Hello Fellow Airheads! :-)
I admit that as I write this message, I am somewhat embarrassed by the nature of the issue but having made my mistake it's time to try and find a solution.
Over the past couple of weeks I've been trying to secure some reliable apocalypse-grade networking hardware for a non-profit with a tight budget. Speaking with close friends who are more in tune with the enterprise wireless world, I asked about options and was told by more than a couple of colleagues "Go Aruba or go home.". After reaching out to a number of people regarding my needs, someone sold us a new AP-135 at a fraction of what it would have cost if we bought from a vendor directly.
Unfortunately, being the complete buffoon that I am, and not having any experience with the Aruba platform at all, I failed to realize that Aruba AP's are all but paperweights without a controller to connect them to. Having only learned of this now, I see that the IAP-135 is what I really needed, and not the AP-135.
I did some cursory searching on the forum for options and I found another thread where someone had asked about re-imaging an AP-135 to with IAP software, but was advised that this would not work, which he later seemed to verify through experimentation.
Does anyone have any thoughts on attempting to salvage this situation? I've looked around for Aruba Controllers on eBay but even the ones with missing boxes accessories are out of our price range. What are the odds that if I contact Aruba we might be able to swap the AP for an IAP and pay some sort of difference?
Failing everything else it seems I may have to resort to selling this AP-135 for a song and then trying to purchase an IAP-135.