Cisco AP VCI 60 – “ServiceProvider”

I was helping another engineer troubleshoot a Cisco access point join problem. To my surprise I discovered the VCI was “Cisco AP c3500-ServiceProvider”

I can appreciate when I end a day with a quick reflection. Did I learn anything new today?

Yesterday was one of those days! I was assisting an engineer with an access point join problem. Of course, I took this opportunity to explain the access point join process and what to look for and how to troubleshoot.

We use DHCP option 43 as our means of joining Cisco access points to our network. After peeking at the DHCP configuration, more specifically the option 43 and VCI string, everything looked good. Other 3500s were joining fine, just these handful of access points were not joining.

I do the typical console into the AP. I see nothing of interest. The access point is not getting the controller IP from DHCP. So we span the switch port of the access point to sniff the access point traffic. I am curious as to what the access point is sending in the DHCP request packet.

To my surprise, the VCI 60 is showing “Cisco AP c3500-ServiceProvider”. Oh, there is my problem! Mistakenly a number of “ServiceProvider” access points were mixed in our access point shipment.

If you have access points not joining, just something to add to your troubleshooting check list!

Comments

[Darren]

I take it the resolution was to RMA the access points?

I was hoping to see how you resolved it.

[George]

Hi Darren,

In this case we just changed the VCI 60 to Cisco AP c3500-ServiceProvider. After the access points joined we moved the VCI back to Cisco AP c3500. The only other option is to RMA the access points. The VCI is hard set from Cisco and can not be changed.