Upgrading AP-324s to IAPs.
This seemingly simple task ended up taking nearly 2 full days and I visited many many rabbit holes. I'm publishing my findings so, anyone else that comes across this scenario might only spend 1 full day trying to sort this, rather than 2!
Background.
Bought 6x AP-324's off eBay for a bargain price. I've configured a lot of Aruba IAPs in the past. Normally, press and hold reset, wait 5 minutes to boot and you're good to go. This time...not so simple.
The APs were configured as campus points on purchase, no idea what the password was but it wouldn't boot to the usual 'set-me-up' factory settings.
Console in to the AP, interrupt the boot, TFTP the image (8.6) on to the AP.
To do this:
Install TFTPD64 on your PC (PC IP 192.168.1.2)
Download latest firmware for AP from HPE, you will need to sign up for an account.
https://networkingsupport.hpe.com/downloads
Download AP320 V8.6 and latest 8.10
Set a temp directory for the TFTP server and copy/rename for ease (324.8.6, 324.8.10)
Using console on AP324
Interrupt boot to get to Apboot menu
Apboot> setenv serverip 192.168.1.2
Apboot> upgrade os 0 324.8.6
wait to finish
Apboot> factory_reset
Wait to finish.
Apboot> boot
Let it boot
At this point it'll look a bit like an IAP, and you can login to it on the browser, but if you set everything up, when you reboot the AP, it'll not boot properly and you'll have to reset and start again.
Instead of configuring, just leave it for now.
I found it impossible to work out how to convert to an IAP without a controller at this point. There were a few guides, but nothing worked properly. So I bought a 7005 (needs to be a >7000 series to install AOS 8) which was the cheapest controller I could find on eBay. £100 more spent.
The 7005 console port doesn't behave as expected. Infact, it didn't work at all for me, just spat out gibberish in putty regardless of settings. So ended up using the USB mini (took some digging to find a cable!). This comes up in device manager, but doesn't install automatically. You need to install these drivers manually:
https://www.silabs.com/developer-tools/usb-to-uart-bridge-vcp-drivers?tab=downloads
Then force the device to use this cp210x driver, found in ports -> silicon labs. This then comes up as a com port that you can connect to the 7005 in putty.
Once the console is up:
Download the 70xx firmware, AOS 6 AND 8.6 are needed (not the latest 8.10)
ArubaOS_70xx_6.5.4.20_80109
ArubaOS_70xx_8.6.0.23_88342
Copy/rename to TFTP server
C6.5
C8.6
Boot the controller and interrupt boot.
>setenv serverip 192.168.1.2
>setenv ipaddr 192.168.1.3
>setenv gateway 192.168.1.1
>setenv netmask 255.255.255.0
>upgrade 0 c6.5
Wait to complete (takes ages)
>factory_reset
Wait to complete
>boot
After boot on setup selection
>Full-setup
Configure basic parameters, make sure mode is set to 'standalone'.
>boot
Login to webui on the controller using settings you've just configured. IP 192.168.1.3
On the config upgrade page, set to TFTP and point upgrade to c8.6 (this upgrade doesn't work if done on cli for some reason).
Let it upgrade, then run the full-setup again on the console, you should then have a controller running v8.6 which you can log in to the webui on the 7005.
The things I found didn't work on the controller
- trying to flash straight to 8.6 or 8.10 on the cli
- upgrading to 8.10, had to upgrade to 8.6 only
- Upgrading to 8.x from the cli, even after installing 6.5 first. Had to use the webui to upgrade.
- If you go straight to 8.x via cli, you will get TPM and file system errors. Re flashing does t work.
- I upgraded partition 2 first, not sure whether this is a needed step.
So now you should have a controller running 8.6 and some factory reset APs running 8.6.
Console to each ap and login, the un is admin and pw is the SN of the AP, all caps.
Run
>convert-aos-ap CAP 192.168.1.3
Leave for a few minutes, the AP will reboot. On the boot console you should see
>>> welcome to the AP <<<
#
Anything you type here will say access denied, that is OK.
Repeat the above for all APs
Log in to the webui for the controller and after some time you should start to see the APs appearing. Activate them on the whitelist page and add them to the default group.
Be aware that the APs will auto reboot every 10 mins or so because your controller likely has no licenses attached to it. They won't output wlan either at this point.
Once all the APs are activated and registered against the controller on the webui, console into the controller again, log in and run:
Ø AP Convert add default
(adds all APs from default group to upgrade list)
Then run
Ø ap convert active all-aps server TFTP 192.168.1.2 324.8.6
(Starts the conversion process, gives no updates / feedback but it's doing it!)
The APs will reboot in to full IAP mode.
They will join together as one network, you can set up SSIDs as desired now.
Once booted, open the virtual controller on the IAPs and upgrade firmware to the latest 8.10 etc.
AOS 10.x is basically cloud only so stick to 8.x for local configurability without licensing requirements.
All your APs are now fully functioning IAPs!
------------------------------
Sam
www.jns-hire.co.uk------------------------------