Convert Cisco lightweight AP to standalone AP
When I purchased in the USA hardware for my Cisco lab, I got also some older AIR-LAP1142N access points.
With a wireless controller (I got the AIR-CT2504 model) and in lightweight mode they work fine, but for a special setup I needed an access point running as standalone.
The special setup in this case is a small installation where an ASA5505 provides LAN and Internet access and the access point is connected to one of the ASA’s Power-over-Ethernet ports.
Note: The same process can used to convert the access point back from standalone to lightweight software image.
Therefore I had to convert it with a standalone version and I explain the process here. The process is quite simple and
I would like to break it down into the following steps:
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Boot lightweight access point with console cable and laptop connected
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During boot process, send BREAK signal in your terminal application
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Set network parameters which are required for TFTP download
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Initialize TFTP, Ethernet and Flash
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Extract software image from TFTP server to Flash via tar
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Set BOOT variable to new software image
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Verify the variables
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Reboot access point to make sure it comes up with new image
Running Normal Memtest... Passed. IOS Bootloader - Starting system. FLASH CHIP: Numonyx P33 Checking for Over Erased blocks ................................................................................ ................................................................................ ................................................................................ ...... Xmodem file system is available. DDR values used from system serial eeprom. WRDTR,CLKTR: 0x88000800, 0x40000000 RQDC, RFDC : 0x80000038, 0x00000212 PCIE0: link is up. PCIE0: VC0 is active PCIE1: link is up. PCIE1: VC0 is active PCIEx: initialization done flashfs[0]: 48 files, 9 directories flashfs[0]: 0 orphaned files, 0 orphaned directories flashfs[0]: Total bytes: 32385024 flashfs[0]: Bytes used: 11733504 flashfs[0]: Bytes available: 20651520 flashfs[0]: flashfs fsck took 23 seconds. Reading cookie from system serial eeprom...Done Base Ethernet MAC address: 30:e4:db:c5:42:95 !! !! SEND BREAK HERE TO STOP BOOT PROCESS !! The system boot has been aborted. The following commands will finish loading the operating system software: ether_init tftp_init boot
At minimum the following variables should be set: IP_ADDR, NETMASK and DEFAULT_ROUTER:
ap: set IP_ADDR n.n.n.n ap: set NETMASK n.n.n.n ap: set DEFAULT_ROUTER n.n.n.n
Then the subsystems can be initialized with the following commands:
ap: tftp_init tftp_init success: You can now use tftp file system! ap: ether_init Ethernet speed is 1000 Mb - FULL duplex ap: flash_init Initializing Flash... ...The flash is already initialized.
In the next step the software image must be extracted from a TFTP server:
ap: tar -xtract tftp://n.n.n.n/ios/sap1140/c1140-k9w7-tar.153-3.JD6.tar flash: extracting info (280 bytes) c1140-k9w7-mx.153-3.JD6/ (directory) 0 (bytes) extracting c1140-k9w7-mx.153-3.JD6/c1140-k9w7-mx.153-3.JD6 (119277 bytes)......................... c1140-k9w7-mx.153-3.JD6/html/ (directory) 0 (bytes) c1140-k9w7-mx.153-3.JD6/html/level/ (directory) 0 (bytes) c1140-k9w7-mx.153-3.JD6/html/level/1/ (directory) 0 (bytes) extracting c1140-k9w7-mx.153-3.JD6/html/level/1/appsui.js (563 bytes) !! !! ...AND SO ON... !! extracting c1140-k9w7-mx.153-3.JD6/final_hash (141 bytes) extracting c1140-k9w7-mx.153-3.JD6/final_hash.sig (512 bytes) extracting c1140-k9w7-mx.153-3.JD6/img_sign_rel.cert (1375 bytes) extracting c1140-k9w7-mx.153-3.JD6/img_sign_rel_sha2.cert (1371 bytes) extracting info.ver (280 bytes) ap:
Then it’s time to set the BOOT variable to the new software image. In addition I prefer to verify the variables, which can be accomplished by the set command:
ap: set BOOT flash:/c1140-k9w7-mx.153-3.JD6/c1140-k9w7-mx.153-3.JD6 ap: set BACKUPBOOT=flash:/c1140-k9w8-mx.152-2.JB2/c1140-k9w8-mx.152-2.JB2 BOOT=flash:/c1140-k9w7-mx.153-3.JD6/c1140-k9w7-mx.153-3.JD6 DEFAULT_ROUTER=n.n.n.n ENABLE_BREAK=yes IOS_STATIC_DEFAULT_GATEWAY=n.n.n.n IOS_STATIC_IP_ADDR=n.n.n.n IOS_STATIC_NETMASK=n.n.n.n IP_ADDR=n.n.n.n MANUAL_BOOT=no NETMASK=n.n.n.n NEW_IMAGE=yes PRODUCT_MODEL_NUMBER=AIR-LAP1142N-A-K9 RELOAD_REASON=58 ROM_PERSISTENT_UTC=1504134020 TERMLINES=0
Time to boot the access point with it’s new software image and to verify it comes up:
ap: boot Loading "flash:/c1140-k9w7-mx.153-3.JD6/c1140-k9w7-mx.153-3.JD6"...############ File "flash:/c1140-k9w7-mx.153-3.JD6/c1140-k9w7-mx.153-3.JD6" uncompressed and installed, entry point: 0x4000 executing... enet halted Secondary Bootloader - Starting system. FLASH CHIP: Numonyx P33 Checking for Over Erased blocks ............................................................................... ............................................................................... ............................................................................... ......... Xmodem file system is available. flashfs[0]: 249 files, 15 directories flashfs[0]: 0 orphaned files, 0 orphaned directories flashfs[0]: Total bytes: 32385024 flashfs[0]: Bytes used: 21245440 flashfs[0]: Bytes available: 11139584 flashfs[0]: flashfs fsck took 7 seconds. Reading cookie from system serial eeprom...Done Base Ethernet MAC address: hh:hh:hh:hh:hh:hh !! !! ...AND SO ON... !!