Cisco WLC Code 7.0.98.0 Deferred Status

It has come to my attention that code 7.0.98.0 was moved to "deferred status".

This is pretty relevant information as customers are still on this revision. Perhaps it may be because of the number of related bugs in this release ? Please comment if you have any details .. Thanks

http://software.cisco.com/download/release.html?mdfid=282600534&flowid=7012&softwareid=280926587&release=7.4.100.0&relind=AVAILABLE&rellifecycle=ED&reltype=latest

Update on Friday, January 4, 2013 at 2:00PM by George

*UPDATE* - I understand that Cisco will not support customers on code that is in deferred status. They will advise a code upgrade.

BUG CSCuc32335: Local Mode Aps on 7.0.220.0 lose configs and get defaulted after power loss

This is a bug I discovered and I understand another customer is reporting the same issue. Still providing TAC config info and testing. 

CSCuc32335 Bug Details

Local Mode Aps on 7.0.220.0 lose configs and get defaulted.
Symptom: Local mode Aps on wlc lose config and get defaulted Conditions: when Local when it loses power or shut no- shut is done to the POE port. Workaround: Reconfigure or rename the AP	Status   Open  Severity   3 - moderate  Last Modified   In Last 3 Days  Product   Cisco 5500 Series Wireless Controllers Technology   1st Found-In   7.0(220.0)

Cisco Live 2011: CCIE Wireless Session (LAB v2) TECCCIE-8006

I sat the 8 hour CCIE Wireless session at Cisco Live on Sunday. Talk about brain swell. I was in good company with the likes of Blake Krone, Jason Boyers and others.

During the session I used twitter for my note taking, so if you’re following me then you may have noticed an abundance of tweets on Sunday with the #CCIEW and #CL11 hash tags. The session was very focused on most lab topics and lab v2 changes, expected on Nov 18^th  of this year.

CCIE WIRELESS BULLET POINTS

What made this event unique is the fact that the presenters have either wrote or participated in lab development content. You weren’t getting second hand information from someone else. There were MANY notable items and I will only share a few here. Again, I would recommend stopping by Blake’s and Jason’s blogs.

• CCIE Wireless v2 will be out Nov 18, 2011
• OEQ are getting ditched when v2 comes out
• IPv6 will be on v2
• MULTICAST, MUTICAST, MULTICAST
• CCIE Wireless v2 will be on M1 code release 7.0.116.0
• ACS 5.2, MSE and ANYCONNECT 3.0 are new additions
• Know RRM and ALL your default timers
• CCNP R/S is highly recommended
• OfficeExtends is a new addition, although the AP600 is not in the lab mix
• CCIE Wireless Quick Reference guide is near completion and should be out around November
• CCIE Wireless v2 will no longer come with a paper workbook, rather a digtial one on the pc

Comments I found interesting

“ 95% of the LAB is based around best practices ”

“ 45 CCIE Wireless world wide. 60% of which are Cisco employees ”

“ 25 of the 45 CCIEs are in the US”

“ The first female CCIE W passed this week, again Cisco employee ”

“ CCNA level R/S will not be enough to pass the wired side tasks of the CCIE W ”

“ The lab can be completed in 5 -6 hours “

“ Average 3 attempts to pass the exam “

DEMO LAB / SOLUTION GUIDE

Each person received a demo lab book which is an “example” of a mock up lab. When asked if we could share this document, although its just an “example” lab we were given the “look”. 

The presenters also shared how the lab is graded. This was a good eye opener for most of us in the class. As the CCIE W is manually graded it was interesting to see how it was done. In short, the example lab was 22 pages with about 40 pts. The solution guide that the proctor uses in this example was 68 pages. The guide was color coded. Yellow represented what the config on the lab should represent exactly. While blue was variable.

In closing. It was worth the extra $1,000 bucks to sit this class. The presenters all did a great job.

Presenters

Stephen Orr Distinguished Systems Engineer
Javier Contreras Albesa System Engineering - WNBU Escalation
Erik Vangrunderbeek Product Manager
Matt Swartz Technical Leader
Secondary Speaker:   Davie Chia Product Manager

NOTES:

You can find my tweets @wirelesssguru and I have included links to Blake’s and Jason’s blog post.

Blake Krone:

http://blakekrone.com/2011/07/10/cisco-live-2011-day-1-ccie-w-techtorial

Jason Boyers:

http://blog.ipexpert.com/2011/07/11/cisco-live-news-and-updates-ccie-wireless/

Autonomous: Understanding Cisco AP ARP Caching [Disabled] / [Enabled] / [Optional]

 

ARP Caching at the access point isn't something normally deployed in the field in my experience, but I wanted to cover it here.  I've done limited testing with this "nerd knob" function in the field. If you have this in production I would like to hear your feedback! 

ARP caching on an access point reduces the traffic on your wireless LAN by stopping ARP requests for client devices at the access point. The good is that you lessen the ARP traffic and lessen the use of the wireless medium. There is also a security benny. If you are familiar with aireplay-ng it works by capturing the ARP packet and replaying it back to the AP to generate traffic. By blocking the ARP at the AP you lessen the upstream ARPs to the wireless clients to be sniffed, but you still have down stream ARPs (wireless clients to LAN). 

ARP CACHE DISABLED:

ap(config)#no dot11 arp-cache <-- Negate dot11 arp-cache with "NO"

When ARP caching is disabled (its is by default), the access point forwards all ARP requests through the radio port to associated clients, and the client to which the ARP request is directed responds.

See FIG 1.

ARP CACHE ENABLED:

ap(config)#dot11 arp-cache <-- dot11 arp-cache ENABLED

When ARP caching is enabled, the access point responds to ARP requests for associated clients and does not forward requests to clients. When the access point receives an ARP request for an IP address not in the cache, the access point drops the request and does not forward it. Did your ears just perk up!? See Fig 2

ARP CACHE OPTIONAL: 

ap(config)#ap(config)#dot11 arp-cache optional <-- dot11 arp-cache OPTIONAL

When legacy and non-Cisco client devices are associated to an access point and not passing data, the access point might not know the client’s IP address. If this situation occurs frequently on your wireless LAN, you can enable optional ARP caching. When ARP caching is optional, the access point responds on behalf of clients with IP addresses known to the access point but forwards out its radio port any ARP requests addressed to unknown clients. When the access point learns the IP addresses for all associated clients, it drops ARP requests not directed to its associated clients.