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M4300-12X12F replacing M7100-24X - Wireless Access Points not working
Hi Everyone, I'm attempting to replace our ageing M7100-24X with a M4300-12X12F (XSM4324S) which I bought just over two weeks ago. I haven't contacted support yet as I'm hoping that perhaps someon...
Paul,
As you mentioned the data is flowing over that MiNT tunnel between AP and controller - that is making use of 24577/UDP (wally brain is awake again) - I guess trouble with discovery and management is more on that special ether-type 0x8783 for L2 than on UDP used for L3 (routed connections).
Some sniffing would easily proof if the switch does fail to deal with ether-type 0x8783. That's why I point on the Netgear switch engineering resp. fellow Laurent Masia. 8-)
Regards,
-Kurt
Your post is quite long, but it doesn't contain information such as a example port config or a small diagram to more easily spot things you might have missed in transplanting from the M7100 by the M4300 . The M7100 is older, but it should (?) not have more feature than the M4300. It could be helpful to attach (not copy-paste) a sanitized config from the M7100 and M4300 (and also highlight which ports relevant / connected to what item).
I could imagine you are running into something you just didn't spot, it happens, but the text config could be helpful to make a comparison. đ If your Extreme APs have a serial console, you might also be able to see what they are missing if you can see L2 connectivity as you say. Maybe they spit out error messages that might give you a clue. I once hat issues with Cisco APs refusing to join theior WLC unless both APs and WLC had access to a proper NTP time source at startup.
Hi MSI,
Thanks very much for your reply and apologies for my delay in replying; I've been away from work for 10 days.
While you're correct that it's very possible that I missed some configuration moving from the the M7100-24X to the M4300-12X12F, I didn't go into specific Port configurations as at that point I'd actually assumed I'd made a config error and Factory Defaulted the M4300 to again start from scratch.
This, I suppose is the crux of my issue; A Wireless Access Point (which uses the default VLAN 1 as it's management VLAN) directly connected to the Factory Defaulted "vanilla" M4300-12X12F is not adopted or "seen" by the Wireless Controller.
The same Access Point when directly connected to the Factory Defaulted M7100-24X (or any other of our numerous Netgear Smart Switches) is correctly adopted & "seen" by the Wireless Controller. The AP still needs configuration to work correctly in our environment, but it's presence and connectivity on our LAN is established. I reiterate; this is before any configuration changes are made from Factory Default.
This is quite a funadamental difference in behavior, one I haven't come across before, and one I'm struggling to understand.
I've attached a document showing a simplified diagram hopefully helping to clarify what I've said.
Thanks & Kind Regards,
Paul
Hi
OK, it's interesting that you are using a lower-spec GS724 as a core switch but a much beefier M7100 for your APs, nonetheless. There are a couple of variables to check, but without configurations provided, it's not much more than a lightly educated guess still.
You didn't mention the AP model so I can't quickly check if it would have a serial connection available, as mentioned, this could actually be helpful in order to identify potential issues.
Unless I'm completely wrong, this M7100 doesn't provide any PoE, the M4300-12X12F definitely doesn't provide any PoE at all so I can only imagine you are powering the AP from an external power supply. - To me that's another rather unusual decision since powering APs via an external power source adds more cabling. (However due to this we can exclude issues related to the PoE budget allocated to the AP since both switches do not provide PoE.)
It might also well be that your Extreme APs have some weird issues with autonegotiation, I doubt your APs support 10GBASE-T ports. Usually a non-working autonegotiation leads to no connectivity (you said you could ping the AP from the controller), so while unlikely you could force i.e. 1G on the switch port side.If both the M7100 and the M4300 are reset to factory default, you could check the port configuration on the core switch GS724, or if possible, simply connect the M4300 into the port the M7100 is currently connected to. While most GS* switches only have a web UI, you can export a text config - you should be able find a per port section where you can usually more easily spot differences in the port config.
Use the "show logging buffered" when connected via SSH, Telnet or Serial on both the M7100 and M4300. Can you spot error messages when the APs gets plugged in? You can also check if the port status is really on the AP and uplink sinde on the M4300 using the "show interfaces status all" command. Then you can also check with "show mac-addr-table" if you can see the MACs of both the WAP and the controller.
But again: They are only educated guesses. Providing logs, Model types and configuration could help.Hi MSI,
Thanks again for your reply and suggestions, they're much appreciated.
Again, I should apologise for not being as clear as I intended or thought I was being:
The GS724TS(B) is only temporarily (hopefully) being used as the centre of our core LAN because the M7100-24X had began to behave erratically and the M4300-12X12F which was supposed to be it's replacement, won't work in the same way (This is where we came in).
Also I should explain that the diagram I provided was that of a "diagnostic" setup I used to try to illustrate that it was the M4300 that was behaving differently to our other Netgear Switches when placed in the same role/location. Our APs are not normally connected directly to these switches, they are normally located in factory/production areas which are located up to 6 "hops" away through other Netgear switches (mainly GS748Tv5 & GS724Tv4 & GS724TPv2 at the "end of the line" which provide POE for the APs).
You are correct that in this "diagnostic" setup I had to use a POE injector for the AP as none of the switches provide POE, although this didn't affect correct operation except through the M4300.
I should also say that it was the same AP connected to each of the switches in turn not 4 APs concurrently as my diagram may have suggested. Again, apologies for the lack of clarity, I was just trying to demostrate the consistency in behavior between all the switches (even the lowly GS110T) in contrast to the M4300.
Some of your suggestions I've tried; using a Syslog server on both the M7100 & M4300 when the same AP is connected; both switches' logs only show the port coming "up" but no errors, and both the AP's and Wireless Controller's mac addresses show up correctly in the address tables of both switches.
The AP model is a Extreme AP410e which indeed does have a console port so I'll attempt to view the APs startup via putty whilst connected to the different switches to see if I can discern any difference from the AP side.
Thanks & Kind regards,
Paul
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