DX NetOps

We upgraded our Spectrum environment to r10.1.  One new feature that we were interested in implementing was the modeling of wireless access points managed by a WLC (wireless LAN controller).  With 800+ AP's, this seemed like a valuable add.  However, we have issues with it.  All of our wireless access points learn their management IP address from DHCP.  The IP addresses of AP's can change anytime that an AP or switch that they get power from is rebooted or power cycled.  Also, there are quite a number of AP's that have primary and secondary WLC's, and these WLC's are not on the same Spectrum landscapes, so there are two models for AP's which are managed in this way.

So, what we end up with in Spectrum is that for many of the times when the management IP address for an AP changes, there will be alarms created because the models in Spectrum are not being updated.  Also, there's another issue which is understandable.  When failing over to a secondary SpectroServer, we will usually have some number of AP alarms asserted because the secondary will have AP management IP addresses which conflict due to the time that's past since the last on-line backup (in our case every 12 hours).

Any suggestions?  We may just need to delete the AP's and not model them.

That is one aspect of Spectrum that can get you.  Spectrum polls by the IP address that you have configured in the model.  If the IP address changes, Spectrum doesn't know and so it can be wrong for those devices that use DHCP.

I recommend that you look at Idea "Allow SPECTRUM Polling by Hostname or IP Address" (https://communities.ca.com/ideas/235721826?commentID=233914491#comment-233914491 ) and vote it up.

We have a similar problem with "critical" cable modems that we monitor.  What I have done to get around this is to setup a perl script that is run once an hour (via cron).  This script will grab all the devices that have the alarm "DEVICE HAS STOPPED RESPONDING TO POLLS" and then checks DNS to see if the IP address has changed.  If it has, the script updates Spectrum with the new address.  My next step is to update the script so that it will investigate every device model with a particular name format or model type and verify that their IPs are correct.  This would run less frequently, such as once a week.

Thanks for your input.  So, once the WLC is modeled with the AP modeling option checked, the only way the AP IP addresses will ever be changed in Spectrum is to either manually change them, use a script, or delete and rediscover.

Hi William,

would you be so kind to share your script here?

Thanks,

  Hilmar

Hello BrianHunter1317154,

This issue will be fixed in the future releases of Spectrum. Also a patch has been released for the same. Request you to get in touch with your CA Support contact.

Thanks,

Nagesh

Could you please provide the patch ID/name?  I just reviewed the Spectrum 10.1.0 patch list and didn't see anything that seems to apply.  We do have 10.01.00.PTF_10.1.017 installed, if that's the one to which you are referring.

Thanks.

Hello BrianHunter1317154,

Yes. This is it.

Thanks,

Nagesh

I installed the 10.01.00.PTF_10.1.017 patch in July.  It did indeed fix the issue of duplicate AP models being created.  However, it doesn't deal with my issue where the AP management addresses change.  In our environment the AP's do not have permanent assigned IP addresses but use DHCP.  We get alarms for "DUPLICATE IP WITH DIFFERENT MAC DETECTED".  So, it seems that the WLC manager cannot manage such an environment. Once an AP is modeled, the only way an IP address is going to be updated is if we do it manually. 

Hello Brian,

We are looking at supporting APs that are DHCP driven. Don't think we have a date yet.but we are looking at this.

Stay tuned for some updates on this..

Regards,

Kiran Diwakar

Is there an idea open I can track? Aside of https://communities.ca.com/ideas/235721826 mentioned above?

Hello BrianHunter1317154, 

We had couple of customers who had installed this patch and got the issue resolved where they were using DHCP for assigning IP's to Access Points. 

Now the issue which you have brought up which is same IP to different Access Points doesn't seems to be right to me. I would suggest you to raise support ticket so that someone from Spectrum team can take a look at your environment. 

Thanks,

Nagesh 

I've already sought out help from support on my issue.  It appears that Access Point management IP addresses derived from DHCP and subject to possible frequent changes is not currently supported.  However, since Kiran Diwakar indicated that it's being looked at for a supported capability, I have some hope that it will be enhancement.

Thanks.

Brian Hunter

Hello BrianHunter1317154,

Right. We are currently running Beta Trail for the same. Let me know if you would be interested. Shoot me an email at Nagesh.Jaiswal@ca.com. 

Thanks,

Nagesh 

Hi Nagesh,

we just had the same problem with DHCP-driven APs managed with WLC-Manager (Spec 10.1.1.0.64).

In the night about 12 AP-Devices changed their Mgmt-IP-Adsress because of power-outage on site, resulting in 12 unclearable "Device has stopped responding to polls" Alarms.

That caused some confusion within the operators personell.

From my knowledge I thought dynamic change of Mgmt-IP-Address of AP-Devices managed by WLC is already implemented.

What would you recommend to workaround / fix this problem?

- Install patch xxxx?

- Delete problematic APs and perform rediscovery for WLCs?

- In which version will the fix be implemented?

Best Regards

Lothar

Hello lotmueller, 

For immediate resolution you can make use of patch 10.01.00.PTF_10.1.017. For which prerequisite is that you remove the problematic AP's and then install. After this you should not face the issue. 

The issue is permanently addressed in next release of Spectrum which tentatively will be available by end of this calendar year. 

Thanks,

Nagesh 

Unfortunately, the fix was not included in Spectrum r10.1.2.  So, wireless AP monitoring is again broken with duplicate models being created.  It's wasting users time chasing false alarms.  As a result we will need to discontinue the use of the Spectrum WLC Manager.  It seemed like a great idea, but trying to monitor these in Spectrum has not worked out.

Hi Brian,

                We are working on porting the fix to 10.1.2…

It’s being processed.  Once available it will be 10.01.02.PTF_10.1.207.  We do not have an ETA yet on that.

Cheers

Jay

So, that thread is about a year old. Is the feature now available in any official patch/release I can download from CA? Could anybody post the version here? Many thanks!

What version of Spectrum are you running?  All of the AP/DHCP fixes were included in 10.2.1…

There is an issue in 10.2.1 in which the AP can move (fixed by Spectrum_10.02.01.PTF_10.2.123)

Cheers

Jay

That patch is not listed in the "Spectrum 10.2.1 Patch List" as of 8th of September. Just that one:

10.02.01.D172: This is a debug patch with a potential fix for the following issue:

Symptom: When APs get new IPs then the AP is moved to the WLC's container.

Resolution: Changed code to keep the AP in its container instead of moving to WLC's container after getting new IP.

Is the debug patch superseeded by a final patch?

Hi Hilmar,

                Yes, the Spectrum_10.02.01.PTF_10.2.123 supersedes 10.02.01.D172 (although that PTF is built from D172 so I believe the code is the same).  We need to get the docs updated…

Cheers

Jay