LAP-1131AG turns light green (connecting to WLC) with no WLC present.

[johnruffing]

I have observed newly-installed LAP-1131AG access points that have been "primed" to a particular controller. When we boot them up with the same WLC controller to which they are primed, they eventually turn light green (which according to the documentation) means that they are connected to the WLC. However, they do not show up on the WLC's AP list.

I considered there may be a problem with the APs getting an UP address from DHCP, so ran the WLC in Layer 2 mode, but had the same results.

In both layer 3, and layer 2 modes the WLC was in master mode and I also tried it with master mode turned off.

Next, I disconnected the WLC entirely, booted up one of the LAP-1131AG access points - and it turned light green with no WLC on the network!

Am I missing something here?

Could there be some type of certificate that the WLC is not recognizing from the APs?

When we placed as sniffer on the network there appeared to be some conversations from both the APs and the WLC.

There was a large amount of ARP traffic.

Any thoughts?

[johnruffing]

More info:

From some of the information we have found, the AP is not getting an IP address from DHCP. Some information we have read from the Cisco documentation indicates that if the LWAP was primed in Layer 3 mode, it will attempt to reconnect to the WLC in layer 3 mode - but only after it receives an IP address from DHCP.

This does not match up exactly with the behavior of the LWAP that was discussed in the Cisco training (or the documentation) where it describes the AP as attempting to find the primary WLC in layer 2 mode, then in layer 3 mode, etc. and if it cannot find a WLC, it then reboots and starts over.

Apparently, if the AP has been primed in layer 3, but cannot get an IP address, its status shows light green - even if no WLC is present and it does not reboot.

Note: LWAPP was scrolling this console message while the LED indicator was light green, which is the color it uses when it is communicating to a WLC normally:

*Mar 1 00:08:49.952: LWAPP_CLIENT_EVENT: spamHandleDiscoveryTimer: Could not di

scover any MWAR

This clearly indicates that the LED color is not necessarily indicative of the TRUE status of the LWAPP.

I would expect that there should at least be a different color on the LWAP when it cannot get an IP address from DHCP. Bug? Feature Request? Unaccounted for scenario? You be the judge.

- John

[johnruffing]

After the APs were able to get their DHCP addresses, the expected "hunt for a WLC and if you can't find one, reboot" sequence proceeded as expected.

So to summarize, an Access Point that has been primed to a WLC at Layer 3 but cannot get an IP address, will power up and turn its status LED to light green and will not go into the seach and reboot sequence until it gets an IP address from DHCP.

[johnruffing]

After speaking with Cisco, the 1131AG LWAPs can only operate in layer 3 mode (which is why they did not register with the WLC in layer 2 mode).

Also, it is currently "normal" operation for the AP to go light green and not go throught the reboot cycle - even when it does not have an IP address via DHCP.

I am going to open a TAC case and issue a feature request on the misleading status LED indicator.

[johnruffing]

Status Light Bug for the 1130 has been confirmed by Cisco TAC. Here is the excerpt from the email:

Subject: 604182863 - 1130 Possible Software Bug

Hi! We did confirm the AP behavior in the lab & checked with DE. A new bug, CSCsf10580, has been filed. I will link your case to the bug & let you know when it is fixed.