Wireless Access

we have 2 x local 7010 Aruba controllers at a remote location and they have the verison 8.3.0.3 code installed on them.

We purchased 20 x Aruba AP345 Access Points and when I plugged them into the Wireless VLAN (where the local controllers are also connected) I saw the AP's boot up from a local SSH connection.

The AP's came with version 8.0 and when they connected to 1 of the local controllers they automatically upgraded to version 8.3.0.3 and resgtarted again.  After the restart I was not able to login to the AP's probably because they took were in Campus Access Point mode and the default admin/admin credentials would not apply.

My quesiton is... is that the correct way to connect and update new Aruba Access Points to an Aruba Controller?

I have worked with IAP in the past and the process was different.  These are AP-345 not IAP.  I cannot tell if the APs are setup correclty now because we have other problems that are preventing the local controllers from connecting to the Moblity Masters.  I am thinking that maybe the Access Points (345) migh tbe the problem.

Anyone with experience connecing and updating AP-345  Access Points?

https://www.arubanetworks.com/techdocs/ArubaOS_63_Web_Help/Content/ArubaFrameStyles/AP_Config/Deploying_APs.htm

I did everything the rigth way.  I plugged the AP in.  The AP found a local controller on the same VLan and auto-initiated the update to verison 8.3.0.3.

Then the AP was already a Campus Ap and it was not an IAP.  All done.

Let me just add a little to the answer and the link to summarize the process. When an AP boots, it needs 6 pieces of information:

IP Address

Subnet Mask

Default Gateway

AP Name

AP Group

IP address of the controller the AP will initial communicate with

All of this can be statically or dynamically obtained.

If it is a brand new AP, the IP info will be gotten using DHCP. The name will be the MAC of the Eth 0 port on the AP, the group will be 'default'.

The initial controller is obtained in the following order

statically configured

DHCP option 43/60

Aruba Discovery Protocol (ADP) multicast and broadcast

DNS

Since this is a new AP, all things will be default and you will probably discover the initial controller using ADP.

After the AP has the address of the initial controller, it communicates with it and  checks if it has the same OS. If not, it does an FTP transfer, which takes about 4 minutes, and downloads the new OS. It will then reboot, with this new OS, go through the above process again, at that point it will talk to the initial controller again. This time the OS is the same, so the AP will either download the LMS-IP address for the AP group that the AP is part of (default). If there is an LMS-IP setting, the AP will communicate with that controller to download its configuration. If there is no LMS-IP setting, the AP will communicate with the controller it discovered to download its configuration. Since the AP is part of the 'default' group, it will download whatever config is assigned to the 'default' AP group.

Once this is down, the AP will display on the controller and listed with its Eth 0 MAC address as its name. You can then go in and configure it.

If you are wanting to configure it using a console connection directly into the AP, you may be prompted for a password. This is a setting that is in the AP system profile. If you want to see what the password is, you can do the following commands from the controller. The string in quotes after 'ap-console'password' is the password. Note this output has multiple profiles, so you will need to know which one you are using, or simply try both of them. You can also go to the profile and set your own console password. If you do console into APs at any time (I often do in my lab environment), I suggest that you change it to something that is easy to remember or look up.

#encrypt disable

# show running-config | begin "ap system-profile"
Building Configuration...
ap system-profile "default"
ap-console-password "44e753d6+|H333"
bkup-passwords "CR0001795!333"
!
ap system-profile "rap-ap-system"
native-vlan-id 240
rap-dhcp-server-vlan 168
rap-dhcp-dns-server 75.75.75.75
ap-console-password "9ef9d707+|333."
bkup-passwords "CR0001795!333"

I hope this helps,

Thank you David, what's the ETA on that book!

Loved the 6x ver.

Thanks. Working on the last 3 chapters. Look for it late summer.