Wireless Access

Okay, I'll try to explain this and hope it makes sense:

Our cabling vendor removed an AP93 from one location - it was already provisioned for that AP-Group.  We thought the AP was flaky, but ended up being a bad termination at the patch panel.   We were never given the chance to remove from that AP-Group and move back to default.

Fast forward a few weeks and he's in an office that needs another AP for coverage.  He hooks up the AP, sees the appropriate lights and leaves without contacting me.

I can see the AP is on the network (can see the MAC in DHCP), but it does not register on the controller (620), although I do see the port is active.

To further complicate issues, the office controller is running 6.1.3.6, while our master controller is still running 5.0.3.3.  The AP was in Airwave, but was removed while I was waiting for my additional license order to be processed.

Since the office controller is at a higher firmware than the master, I'm sure the AP has been upgraded and no longer reachable by the master.

I've had this happen once before, but that AP was still in Airwave, so I was able to change it to managed-mode and put it back in the default AP-group, the provision it properly.

What is the easiest way for me to get this AP to a point where I can reprovision it to the correct AP-Group?   I'm thinking I might have to roll the office controller back to 5.0.3.3, which I believe will put it back to a role as master, but it can then be demoted to local.

Is there a better way to do it?

- What is the access point using for discovery?

We have done something similar to ourselves.

The remote AP was configured statically, and trying to get to a controller we'd decommissioned.

We were able to get it to check in to the new controller by using the "ip helper address" command in our router.

If your AP is still trying to use the Aruba Discovery Protoocol, this will work:

Cisco config bits:

ip forward-protocol udp 8200
interface <whatever interface matches the VLAN>
ip helper-address <intended controller IP>

I gave that a shot, but still no luck.

I booted the controller back to 5.0.3.3 (same as master), demoted to local and can at least see both APs on the master.

I guess now the problem is the AP is still provisioned to the old office AP-group.  I can actually see that it is going back to the LMS (6.1.3.6) and the master is reporting it is in a state of "upgrading," so I can't reprovision.

We've got an LMS preemption of 5 minutes, so I guess I could reboot the other office controller and try to reprovision once the AP rolls back to the master, although at that point the AP will be at 6.1.3.6 and the master is still at 5.0.3.3.

This is what happens when you tell your vendor to call you when everything is hooked up so you can verify, and they install and run.

Okay, after all of that, I was finally able to reprovision from the local office controller (the controller for which it was originally provisioned).  After it finished the firmware upgrade it showed up there and I was able to successfully provision to the new office controller.

Now to call the vendor and explain for the 20th time that these are not statically configured Cisco APs and they can't just hook them up, leave and notify me days later that the work is done.....geez, we've only been doing this for 3 years!

APs should be using ADP for discovery.