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Cisco Catalyst 9117AX Series Access Points
In a CAPWAP environment, a wireless access point discovers a controller by using CAPWAP discovery mechanisms and
then sends it a CAPWAP join request. The controller sends the access point a CAPWAP join response allowing the
access point to join the controller. When the access point joins the controller, the controller manages its configuration,
firmware, control transactions, and data transactions.
Note
For additional information about the discovery process and CAPWAP, see the
Cisco Wireless Controller
Software Configuration Guide
. This document is available on Cisco.com.
Note
CAPWAP support is provided in controller software release 5.2 or later. However, your controller must be
running the release that supports 9117AX series access points, as specified in the access point data sheet.
Note
You cannot edit or query any access point using the controller CLI if the name of the access point contains a
space.
Note
Make sure that the controller is set to the current time. If the controller is set to a time that has already
occurred, the access point might not join the controller because its certificate may not be valid for that time.
Access points must be discovered by a controller before they can become an active part of the network. The access
point supports these controller discovery processes:
Layer 3 CAPWAP discovery
—Can occur on different subnets than the access point and uses IP addresses and UDP
packets rather than MAC addresses used by Layer 2 discovery.
Locally stored controller IP address discovery
—If the access point was previously joined to a controller, the IP
addresses of the primary, secondary, and tertiary controllers are stored in the access point non-volatile memory. This
process of storing controller IP addresses on an access point for later deployment is called
priming the access point
.
For more information about priming, see the
“Performing a Pre-Installation Configuration” section on page 10
DHCP server discovery
—This feature uses DHCP option 43 to provide controller IP addresses to the access points.
Cisco switches support a DHCP server option that is typically used for this capability. For more information about
DHCP option 43, see the
“Configuring DHCP Option 43” section on page 20
DNS discovery
—The access point can discover controllers through your domain name server (DNS). For the access
point to do so, you must configure your DNS to return controller IP addresses in response to
CISCO-CAPWAP-CONTROLLER.
localdomain
, where
localdomain
is the access point domain name. Configuring the
CISCO-CAPWAP-CONTROLLER provides backwards compatibility in an existing customer deployment. When an
access point receives an IP address and DNS information from a DHCP server, it contacts the DNS to resolve
CISCO-CAPWAP-CONTROLLER.
localdomain
. When the DNS sends a list of controller IP addresses, the access
point sends discovery requests to the controllers.
Deploying the Access Point on the Wireless Network
After you have mounted the access point, follow these steps to deploy it on the wireless network:
Step 1
Connect and power up the access point.
