18
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 point’s 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.
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
Boot failure
Cisco IOS errors Red Software failure; try disconnecting and
reconnecting unit power
Cycling through blue,
green, red, and off
General warning; insufficient inline power
Table 1 LED Status Indications (continued)
Message
Type
Status
LED
Message
Meaning