Controllerless Networks

Well this has been a fun day today.

So a few weeks ago I deployed a mixed IAP225/115 cluster managed by Airwave.  At first we deployed and configured some IAP225 and then when we added a few IAP115, they came up, upgraded their image from Airwave and then joined the cluster fine......all good.

Now today I was back there to carry on.  A few more IAP115 were added and then all the other APs (45 or so) dissappeared.  Seemingly one of the new 115 took on the role of master and wiped the config of the others and caused them to try to downgrade.  :-(

None of the other ones were reachable cause I just kept getting redirected back to the 115.  I couldn't even get this 115 cluster to join Airwave.  Airwave itself said that the cluster was unknown or had a wrong PSK.....even though I had deleted the group, and removed then added the airwave config again.

Only after I put the downgraded image for 225 on Airwave did they start to come back, and only then did the cluster actually come back up on Airwave.

Has anyone else had experience with something like this happening?  How on earth did it get into this state in the first place?

So back tomorrow to get things how they were originally.  Very skeptical now about adding another 115 into the mix if it doesn't at least have the exact same firmware version.  Such a shame given that it went so well a few weeks ago.

Airwave 8.0.4

IAP firmware - 6.4.0.3-4.1.0.1  (before issues)

IAP firmware - 6.3.1.1-4.0.0.1  (of 115 that was added)

Well, really don't know what happened there.  Everything all recovered now, and the problem AP115 that caused the issues is now happily part of the cluster...with a different 225 as the masterap.

The remaining IAP115 were upgraded offline and added in without problems.

One of those things I guess.

and now, for the second time adding a new AP to the cluster has caused it to factory default the whole lot and make them downgrade.

Managed to recover....after a few hours.

Unacceptable is an understatement !!!!

:-(

It would be if they had purchased support on the aps, so consequently TAC aren't interested.

All I'm left with is venting my frustration on here.

I suffered something similar with an IAP-103 deployment, plugging in 1 specific IAP-103 caused it to rever the entire network to defaults, it wouldn't upgrade, it wouldn't show up.

I had to stay on a specific firmware for the entire network to function.

Sorry I cannot be of more help, I haven't been able to figure that one out either :(

no worries.  Seems I just need to make sure that anything new plugged in, other than a 225 is already upgraded to the correct version.

That seemed to do the trick a couple of weeks ago, and the 115 came up and joined the cluster like normal.

I didn't realise, there was still another to go in though.

ok, I have an update on the root cause of this.  Due to the seriousness of the issue and customer, TAC ended up being drawn into this.

Basically, when I started out, IGC on Airwave was not yet available for 4.1, so I configured the APs using template mode, including some 115 which upgraded just fine as I said.

As we went along, loads of the 225 were installed.  Airwave 8.0.4 became available with support for 4.1 in IGC, so I upgraded Airwave and moved to IGC to continue the configuration.  This was all going fine.  I believe some fresh 115 that hadn't been previously connected were plugged in and joined the cluster fine.

The problems occurred when we plugged in the 115 that were previously joined to the cluster when it was managed in template mode.  This was due to a duplicate virtual controller key being present, resulting in the cluster rebooting and everything being reset.

Makes sense (kind of) but frustrating nevertheless.

I believe this is going to be added to the known issues, or a nice big warning in the User Guide at least.