Wireless Access

We have been having intermittent wireless issues for the last two weeks. We are running a Dell Branded Aruba W-620 and 5 AP105s. Last night I was working all by my lonesome and our wireless performance started to crawl, but under no load. I was the only user, and it would take two minutes for google.com to load. Wired, there was no lag, and I have verified our the quality of our physical link from the controller to our backbone numerous times this week to be sure. I logged into the controller, and rebooted the APs and that seemed to make a difference.

This morning, the same issue is occouring. I tried to log into the controller via HTML and it was unresponsive. I powercycled the controller, and when It came back up, it had a completely different WLAN setup. It had adopted the config of a temp network that I setup while doing diagnostics last week. I copied in the flash that I had backed up once I re-programmed the WiFi as needed and still, after reboot, the temp WLAN remained in place, as if the copy funtion failed (it reported sucess) or my backup was overwritten with a different file. :catfrustrated: :catfrustrated: :catfrustrated:

Our controller is running Aruba OS 6.1.3.1 build 32786, is there any chance that there is an OS update that I could perform? where do I monitor the status of OS updates and are there instructions on properly updating the controller?

I will see about obtaining a replacement controller from our Dell rep too... I cant have this kind of thing happening, and its frustrating because untill one week ago everything was solid.

thanks for the input. 

I'd recommend a code upgrade first to rule that out. I haven't checked the release notes, but this is always worth-while.

When you say "where do I monitor the status of OS updates" do you mean what is the latest available? If so, last time I checked the Dell portal, they'd ported version 6.1.3.6 (a couple of weeks ago). I had no problem with that version like you're describing.

When you got your kit, you should have been given a login to the Dell support version of the Aruba portal (for downloading codes etc). Have you got that? Dell did change the process for doing this recently (not for the better IMHO).

Regardless, log in to the portal, and download the latest. Upgrading via the GUI is pretty straightforward. Maintenance tab>Image Management> then pick local file to pick from your machine. Then upgrade the partition you're not currently booting from. Reboot (expect outage of 20 mins or so).

Good luck!

I took this position after we picked up the controller. Gent before me never successfully got the WiFi up and running, I will have to see if I can track down any documentation he may have received. I am having a hard time connecting with Dell lately, so I will add that to the list. I am assuming that it is a separate access site from the standard premier.dell.com?

in any case, you gave me some good info and a bearing on a solution, so much thanks. :smileyhappy:

This is the Dell version of the Aruba site...

http://download.dell-pcw.com

You'll most likely need to login using your colleagues email (as he must have registered it). If you don't know his password, but can look into his email, use the "forgot password" option.

If you can't do any of that, ring Dell support and explain the situation. The number you should ring will depend on what country you're in. I know the UK numbers, but if you're not UK, that's no use to you!

Good luck!

This is exactly what I needed, I was having a hard time traking it down, and I can't seem to get ahold of my Dell rep for the life of me. I had to recreate my predecessors e-mail account, but it worked like a charm! much thanks for the info again, I hope that this will put these system glitches to rest...

I will update the system next week and update the post here with any info that may result.

I updated the controller to 6.1.3.7 and all has been wonderfully quiet this week. As part of the upgrade it said that I would need to backup crash logs etc as those would get deleted. What I am wondering is if the onboard flash was so full it was causing the problems that I was experiencing. 

I ran the show memory command in the CLI and it reported that I had roughly 100MB before the upgrade, and I just ran it to see what the difference is, I'm showing now just under 100MB, so I guess not. 

Fortunately, the problems I was experiencing with configuration loss and terrible wireless latency at random have all subsided after the upgrade. The Wireless was working very well untill just recently, so I have to wonder what caused the seemingly sudden 'freak-out' and anticipate it might happen again after another 6 months of stable usage. Hopefully not.

Thanks for your help!