Aruba AP-635 Unable to upgrade firmware (Solved)

[clcorbin]

Folks,

I picked up a "new in box" AP-635-US off ebay to expand my wireless at home. The "SetmeUpxx:xx:xx" SSID is working and I can connect and log into the AP just fine.

The initial problem is when I attached it to my existing virtual controller (a single IAP-505 that is on the latest 8.12.x.x firmware), it never showed up. After checking things after an hour, it showed an alert that it couldn't join the AP-635 because of a firmware mismatch. No problem right? Just connect to the AP-635 independently and update the firmware from there, then factory reset it and rejoin it to the management VLAN.

The problem is when I try to upgrade the firmware from 8.9.0.0 it came with. If I click the automatic update, it finds the latest version (8.12.x.x) and starts the upgrade process when I click on upgrade. However, after about 15 seconds, it says it can't download the firmware.

In the log, it shows the wget command it is trying to use to download the firmware and I have used a modified version of that to download all 43MB without issues. I've even tried to use the firmware file I downloaded to upgrade it. It will either give me the exact same error and error log (strange that it is failing to download a file from aruba when the file is already local to the network) or it gave me a different error without any real info in it.

I've factory reset this thing multiple times and along with hard reboots and it just won't update the firmware. Anyone have any issues like this? How was it resolved? Any other ideas on how to tackle this little beast? Over the years, I've used multiple Aruba APs (305, 315, 345 and 505 come to mind) with no issues either setting up the IAP virtual controller

 

[Mike9474593]

Just to be sure there is nothing wrong with the image you'll get over the update button: did you download the image from HPE networking support portal and tried to upload it to your AP?
I had no issues with the AP-615, but it uses Leo instead of Norma...

 

[clcorbin]

It doesn't act like it ever even LOOKS at the image from the file. Instead, it always tries to download it again and gives me the same error (with same log entries) as when I use the autoupdate method. And the image was one I pulled from the same repository that the auto update was trying to pull from. I manually pulled it just to prove that wget was working. Then, in a "why not?" I tried to manually load the file.

 

[Mike9474593]

Then there might be a problem with the image you'll get over wget. Autoupdate file on the repo could be broken.
It wouldn't be the first time Aruba messes up with that. I once got 10.something over the update button on my IAP-305. Yeah, this was fun. Lost access to webif of my cluster because cloud only for 10. Had to order the orange serial cable and tftp 8.x on my APs.
I would download the image over the portal to your disk and try to upload it.

 

[clcorbin]

I ordered the orange CLI cable a couple of days ago, so hopefully I can get to the bottom of this when it comes in. Or at least find out WHAT is going on.

 

[clcorbin]

That was fun. This thing was stuck on 8.9.0.0 in partition 1. Partition 0 was empty. Failed methods:

1. Plugging it into the vlan with my existing virtual controller "cluster" (of one...). Tried to update firmware, failed. And wouldn't let it join the cluster because of firmware mismatch.
2. Moving it to another vlan, logging it directly. Going into maintenance and manually running the automatic firmware update. It found the new firmware (8.12.0.x), tried to install it. Failed after 15 seconds or so. I DID get the wget command (in the logs) to download the image file and was able to download to my computer it even after the log said it failed to download it.
3. Setting up a trial Aruba Central account and moving it to that with a group that required 8.12.0.x. Failed to install. Multiple times.
4. Upgrading from CLI after AP had booted. Using tftp, it would download the image, and then fail with no real information in the log. After 10 minutes or so, it would reboot. The upgrade status showed the failure almost immediately after the download completed.

Successful method:

1. Stopping the AP from booting and copying the image file with tftp directly to the partition, verifying with osinfo, rebooting...

After verifying it would boot the newest image, I factory reset it and rebooted it. It showed up in 5 minutes or so in my cluster, started broadcasting the SSIDs and I quickly saw clients balancing out between the 505 and the 635. Finally!

