Wireless Service
Cisco Access Point Guide
Version 1.1
November 12, 2015
The purpose of this document is to outline the steps for installing and troubleshooting access points.
Wireless Service
Cisco Access Point Guide
Contents
Cisco Aironet Series 2700 Access Point ........................................................................................................ 1
Mounting Options ......................................................................................................................................... 2
Deploying the Access Point on the Network ................................................................................................ 2
Troubleshooting ............................................................................................................................................ 2
Guidelines for Using the Cisco Access Point ............................................................................................. 2
Checking the Access Point LED ................................................................................................................. 3
Troubleshooting the Access Point Join Process ........................................................................................ 4
Check the Basics First ................................................................................................................................ 4
Resources ...................................................................................................................................................... 4
Cisco Documents....................................................................................................................................... 4
Document History
Version
Date Brief Description
Number
V.1 10/1/2014 Initial Version
V1.1 11/12/2015 Branding with WaTech
Wireless Service
Cisco Access Point Guide
Cisco Aironet Series 2700 Access Point
The Cisco 2700 AP is the latest access point supporting 802.11ac. It has 3x4 spatial streams and a very good
receive sensitivity. Cisco Aironet series 2700 AP is an 802.11 ac Wave-1 and 3x4:3 MIMO AP.
Access Point Ports and Connections
1 Kensington lock slot 4 Auxiliary Ethernet Port
2 DC Power connection port 5 RS232 Console Port
3 Primary Ethernet port 6 Mounting bracket pins ( feet for desk or table-top mount
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Mounting Options
Cisco Bracket-1, Bracket-2, or the flush mount Bracket-3 may be used.
Deploying the Access Point on the Network
After the AP has been mounted, follow these steps to deploy it:
Step 1 Connect and power up the access point
Step 2 Observe the AP LED
a. When you power up the access point, it begins a power-up sequence that you can verify by
observing the AP LED. If the power-up sequence is successful, the discovery and join process begins.
During this process, the LED blinks sequentially green, red, and off. When the AP has joined the
controller, the LED is green if no clients are associated or blue if one or more clients are associated.
b. If the LED is not on, the AP is most like not receiving power.
c. If the LED blinks sequentially for more than 5 minutes, the AP is unable to find its primary or
secondary WLC. Check the connection between the AP and switch, ensure the AP has a route back
to the primary WLC. May need to verify switching, routing, firewall rules, and DNS entries.
Troubleshooting
Guidelines for Using the Cisco Access Point
The access point can only communicate with Cisco wireless LAN controllers.
CAPWAP does not support Layer 2. The access point must get an IP address and discover the controller
using Layer 3, DHCP, DNS, or IP subnet broadcast. WaTech is using DNS method.
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The access point console port is enabled for monitoring and debug purposes. All configuration
commands are disabled when the access point is connected to a controller.
Checking the Access Point LED
The figure below illustrates where the LED indicator is located.
LED Status Indications
Message Type Status LED Message Meaning
Boot loader status sequence Blinking Green DRAM memory test in progress
DRAM memory test OK
Board initialization in progress
Initializing FLASH file system
FLASH memory test OK
Initializing Ethernet
Ethernet OK
Starting Cisco IOS
Initialization successful
Association status Green Normal operating condition, but no
wireless client associated
Blue Normal operating condition, at least
one wireless client associated.
Operating Status Blinking Blue Software upgrade in progress
Cycling through green, red, and off Discovery/join process in progress
Rapidly cycling through blue, green and Access point location command
red invoked
Blinking red Ethernet link not operational
Boot loader warnings Blinking blue Configuration recovery in progress
Red Ethernet failure or image recovery
Blinking green Image recovery in progress
Boot loader errors Red DRAM memory test failure
Blinking red and blue FLASH file system failure
Blinking red and off Environment variable failure
Bad MAC address
Ethernet failure during image
recovery
Boot environment failure
No Cisco image file
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Troubleshooting the Access Point Join Process
Access points can fail to join a controller for many reasons: a RADIUS authorization is pending; self-signed
certificates are not enabled on the controller; the access points and controller’s regulatory domains don’t
match, and so on.
Controller software enables you to configure the access points to send all CAPWAP-related errors to a syslog
server. You do not need to enable any debug commands on the controller because all of the CAPWAP error
messages can be viewed from the syslog server itself.
The state of the access point is not maintained on the controller until it receives a CAPWAP join request from
the access point. Therefore, it can be difficult to determine why the CAPWAP discovery request from a certain
access point was rejected. In order to troubleshoot such joining problems without enabling CAPWAP debug
commands on the controller, the controller collects information for all access points that send a discovery
message to it and maintains information for any access points that have successfully joined it.
The controller collects all join-related information for each access point that sends a CAPWAP discovery request
to the controller. Collection begins with the first discovery message received from the access point and ends
with the last configuration payload sent from the controller to the access point.
Check the Basics First
1. Can the AP and WLC communicate?
2. Make sure the AP is getting an address from DHCP
3. Try pinging the AP from the controller.
4. Check if the STP configuration on the switch is done right so that packets to the VLANs are not
blocked.
5. Each time the AP reboots, it initiates the WLC discovery sequence and tries to locate the AP.
6. Reboot the AP and check if it joins the WLC.
Resources
Cisco Documents
Cisco Aironet 2700 Series Access Points Data Sheet
[Link]
[Link]
Getting Started Guide: Cisco Aironet 2700 Series Access Points
[Link]
Cisco Aironet Series 2700/3700 Access Points Deployment Guide
[Link]
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