Wireless Access

Dear all

We have two controllers 7210 (one master and one standby master) with AOS 6.5 and starting to deploy AP 305 but we encounter some issues :

about half of the AP cannot join the controller. (yes some can join the controller and some cannot).

- First thing to mention : AP were previously deploy in another project (different AOS version : 8.5, diffrent IP parameters ...), but no data were hard written on AP (no manual master setting) . We do not put back these AP in the default group and send them to prod with the previous configuration. (As we were thinking that it would get through the normal process : get IP adress and master ip adress from DHCP => join the controller => make firmeware upgrade /downgrade => get ready to be provisionned on controller)

- From the switch AP are up and DHCP exchange is correctly seen.

-  Controller and AP are on the same layer 2.

- AP discover controller throught DHCP method (option 43) so we checked this : AP get IP, get the right information from controller offer.
There is no ADP, no DNS discover, no manual configuration.

- There is no log on controller for these AP

So from this diagnostic we understand that AP are electrically powered get an IP adress receveid the master IP adress but somehow refuse to join it.

Is somebody else ever getting throught something like this ? Is there any way to force AP to join a controller or reset it without serial connection ? (we already try to reboot AP from PoE shutdown).

Could it be that AP get stuck with the previous configuration ?

I will be very grateful if I could get help.

Thanks and Regards

What do you see if you run the following

show ap database
show log all | include [AP IP ADDRESS]

There could be numerous reasons as to why this is occuring:

- Do you have enough licenses?

- Is Control Plane Security enabled? 

- Do you have a console output from the AP?

- Is there any regulatory domain mismatches on the AP/controller?

- Have you tried factory resetting the AP?

- AP are not in database (so no debug with flag)

- There is no log about AP's IP or MAC address  on controller

- There is enough license

- cpsec is disable

- We cannot access console Port, so no logs available

- There is no regulatory domain mismatch on AP and controller

- As the AP are already installed we cannot access the console port for now and cannot make a factory reset.

Is there any way to make a factory distant or reset from the controller although AP cannot be seen on it ?

There is no way to factory reset without physically taking the access points down.

What discovery method are you using for the APs to find the controller?

We are using the DHCP method to find the controller.

We start a packet capture on DHCP, and correctly seen the master'ip addresss in DHCP offer option 43.

Could you get access to one AP, one that is easily reachable, and get a console connected to that one, or mirror the traffic of one of the APs ethernet ports on the switch?

It may be that there is some (static) configuration and seeing what happens on the console and/or on the network may indicate what the AP is trying to do. Possibly it's discovering the master on a different IP and unable to reach it there, in which case you might make the controller accessible on that IP to re-gain access to all of the APs.

Have you done a factory reset or purge on those access points?

Is it possible to reset on AP without console access (AP are already installed) ?

Ap won't show up on controller, as I understand there is no way to manage or reset them from it ?