after a short time, the WLC crashed. I was changing a few settings on one of the SSD's that I created, I clicked on save configuration. But almost immediately I lost my wifi connection. I went to the serverroom, and the WLC has 3 lights burning: pwr, sys and alm. I tried to reboot the device, but only the lights start burning. I do not get a connection by lan nor by the console cable. So my wifi network is completely down.  Luckly no one is using it but the IT department for now.

So I called Cisco to get a solution, after all it's a brand new WLC that arrived last week. The operator was friendly but refused to help me. I've no service contract at this point. I told her it was a new WLC and under European law, we have 2 years of warranty. She told me that the device has no warrantly anymore, I don't know why, it is brand new.

So for now I'm stuck with a € 2000 new device that doesn't work any more because of bad firmware by Cisco and I only can get a solution if I pay a new contract.  I would understand that if I broke the device. But clicking on Save configuration shouldn't be that dangerous and expensive.

I've read some solutions on the forum, but they only work if you've a console. But I don't even have that. Is there a way to reset the device to factory settings just by using the reset button on the device or something similar?

[varunag]

 The Reset button on the front panel of the controller becomes active after the controller boots. To reset the controller using the Reset button, follow these steps:

Step 1 Connect a PC to the controller console point.

Step 2 Press and hold the Reset button for at least 3 seconds using a pointed object, such as a ball point pen, pencil, or paper clip.

Step 3 After the controller reboots, enter your username and password at the prompts.

If you have configured the controller, it reboots and loads the configuration. If you have not configured the controller, the configuration wizard appears.

Please refer

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/2500/quick/guide/ctr2504_q_s.html

[Dimitri Taghon]

I've tried this couple of times, but no luck. The device boots and after a few seconds all lights start to burn. But nothing happens further. The console stays empty, I've no output coming out of the device. Here you can see what does happen: http://youtu.be/DcACFTUmVkg

[Charles Hill]

Do you see anything on the console port during bootup?  Where it fails?  or hangs?

[Scott Fella]

Where it was failing was when removing a WLAN from an ap group and the wlc has AP's joined. This was a hard crash and no output in the console. This required you to power cycle the box. The other is a crash that happens random. I have not yet figured out what is causing the controller to reboot or hang.  I'm going to do more testing in a few weeks, but I do have a TAC case open and they published the esc image for me.  

-Scott

[adamandersen]

Hi Scott

Any thing new about this bug on the 2504 WLC?

We at my company also experienced the same issue, and actually bricked the first WLC - As there where no contact at all over the console. all 3 LED´s where on. As we have a service contract we got a new immediately over RMA

And now today i was creating a 2 new WLAN´s tested the SSID and right away when i hit "save configuration" it rebooted... Now i can´t get in with the admin account created or the default Cisco one, i can see it has enabled some old WLAN´s - But i have no access any more.

were running 8.0.115.0, do you know if this bug also is present in 8.0.120.0 and 8.1.102.0 or has it been resolved in the latest firmware after 8.0.115.0?

- Adam Andersen

[Dimitri Taghon]

I've no console output. I've connected my console cable to a AP to see if my cable works, and I'm getting output from the AP, so my cable is working properly. When I turn on the device only the 3 lights start to burn like this http://youtu.be/DcACFTUmVkg.

[ogor]

Hi all,

I have exactly the same issue, do you have a solution or workarround to suggest me please ?

The problem is that I don't have a backup of the configuration also :(

dimitri did you solve your problem ? if yes how please ?

Many thanks for your help in advance

Olivier

[Scott Fella]

I have a TAC case open right now in regards to the 2504 and v8.0.115.0.  The wlc crashes and no output from the console and requires a power cycle. Some times the 2504 will restart by itself. I can reproduce the issue by creating an AP Group and adding eland to that group and then trying to remove one of the WLAN's.  The controller would crash and would need to be power cycled. We also see the 2504 crashing or restarting on its own. We have WebAuth and mDNS enabled and both 2504's have had issues. One finally died from being power cycled and is now getting RMA'd.

-Scott