Wireless Access

I have had a few AP105 failures since our deployment about one year ago.  I have another today - here is a description of the problem - maybe someone has seen this? I've had 5 AP105s do this and ARUBA has replaced them all.  This from a deployment of over 450 AP105s.

ARUBAOS 6.1.3.1on a local/master setup, the AP105 has been functioning for nearly a year and it goes down.  I go to the site and see the Power led is blinking red about once every 10 seconds.  I replace the AP with another and it comes up OK, I provision it and all is well.

I take the "failed" AP back to my office and connect it with a short patch cable to a POE port I have in my office, same issue and no console output.  I connect the AP to a POE injector and get console output so I purge, save reset it.  I connect it back to the POE port and same issue.  This is a very strange issue and I have tried different switch models with the same result.

I have verified the cabling in use and it passes a CAT6 cable test.

Any explanations out there?  I have a support case open at this time.

Typically when I've seen this, it's been due to the switch port not providing full 802.3af power. This seems to fit your scenario as the injector solves it?

 

What switches are you using? Can you interogate the switch PoE port status when the "faulty" AP is attached?

Yes, I have "interrogated the switchports.  They are normal (or at least they report normal). Juniper EX series switches ALL models.  When I have a failed AP it will not power up from any port on of the 4 models of EX switches we have.  I d o not believe it to be "a" switchport.  Changing ports or switches has no affect.  We use a LOT of POE equipment and these few AP105s are the only issue(s).  AND they operate OK for an extended period of time (months) before failing.  And a POE tester (Fluke Meter) sez the port(s) is/are good and up to par.

In that case, that's a very odd problem. If support have swapped out some APs before, they would have had reason to. Suggest you see what they say in regard to this instance of the issue. If it involves another swap, ask for what the root cause of the problem is deemed to be, and then query if it's likely to repeat itself. If so, ask for a global view of whether this is expected, and if not what the permanent solution is.

 

I've never seen anything widespread with 105s (used a lot), but they've always been on injectors, Cisco or Procurve switches so it's not a fair comparison.

They just did a RTF RMA on this one also.  I have asked thos questions in the past, I will present them again.  Thanks for your response.

This is my scenario EXACTLY. I have my 105s on Cisco Catalyst 3500 series POE and the unit was RMAed once already. If you plug directly into the POE off the Aruba Controller, boots fine, but put it on the Catalyst, and no-boot. I am happy to continue RMA'ing these, but I'd much rather get to the bottom of this. Not sure what is diff about the POE coming from Aruba controller versus Cisco Catalyst, but must be a voltage diff. I will be buying a volt meter to check in the next few days.

 

Crambo,

 

Exactly which model of Cisco 3500?  Does it support 802.3af POE or "Cisco Inline Power"

Catalyst 3650 PoE-48., running 12.2

 

It supports both.

 

When plugged into switch::

 

Fa0/8 auto on 15.4 Ieee PD 3 15.4 (Good working Aruba 105)
Fa0/9 auto faulty 0.0 n/a n/a 15.4 (Bad not working Aruba 105)

 

 

Would it be possible to determine the POE power consumption on these AP's? It's possible that the AP is failing in a high current mode and the POE source may or may not be limiting power, resulting in the AP booting up or not.

According to "show power inline"

 

15.4 Watts.

Ok. This is plainly weird. I plugged directly into Controller a did a clean update of the firmware to the unit. After having done that, the radio now boots fine on Catalyst. I have no explanantion for why this worked...

Phil,

 

Any update on the issues? We just started installing 105's and have had two fail out of 9 installed with same problem you have experienced. Aruba is in the process of issueing RMA's for the failed devices but I really want to get to the bottom of issue before I start deploying a bunch more. 

 

We are using Cisco 2960s POE switches.

 

Thank you.

 

Mike

I have not gotten any confirmation on these issues.  We have not had a failure in over two months and never had a repeat failure of a replaced AP.  Really strange.  I suspect faulty AP hardware but will likely never have conclusive confirmation of that.

We definitely like our ARUBA WiFi network.

Thanks Phil.

 

If you look through the forum there are many people having similar problems. 

 

I have two cases open but they are really just to obtain an RMA. 

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

Mike

Please check the ArubaOS 6.1.3.6 release notes.

Hi,

 

Are you referring to:

 

57624 Symptom: An AP-105 sometimes used excessive transmit power on the first transmit packet after
the device reset. This issue prevented an AP-105 connected to a Cisco POE switch from getting
power. This issue was resolved by a software change that defers transmission power or channel
changes if any frames are pending.
Scenario: This issue occurred on APs that aggressively scan outside home channels.

 

If so I have not experienced the resetting of the device before failure.

 

Mike

You may have not observed it. Please contact tac to see if it applies to your specific situation.

A huge customer of ours was suffering from this same issues using Cisco 6000 series switches.

 

A special C build was given to us early which has the fix in 6.1.3.6.

 

6.1.3.6 should resolve your problems

Thank you for the update. That is good to hear.

 

I am planning an upgrade next week.

 

Mike

That explains why it now seems to work. Thanks for the update. Sad that no techs at Aruba have ever heard of this issue. Could someone will the ability promote this to someone who could get TAC this info?

6.1.3.6 was just posted December 14th under General Availability.

 

After a problem is identified and a fix is proposed, it needs to be tested to ensure that it solves the problem and does not create widespread problems for others.  Some problems arise over time and it is not easy to determine if the problem is solved in the short term.  The quality of a fix increases with time...