WLC 9800-CL Hyperv inactivity timeout

[Clem58]

Hello,

I am starting to deploy 2 same VMs of 9800-CL WLCs version 17.3.5b (because we have 3702i/e APs) on HyperV server.

They are working good while there is network activity, but after a while of idling the network times out.

When it's configured on Trunk mode it's very slow to wake up and it's faster when it's configured on access.

Have you ever faced this issue ? I've never seen that and I admit that's very uncommon.

Thanks by advance for your help.

[marce1000]

        - Unfortunately for HyperV support you need at least 17.1.x or above.

 M.

[Clem58]

Hi Marce,

Actually that's the case, I installed 17.3.5b.

FYI I haven't configured any wireless settings for now, and haven't added any AP yet, I want to have this issue solved before.

[marce1000]

- As stated your current controller software version is too low. You need
at least 17.7.1 for hyperv support.

M.

[Clem58]

Ok sorry you mentionned 17.1.x on you previous answer.

So no luck to be helped I assume.

You suggest to install rather on VMWare ?

[marce1000]

- Since you need support for the older ap's, you can not go beyond 17.3.x,
so you can not use hyperv , indeed.

M.

[Clem58]

Or I will open a TAC because I cannot see any Cisco article that mentions
17.3.x version is not supported for Hyperv.

[marce1000]

- Rest assured that is true, one proof is that hyperv support is mentioned
first in Release Notes of 17.7.1 , if I find a more direct link , I will
come back.

M.

[marce1000]

 - I need to apologize on this , after scrutinized research I found that the hyper-v support starts from 17.1 , indeed :

 Ref : https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/9800/17-1/release-notes/rn-17-1-9800.html

  >...Microsoft Hyper-V Support for Catalyst 9800-CL Wireless Controller: Starting with this release, you can install Catalyst 9800 Cloud Wireless Controller in a Microsoft Hyper-V environment. For more information, see Installing the Controller in Microsoft Hyper-V Hypervisor chapter.

  Returning to your original problem, start with a checkup of the 9800-CL configuration , for that use the  CLI command : show  tech   wireless , have the output analyzed by  https://cway.cisco.com/tools/WirelessAnalyzer/  , please note do not use classical show tech-support (short version) , use the command denoted in green for Wireless Analyzer.               Checkout all advisories!

 M.

[Clem58]

No problem Marce ! I’m relieved to be honest
I have used this debug process, that is something awesome from Cisco ! And I was able to find this recommendation, that seems corresponding to our issue :

Management: Service tcp-keepalive in/out, should be enabled to reduce lingering inactive connections to management points

Action: Add: service tcp-keepalives in/service tcp-keepalives out to configuration

So I have used these 2 commands on one of the WLCs :
WLC(config)# service tcp-keepalives-in
WLC(config)# service tcp-keepalives-out

I will see if it’s improving anything !

Many thanks for your help, I will keep you posted

[marce1000 · Accepted solution]

 - Great to see informative feedback from WirelessAnalyzer , in fact the idea is to use this tool every 2 months for instance (more or less) , because it will or can also give feedback on changes observed in the RF environment.

 M.

[Clem58]

Hi Marce,

FYI we have moved the VMs to another HyperV host and since it seems we don't see any timeout more.