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WAPs are not retaining WLAN id when rebooted.

endpoint
Level 1
Level 1

Hi i have 350 WAP (1142n) running of two WLC 5508 (IOS version 7). WLCs are not located on the same subnets/locations and are not configured as mobility groups. The vlan ids on both wlcs are not identical, eg:

wlc1 - vlan47, WLAN id 5

wlc2 - vlan47, WLAN id 10

WAPs are installed on remote locations and talking to WLCs in our data centers. WAP are in h-reap mode.

When we have communication issues between WAPs and one WLC1, the WAPs get re-connected to WLC2 OK but the the vlan mappings are lost; when i open one WAP, the settings for WLAN id 10 are not vlan 47, but instead vlan1 (default number) so i have to go on each WAP to doublecheck the wlan settings.

If WAP connects to the same WLC there is no issue.

Planning to upgrade WLC IOS to latest available version.

The question is: does wlan ids have to be identical on two wlcs not member of mobility groups?

6 Replies 6

dennischolmes
Level 7
Level 7

Try creating a mobility group and adding both controllers. I suspect you might be having a problem with the fast failover settings. When the AP reboots it goes to its secondary controller pretty quickly. Since the code versions are the same it does a fast controller registration. This could result in the secondary vlan being dropped and the default vlan taking its place.

weterry
Level 4
Level 4

Historically, you need to have your WLAN IDs and your AP Groups built in the exact same order. Otherwise, you have exactly what you are seeing.

Lets say you have a WLC1 with SSID1 (wlan #1) SSID2 (wlan #2) SSID3 (WLAN#3)

And you have WLC2 with SSID1 (WLAN#1) SSID2 (WLAN#2)  SSID3 (WLAN#4)

All your AP on WLC1 knows on WLC1 is the vlan mapping for WLAN 1, 2 and 3

Then you failover to WLC2.....  now suddenly you have a WLAN 1, WLAN 2,  and 4      

Since you didnt have a vlan mapping for WLAN#4 when on WLC1, and WLAN#3 doesn't exist on WLC2....   the AP drops WLAN#3 and installs a "new ssid" for WLAN#4, which means you have to set the vlan mapping...

then of course you go back to WLC1 and you repeat the process because the AP has already deleted WLAN #3....

ANYHOW....

It was my understanding that 7.0.116.0 made vlan mappings based on WLAN Name (not number), so in theory as long as your names match, then you shouldnt lose mappings.    But I'm not sure if it actually went into 7.0.116.0....

I'm fairly certain that mobility groups has nothing to do with this. Its just flat out inconsistant config.   Best practice would be for you the match your wlan order on these WLCs (even if there is a new feature to allow the preservation of mappings with un-identical WLANs).

Thanks for quick reply.

dennischolmes - i cannot create mobility groups since the WLCs are in different world parts with huge latency between them so i dont think they will benefit from being in the same MG. I believe the whole advantage of having MG is to provide redundancy for WLCs if they are close to each other (but i could be wrong too :-))

wetery - i agree with you 100%, i am going to upgrade to 7.0.116 this weekend and test APs. The funny part is that two out of 3 WLANs are fine when ap flips between controllers; the AP does gets correct id even dough the ids are different. Bellow is sh wlan summ from both controllers:

WLAN ID  WLAN Profile Name / SSID               Status    Interface Name     
-------  -------------------------------------  --------  --------------------
3        Board / Board                  Disabled  management         
4        Kiosk / Kiosk                  Enabled   management         
10       PublicWIFI / PublicWiFi       Enabled   management  

WLAN ID  WLAN Profile Name / SSID               Status    Interface Name     
-------  -------------------------------------  --------  --------------------
2        PublicWiFi / PublicWiFi        Enabled   management         
3        Kiosk / Kiosk                 Enabled   management         
4        Board / Board                  Disabled  management    

So, the Board and Kiosk are with different ids on both controllers but only publicwifi has issue.

I red somewhere that for h-reap the wlan ids suppose to be between 1 and 9 (not 10) in order to flip over properly between controllers.

To be honest, it may not neccessarily be a problem with "ID" per se, but instead the order as they are on the AP.

For example, as far as the AP is concerned (assuming those are your only wlans),  the AP will have wlan 1 as board, 2 as Kiosk, 3 as Public...

the on the WLC2  it would be  1 as public,  2 as kiosk (same, so no problem), and 3 as board....

Anyhow, no idea what that 1-9  not 10 thing is about.

We've had a few challenges in the past with WLAN ID 17.... and WLAN ID's that match the "Native Vlan" of your AP....  but those don't cause you to lose mappings....

Another "trick"  taht some people do, is a Dummy Interface of that vlan mapping.

So if you wanted Board to always be vlan 50....  and vlan 50 isn't a real vlan on your WLC,   then you could make a dynamic interface called "Dummy50"  make it vlan 50 with some bogus subnet... and then set your AP group (or the wlan) for its default interface to be Dummy50.       If an AP "defaults", it matches the vlan # of the interface, in this case it would be 50 which is what you want..

Now I'm not neccessarily recomending the above technique, just pointing out what I've seen before....

I highly suggest 7.0.116.0 and then re-evaluate what your results are.

I had issues with native vlan as well; now, i am using 81.

I will start with ios upgrade and test. Will post updates next week.

Thanks for your feedback.

The upgrade to ver 7.0.116 went OK; i had to recreate publicwifi wlan and manually visit all of 115 WAPs to make sure that wlan mapped correctly. Now, bot controllers are identical in terms of wlan id, profile name, ssid name. I have tested the failower between two WLCs and publicwifi works OK. Now i have to mimic other two wlans..

The point to take from this upgrade is: as long as WLCs are having identical WLAN IDs the WPAs can move between two WLCs with no issue. Even dough, if profile names are not the same, as long as IDs are matching on both WLCs everything works perfect.

Regards,

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