Wireless Access

I'm considering switching to Aruba APs but I read in multiple places comments that the Instant On APs require internet access and if that's interrupted for any reason they will reboot loop or otherwise be troublesome until the internet returns. Is this correct and is there any way to defeat that behavior if true? I have clients with flaky internet and adding flaky wifi to that would be a non-starter for sure. Thanks!
Rebaid

Over the last few weeks I have provisioned 130 APs, with about 25% of them IAPs that I converted to campus APs using a console cable. Several of the IAPs were a little cranky, and I got into this weird state where a couple of the campus APs by the end of the provisioning process ended up with other computers squatting on their IP addresses. 

So, anyway, I am familiar with how these guys behave when they can't come up -- this is the state where the green light just flashes continuously stupidly in a loop. When you are consoled in, you can see that they reboot themselves after they've been in a state where they are not up. It's not frequent or continuous -- maybe once or twice per hour.

The rebooting is really the right thing to do when the APs are just messed up. ("Have you tried turning it off and on again?") This is a state where it's not serving clients anyway, and in the case of Instant APs if they come up without internet then every one comes up as the master. (On the console dialog they say "i am master now" with the lower-case 'i' and it makes me smile every time.) When the internet comes back and all the IAPs can see each other they are all going to have to sort out who is the single master before they are going to work right.
Original Message:
Sent: Jun 23, 2022 02:26 AM
From: Michael Lloyd
Subject: Do Instant On APs do strange things (like reboot) when internet connectivity is lost?

I'm considering switching to Aruba APs but I read in multiple places comments that the Instant On APs require internet access and if that's interrupted for any reason they will reboot loop or otherwise be troublesome until the internet returns. Is this correct and is there any way to defeat that behavior if true? I have clients with flaky internet and adding flaky wifi to that would be a non-starter for sure. Thanks!
Rebaid

Instant ON APs (separate from Aruba Instant APS and separate from Aruba controller-based APS.) should not reboot when the internet is disconnected.

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Any opinions expressed here are solely my own and not necessarily that of Hewlett Packard Enterprise or Aruba Networks.

HPE Design and Deploy Guides: https://community.arubanetworks.com/support/migrated-knowledge-base?attachments=&communitykey=dcc83c62-1a3a-4dd8-94dc-92968ea6fff1&pageindex=0&pagesize=12&search=&sort=most_recent&viewtype=card
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Original Message:
Sent: Jun 23, 2022 02:26 AM
From: Michael Lloyd
Subject: Do Instant On APs do strange things (like reboot) when internet connectivity is lost?

I'm considering switching to Aruba APs but I read in multiple places comments that the Instant On APs require internet access and if that's interrupted for any reason they will reboot loop or otherwise be troublesome until the internet returns. Is this correct and is there any way to defeat that behavior if true? I have clients with flaky internet and adding flaky wifi to that would be a non-starter for sure. Thanks!
Rebaid

They shouldn't. However, they will reboot, as any campus AP would, when it loses its connection to the LMS controller (local or master).

It also reboots in this manner if the APs are not defined statitcally, and are not getting DHCP after a reboot.

If you want static, you can do them via console by interrupting the apboot process and setting environment variables for network and controller, or start with DHCP, attach it to a controller's AP group, and set up the static info you want.. 

The other reason it may reboot is if, once they boot, the controller they connect to has a different version of AOS. Then it will upgrade or downgrade the AP's software to what the controller has. If the backup LMS has different software, then the AP will need to upgrade/downgrade once getting to the other controller.

I wonder, if these are remote APs, and either the tunnel goes down or the internet connecting the remote AP is down what would happen? My controllers are all on the wired network - even though at remote locations, they're not remote APs as they're reachable by the normal networking at remote locations.


-Ambi

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Ambidexter
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Original Message:
Sent: Jun 23, 2022 02:26 AM
From: Michael Lloyd
Subject: Do Instant On APs do strange things (like reboot) when internet connectivity is lost?

I'm considering switching to Aruba APs but I read in multiple places comments that the Instant On APs require internet access and if that's interrupted for any reason they will reboot loop or otherwise be troublesome until the internet returns. Is this correct and is there any way to defeat that behavior if true? I have clients with flaky internet and adding flaky wifi to that would be a non-starter for sure. Thanks!
Rebaid

Unless I am mistaken the op is talking about Instant On, not Aruba Instant or Aruba controller based access points.

------------------------------
Any opinions expressed here are solely my own and not necessarily that of Hewlett Packard Enterprise or Aruba Networks.

HPE Design and Deploy Guides: https://community.arubanetworks.com/support/migrated-knowledge-base?attachments=&communitykey=dcc83c62-1a3a-4dd8-94dc-92968ea6fff1&pageindex=0&pagesize=12&search=&sort=most_recent&viewtype=card
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Original Message:
Sent: Jun 26, 2022 12:23 AM
From: Lawrence Brandt
Subject: Do Instant On APs do strange things (like reboot) when internet connectivity is lost?

They shouldn't. However, they will reboot, as any campus AP would, when it loses its connection to the LMS controller (local or master).

It also reboots in this manner if the APs are not defined statitcally, and are not getting DHCP after a reboot.

If you want static, you can do them via console by interrupting the apboot process and setting environment variables for network and controller, or start with DHCP, attach it to a controller's AP group, and set up the static info you want.. 

The other reason it may reboot is if, once they boot, the controller they connect to has a different version of AOS. Then it will upgrade or downgrade the AP's software to what the controller has. If the backup LMS has different software, then the AP will need to upgrade/downgrade once getting to the other controller.

I wonder, if these are remote APs, and either the tunnel goes down or the internet connecting the remote AP is down what would happen? My controllers are all on the wired network - even though at remote locations, they're not remote APs as they're reachable by the normal networking at remote locations.


-Ambi

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Ambidexter

Original Message:
Sent: Jun 23, 2022 02:26 AM
From: Michael Lloyd
Subject: Do Instant On APs do strange things (like reboot) when internet connectivity is lost?

I'm considering switching to Aruba APs but I read in multiple places comments that the Instant On APs require internet access and if that's interrupted for any reason they will reboot loop or otherwise be troublesome until the internet returns. Is this correct and is there any way to defeat that behavior if true? I have clients with flaky internet and adding flaky wifi to that would be a non-starter for sure. Thanks!
Rebaid