Graphical interfaces are cool and some people prefer them period. I however believe that everything has its use and personally I love to utilize command line anytime I can when it comes to troubleshooting, configuring or looking at information. Yes there are times when I do like to use a GUI but especially when it comes to configuring anything Cisco I just prefer using the CLI.
Years ago I was using the GUI and Prime to configure and do things when it came to Cisco WLAN. Some tasks were tedious and taking forever and I figured there’s gotta be an easier way to accomplish all this. So I started looking at the CLI of WLC which by the way is very different from a Cisco Switch or a router. Exploring all Cisco WLC commands and their functions is really interesting and all you can accomplish from them. I’ll discuss more details about my experiences but this post I just want to list some common commands I tend to use that are very helpful and this way if I forget I know I can always come back to my blog and find them. As I learn more I will keep adding to this list.
This command below can be used to search for the access points using full or part of their name:
show ap search %variable%
Many times I need to look for something even more specific and/or I don’t have the name of an access point just its Radio MAC or Ethernet MAC, well “grep” is your friend:
grep include "search string" "command"
grep include "search string" "show ap summary"
grep include "search string" "show advanced 802.11(a/b) summary"
Another command that I have used a whole lot is to find access points. For example if I am looking at an inventory sheet of a site and I see an AP but it has no labels or if there are multiple AP’s with no labels or lastly if the labels are wrong and I need to confirm which AP is which. There is a feature to flash the LED’s on the AP. Just a simple command that allows me to simply flash the LED of an AP I’m trying to find and I can confirm
config ap led-state flash # "AP-Name"
Next command that I like to use a lot gives some really good stats per access point. Also helps me figure out AP Neighbors and which AP’s are the closes AP’s. This is helpful when trying to do some radio planning and even trying to figure out where an AP might be.
show ap auto-rf 802.11(a/b) "AP-Name"
Number Of Slots.................................. 2
AP Name.......................................... AP-2602i
MAC Address...................................... 44:2b:xxxxxxxxxx
Slot ID........................................ 0
Radio Type..................................... RADIO_TYPE_80211b/g
Sub-band Type.................................. All
Noise Information
Noise Profile................................ FAILED
Channel 1.................................... -64 dBm
Channel 2.................................... -76 dBm
Channel 3.................................... -89 dBm
Channel 4.................................... -86 dBm
Channel 5.................................... -82 dBm
Channel 6.................................... -78 dBm
Channel 7.................................... -71 dBm
Channel 8.................................... -83 dBm
Channel 9.................................... -80 dBm
Channel 10................................... -87 dBm
Channel 11................................... -80 dBm
Channel 12................................... N/A
Channel 13................................... N/A
Channel 14................................... N/A
Interference Information
Interference Profile......................... PASSED
Channel 1.................................... -128 dBm @ 0 % busy
Channel 2.................................... -128 dBm @ 0 % busy
Channel 3.................................... -128 dBm @ 0 % busy
Channel 4.................................... -128 dBm @ 0 % busy
Channel 5.................................... -64 dBm @ 1 % busy
Channel 6.................................... -52 dBm @ 1 % busy
Channel 7.................................... -128 dBm @ 0 % busy
Channel 8.................................... -128 dBm @ 0 % busy
Channel 9.................................... -128 dBm @ 0 % busy
Channel 10................................... -128 dBm @ 0 % busy
Channel 11................................... -60 dBm @ 1 % busy
Channel 12................................... N/A
Channel 13................................... N/A
Channel 14................................... N/A
Rogue Histogram (20)
.............................................
Channel 1.................................... 15
Channel 2.................................... 0
Channel 3.................................... 0
Channel 4.................................... 0
Channel 5.................................... 0
Channel 6.................................... 8
Channel 7.................................... 0
Channel 8.................................... 1
Channel 9.................................... 0
Channel 10................................... 0
Channel 11................................... 9
Channel 12................................... 0
Channel 13................................... 0
Channel 14................................... 0
Load Information
Load Profile................................. PASSED
Receive Utilization.......................... 0 %
Transmit Utilization......................... 0 %
Channel Utilization.......................... 37 %
Attached Clients............................. 0 clients
Coverage Information
Coverage Profile............................. PASSED
Failed Clients............................... 0 clients
Client Signal Strengths
RSSI -100 dbm................................ 0 clients
RSSI -92 dbm................................ 0 clients
RSSI -84 dbm................................ 0 clients
RSSI -76 dbm................................ 0 clients
RSSI -68 dbm................................ 0 clients
RSSI -60 dbm................................ 0 clients
RSSI -52 dbm................................ 0 clients
Client Signal To Noise Ratios
SNR 0 dB.................................. 0 clients
SNR 5 dB.................................. 0 clients
SNR 10 dB.................................. 0 clients
SNR 15 dB.................................. 0 clients
SNR 20 dB.................................. 0 clients
SNR 25 dB.................................. 0 clients
SNR 30 dB.................................. 0 clients
SNR 35 dB.................................. 0 clients
SNR 40 dB.................................. 0 clients
SNR 45 dB.................................. 0 clients
Nearby APs
AP 00:6b:xxxxxxx slot 0.................. -25 dBm on 11 20MHz (10.101.2.6) AP-3802i
Radar Information
Channel Assignment Information
Current Channel Average Energy............... -71 dBm
Previous Channel Average Energy.............. -71 dBm
Channel Change Count......................... 0
Last Channel Change Time..................... Fri Dec 13 15:17:36 2019
Recommended Best Channel..................... 1
RF Parameter Recommendations
Power Level.................................. 1
RTS/CTS Threshold............................ 2347
Fragmentation Threshold...................... 2346
Antenna Pattern.............................. 0
Persistent Interference Devices
Class Type Channel DC (%%) RSSI (dBm) Last Update Time
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