Wireless Access

Hello,

We are experiencing a sudden issue with one of our client users on macOS who keeps losing internet access on our network, and upon looking at their client entry in our Mobility Master by searching their MAC address, I can see that they lose their IP address assignment (it's just blank) and their client name has become their MAC address rather than their IP address which it usually is for most client listings. If I delete this client off of the MM, they immediately reconnect and get their IP address back and can then reach the internet again. What's also interesting is that while they are having this issue, I can ping in Terminal to a site like google.com just fine, but cannot browse sites in a browser - they are retaining all of their DHCP info too while it happens, so it's not a DNS issue as I can see our DNS servers listed, default gateway and subnet mask is correct, etc. After the fix, they can immediately browse again, but this keeps happening every morning when they come in. My best guess is that this an Aruba related issue somewhere in our stack because of the blanked-out IP address field in the MM, although it might be a macOS issue as we only have a tiny handful of people using Macs in our environment, but they are the first to have this problem. 

Some info about our environment: our school network uses an Aruba MM - ArubaMM-VA 8.6.0.14 - as well as three Mobility Controllers for each of our 3 buildings, which are: Aruba7205-US 8.6.0.14. We have AP 305 APs in the building that is having the issue. We also use an Aruba core switch - 5406Rzl2 (J9850A) as well as Aruba 48 port PoE 2930F switches in between the core and our APs. IP addresses are handed out via DHCP on two redundant Windows Server 2012 R2 domain controller VMs. 

I have seen similarly described issues but haven't found a real solution yet. One person said a simple reboot of their core switch solved the problem, so we are going to try that, just wondering if anyone else has run into this yet and has a solution. Thanks in advance! 

Good start would probably be to, when the issue occurs, create packet captures on the client and controller to see what traffic may be dropped. Also check the user-table, do user-debugs, etc. This is somewhat advanced troubleshooting and analysis of the data may need experience as well.

Your Aruba partner, or Aruba Support may be good candidates to first have a look at what you have now, and from there decide how to further troubleshoot the issue.

An upgrade to the latest ArubaOS firmware may be worth trying as well; as the issue you see may be resolved in that and part of the solution may be an upgrade to the latest firmware, so you are also in a better shape for the troubleshooting/analysis if the issue is still there after the upgrade.

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Herman Robers
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If you have urgent issues, always contact your Aruba partner, distributor, or Aruba TAC Support. Check https://www.arubanetworks.com/support-services/contact-support/ for how to contact Aruba TAC. Any opinions expressed here are solely my own and not necessarily that of Hewlett Packard Enterprise or Aruba Networks.

In case your problem is solved, please invest the time to post a follow-up with the information on how you solved it. Others can benefit from that.
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Original Message:
Sent: Feb 01, 2023 02:45 PM
From: jayrd7
Subject: macOS client losing IP address on MM and MC - client name is showing up as MAC address

Hello,

We are experiencing a sudden issue with one of our client users on macOS who keeps losing internet access on our network, and upon looking at their client entry in our Mobility Master by searching their MAC address, I can see that they lose their IP address assignment (it's just blank) and their client name has become their MAC address rather than their IP address which it usually is for most client listings. If I delete this client off of the MM, they immediately reconnect and get their IP address back and can then reach the internet again. What's also interesting is that while they are having this issue, I can ping in Terminal to a site like google.com just fine, but cannot browse sites in a browser - they are retaining all of their DHCP info too while it happens, so it's not a DNS issue as I can see our DNS servers listed, default gateway and subnet mask is correct, etc. After the fix, they can immediately browse again, but this keeps happening every morning when they come in. My best guess is that this an Aruba related issue somewhere in our stack because of the blanked-out IP address field in the MM, although it might be a macOS issue as we only have a tiny handful of people using Macs in our environment, but they are the first to have this problem.

Some info about our environment: our school network uses an Aruba MM - ArubaMM-VA 8.6.0.14 - as well as three Mobility Controllers for each of our 3 buildings, which are: Aruba7205-US 8.6.0.14. We have AP 305 APs in the building that is having the issue. We also use an Aruba core switch - 5406Rzl2 (J9850A) as well as Aruba 48 port PoE 2930F switches in between the core and our APs. IP addresses are handed out via DHCP on two redundant Windows Server 2012 R2 domain controller VMs. 

I have seen similarly described issues but haven't found a real solution yet. One person said a simple reboot of their core switch solved the problem, so we are going to try that, just wondering if anyone else has run into this yet and has a solution. Thanks in advance!