 

[Numbskull]

That was fun. This thing was stuck on 8.9.0.0 in partition 1. Partition 0 was empty. Failed methods:

1. Plugging it into the vlan with my existing virtual controller "cluster" (of one...). Tried to update firmware, failed. And wouldn't let it join the cluster because of firmware mismatch.
2. Moving it to another vlan, logging it directly. Going into maintenance and manually running the automatic firmware update. It found the new firmware (8.12.0.x), tried to install it. Failed after 15 seconds or so. I DID get the wget command (in the logs) to download the image file and was able to download to my computer it even after the log said it failed to download it.
3. Setting up a trial Aruba Central account and moving it to that with a group that required 8.12.0.x. Failed to install. Multiple times.
4. Upgrading from CLI after AP had booted. Using tftp, it would download the image, and then fail with no real information in the log. After 10 minutes or so, it would reboot. The upgrade status showed the failure almost immediately after the download completed.

Successful method:

1. Stopping the AP from booting and copying the image file with tftp directly to the partition, verifying with osinfo, rebooting...

After verifying it would boot the newest image, I factory reset it and rebooted it. It showed up in 5 minutes or so in my cluster, started broadcasting the SSIDs and I quickly saw clients balancing out between the 505 and the 635. Finally!

Would you be willing to provide step by step of how you got this working? I’m running into the exact same issue with 4x 635s. I’m trying to add to an existing 8.12 VC with different hardware (304h) and see the same error with auto update, manual upload (downloaded from url in wget command) and cli

 

[clcorbin]

I can point you in the right direction, but I probably can't put together a full on, step by step guide. Sorry. My AP-635 is in service..

For this method to work, you have to have a working console cable. You can't get into the boot loader without it. I tried a couple of other serial cables I had (modified with the correct USB connector) and they didn't work. I eventually just bought the correct console cable for the AP-635 off Amazon. Something like this:

Amazon.com

Ok. Plug the cable into your computer and figure out what console port it is using (check via device manager if using windows. Can't help you if you are using something else as I don't know...). Plug the other end of the cable into your powered off AP-635 console port. Start a program like Putty with 9600:8:1 serial settings. One note: I believe I have seen the manuals say the AP-635 is set to 115200 baud from the factory. Mine was NOT and I had to try 9600 to get it to connect. Your mileage may very.

Now you have to pay attention to Putty! Plug in the AP-635 and you should almost immediately start getting output in the Putty window. It will go through it's initial boot loader "stuff" and at some point say something like "booting in 2 seconds, press any key to interrupt boot". Something like that. The point is, HIT return or space or whatever key to interrupt the boot and it should drop you to a "apboot>" curser. Congrats! Your in.

You are going to need to setup a tftp server on your computer. For windows, I used Tftpd64 and highly recommend it. Using what ever folder you fill like using (I used C:\Temp...), put your image file you said you got from the wget command in there. Name it something simple unless you just like to type long lines.

So now you are in the boot loader on the AP and you have a tftp server up and running with the firmware you want to install. Next step is to plug in the ethernet port (E0 I believe) of the switch into your network. If you are running vlans, make sure it is on the same vlan as the computer running Tftpd64.

Now to setup the boot environment so you can use the network. This is all from Airheads Community:

Give the AP an ip address in your network
setenv ipaddr 192.168.1.blah (or what ever ip address subnet your tftp sever is running in, just a different and open ip address)
setenv netmask 255.255.255.0 (if you are NOT running a /24, I bet you know what it is or where to find it...)
setenv gatewayip 192.168.1.blah (you should be able to find your networks default gateway address)
setenv serverip 192.168.1.blah (what ever the ip address is of the computer running Tftpd64)

Now, type "saveenv" to save these environmental variables. And I am NOT 100% sure you have to do this...

And you should also just be able to type "dhcp" if the network you plugged the AP into has a dhcp server (most do of course)...

Either way, now your AP has a network connection for the boot loader.

Now upgrade it: "upgrade os ArubaInstant_Norma_8.12.0.2_90468" Or, if you listened above, you would have just called the new firmware "fw" and your command would only be "upgrade os fw". You should see your Tftp server start to serve up the firmware to the AP.

It should start showing you progress "####" and eventually finish (fairly quick if I recall. I was doing this at 3:30am when I couldn't sleep, so...)

After it finishes, type in "osinfo" to verify the boot partition is bootable, the correct fw version is shown and everything is ok. Then type " printenv" to ensure it is set to boot from the correct partition (change it if now, or upgrade the other partition too.)

Reboot and log into it and double check all is well.

Hope that helps!