I started my role as a network engineer on a university campus just over a year ago. The WLAN uses Aruba access points and switches, and with a keen interest in WiFi myself, I set to updating Airwave as soon as I could, focusing on resolving “Down” APs or updating maps with those that were showing in Mobility Conductor but not in Airwave VisualRF. Here are the steps I follow for the latter:
For indoor APs, go to the page of the unmapped AP in Airwave to verify its WLAN controller name
Log on to the WLAN controller via CLI
Run command “show ap arm neighbors ap-name <AP-NAME>”*
A list of BSSIDs will be shown in the results, check each of them on Airwave to see if they are being broadcast by a nearby AP whose location you know.
Go to the location of that nearby AP
To verify the BSSID of it, run “netsh wlan show interface” in Windows Command Prompt.
Install inSSIDer on your laptop, then check the networks tab.
The SSID you’re connected to should be top of the list with the best signal and Last Seen set to “now”, but you’ll need to drill down by clicking the binoculars symbol beside the SSID to see all the APs broadcasting it via their BSSIDs.
Check the list of BSSIDs for your unknown AP, and set its LED to blink to verify its location. Do this using:
GUI:
- Go to the AP’s page in Airwave
- Scroll down to Quick Links
- Open the dropdown Run Command and select the first option “ap-leds ap-name <AP name> blink”
CLI:
- As with the GUI, run the command “ap-leds ap-name <AP name> blink”
After you’ve found the AP and mapped it, select/run the “ap-leds ap-name <AP name> normal” command.
For outdoor APs, there is an LED in the side of the outdoor Aruba APs (e.g. AP-575), but it’s not very bright in daylight, therefore you will often need to go to the location of the nearby AP mentioned above, then visually inspect the surrounding area for outdoor APs that are not mapped in VisualRF.
Verify the unmapped AP by disconnecting and reconnecting to WiFi to avoid sticky client issues, and running inSSIDer to check the signal strength vs the BSSID of the unmapped AP. Like inSSIDer, mobile apps such as NetSpot and WiFI Analyzer (by VREM) will also display local BSSIDs.
If using Cisco IOS-XE C9800, run these commands:
“show ap name neighbor summary” to view a list of neighboring BSSIDs or “show ap name auto-rf dot11” to view the neighbor AP details
“ap name <AP name> led flash start” “ap name <AP-name> led flash stop”
There is no equivalent for viewing neighboring APs/BSSIDs in the Juniper Mist portal, so to flash the LED, go to the Access Point page and click Locate in the top right. The button will turn purple and display “Locating” and the LED on the AP should quickly flash multiple colours until you click “Locating” again.
Applied WiFi 