Discovery mode for a WLC 4402

[ethutchinson]

We have a Cisco Wireless Lan controller 4402 running 7.0.235.3. How do I know what discovery mode either layer 2 or 3 it is running? We have several APs that will not join. ( they used to ) and if I let the current ones lose power they will probably not as well. When I watch the APs boot through a console session I see an error message saying dtls max retransmission count is reached and the AP goes into a constant reboot. The APs are Cisco aironet802.11 abg running in lightweight mode. If I reset the AP using the mode button they do join the controller but obviously I cannot keep doing this.

Thanks 

[Sandeep Choudhary]

Check these link to understand more about layer and layer 3 discovery:

https://supportforums.cisco.com/document/95736/lightweight-ap-discovery-process-wireless-lan-controllers

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/wireless-mobility/wireless-lan-wlan/70333-lap-registration.html

Paste the info:

From WLC: sh sysinfo

From AP: sh version

also paste the entire bootup process from AP console.

Regards

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[ethutchinson]

Thanks Sandeep, while I get that info for you is there a way to see what mode it is running in now?

[ethutchinson]

From the WLC

sh sysinfo

Manufacturer's Name.............................. Cisco Systems Inc.
Product Name..................................... Cisco Controller
Product Version.................................. 7.0.235.3
RTOS Version..................................... 7.0.235.3
Bootloader Version............................... 4.0.219.0
Emergency Image Version.......................... N/A
Build Type....................................... DATA + WPS

System Name...................................... Cityhall Wireless controller
System Location.................................. 
System Contact................................... 
System ObjectID.................................. 1.3.6.1.4.1.14179.1.1.4.3
IP Address....................................... 192.9.200.141
System Up Time................................... 1 days 0 hrs 15 mins 4 secs
System Timezone Location......................... (GMT -5:00) Eastern Time (US )

Configured Country............................... US  - United States
Operating Environment............................ Commercial (0 to 40 C)
Internal Temp Alarm Limits....................... 0 to 65 C
Internal Temperature............................. +34 C

--More-- or (q)uit
State of 802.11b Network......................... Enabled
State of 802.11a Network......................... Enabled
Number of WLANs.................................. 3
Number of Active Clients......................... 8

Burned-in MAC Address............................ 00:24:C4:E6:19:E0
Crypto Accelerator 1............................. Absent
Crypto Accelerator 2............................. Absent
Power Supply 1................................... Absent
Power Supply 2................................... Present, OK
Maximum number of APs supported.................. 50

[Sandeep Choudhary]

From this I can not say but:

Few INfo:

In Layer 2 mode, the LAPs are required to be on the same subnet as the management interface. The LAPs communicate with the controller using Layer 2 encapsulation only (ethernet encapsulation) and do not Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) an IP addr

 In Layer 3 mode, the LAPs would DHCP an IP address first and then send their discovery request to the management interface using IP addresses (Layer 3). This allowed the LAPs to be on a different subnet than the management interface of the controller. Layer 3 mode is the dominate mode today.

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*** 1. WLC can operate in both Layer 2 and Layer 3 LWAPP mode.

     2. You can also change the AP Transport Mode on wlc.

Imp: Wireless LAN Controller software release 5.2 or later supports only Layer 3 LWAPP/CAPWAP mode.

So it is running layer3.

Regards

Dont forget to rate helpful posts

[ethutchinson]

Thanks Sandeep, I would post the bootlog from my test bootlog but it is working. ARGHH. This is very frustrating but it leads me down another path. The DTLS connection was successful and the AP joined. The only difference between this one and the rest that are down is I had gone into this AP through the WLC gui and given it a name, put an IP address in the high availability tab, and enabled telnet so I could take look at it that way. I am going to unplug another AP that was setup the same as my test one and see what happens. I will let you know what happens next.

[ethutchinson]

On second thought I dont want any of the APs to come down again so I wont do that. Maybe you could help shed some light on this DTLS error from my first post and how I can prevent it because it seems to be very random.