Michael McNamara

In this post I'll review how you can find a specific wireless device on your Motorola WS5100 Wireless LAN Switch.

We want to locate the following device wireless-laptop.acme.org so we need to start by identifying the IP address of the device. Thanks to Dynamic DNS we can be assured that our DNS servers will have that information.

C:\>nslookup wireless-laptop.acme.org.
Server: 10.1.1.1
Address: 10.1.1.1#53

Name: wireless-laptop.acme.org
Address: 10.1.195.55

In most circumstances we'd now need to identify the MAC address of the wireless device. We can skip that step since the WS5100 will have the IP address of the client for us to search against.

WS5100# show wireless mobile-unit

Number of mobile-units associated: 23
index   MAC-address       radio type wlan vlan/tunnel  ready  IP-address    last active
  1     00-1B-77-30-DF-80  30    11a  1      vlan 18   Y     10.1.195.57   1 Sec
  2     00-20-E0-1A-0F-E5  58    11a  1      vlan 18   Y     10.1.195.48   20 Sec
  3     00-13-E8-86-DF-F3  30    11a  1      vlan 18   Y     10.1.195.96   0 Sec
  4     00-15-00-32-8C-EC  19    11a  1      vlan 18   Y     10.1.195.31   31 Sec
  5     00-15-00-32-D6-46  29    11a  1      vlan 18   Y     10.1.195.50   16 Sec
  6     00-15-00-32-D3-67  1     11g  2      vlan 17   Y     10.1.194.54   4 Sec
  7     00-A0-F8-D4-46-9C  2     11b  4      vlan 22   Y     10.1.206.53   223 Sec
  8     00-A0-F8-D4-48-FD  1     11b  4      vlan 22   Y     10.1.206.207  215 Sec
  9     00-1B-77-2A-99-05  30    11a  1      vlan 18   Y     10.1.195.55   7 Sec
  10    00-18-DE-7A-76-D0  30    11a  1      vlan 18   Y     10.1.195.67   16 Sec
  11    00-16-6F-1D-F1-B9  1     11g  2      vlan 17   Y     10.1.194.44   6 Sec
  12    00-1B-77-31-11-77  30    11a  1      vlan 18   Y     10.1.195.68   4 Sec
  13    00-90-7A-04-16-5F  1     11b  3      vlan 21   Y     10.1.198.52   11 Sec
  14    00-A0-F8-D6-3C-2A  1     11b  4      vlan 22   Y     10.1.206.70   652 Sec
  15    00-A0-F8-D4-45-A5  2     11b  4      vlan 22   Y     10.1.206.252  170 Sec
  16    00-13-E8-5B-ED-73  30    11a  1      vlan 18   Y     10.1.195.106  4 Sec
  17    00-13-E8-5B-EE-39  30    11a  1      vlan 18   Y     10.1.195.111  23 Sec
  18    00-18-DE-7A-9E-3A  30    11a  1      vlan 18   Y     10.1.195.77   20 Sec
  20    00-90-7A-03-5E-C7  1     11b  3      vlan 21   Y     10.1.198.50   23 Sec
  21    00-13-E8-86-C8-55  30    11a  1      vlan 18   Y     10.1.195.107  5 Sec
  22    00-A0-F8-D4-48-5F  1     11b  4      vlan 22   Y     10.1.206.145  124 Sec
  24    00-13-E8-86-C7-E7  30    11a  1      vlan 18   Y     10.1.195.110  10 Sec
  26    00-1B-77-2A-5C-6C  30    11a  1      vlan 18   Y     10.1.195.81   37 Sec

Note: if you have a lot of mobile units you can use grep;

WS5100# show wireless mobile-unit | grep "10.1.195.55"

  9     00-1B-77-2A-99-05  30    11a  1      vlan 18   Y     10.1.195.55   7 Sec

Now that we have the MU (Mobile Unit) index (the first number on the line) we can get the full details;

WS5100# show wireless mobile-unit 9

MAC: 00-1B-77-2A-99-05, IP Address: 10.1.195.55, Type: 11a, State: data-ready
Radio Config Index: 30, Bssid: 00-15-70-12-1D-78
Wlan: 1, Vlan: vlan 18, Voice: N, Powersave: N, Classification: normal
Encryption Type: tkip (key index: 1) Authentication Type: eap
Last Assoc: 7990 seconds ago, Last Activity: 23 seconds ago, Roam-Count: 18
DHCP state : DHCPNONE AP Scan Support: N
Session Timeout: 100 days 00:00:00 Idle Timeout: 0 days 00:30:00

In the information above we can see that the MU is associated to radio 30, so let's look at radio 30;

WS5100# show wireless radio 30

Radio: 30, Mac: <00-15-70-11-34-32>, Type: 11a, ap Index: 7, vlan 198
Current Channel: 36 [5180 MHz], Configured Channel: acs
Current Power: 17 dBm, Max ESS: 16, Max BSS: 4, Num Mu: 11
BSS: 00-15-70-12-1D-78, State: normal
Current Data-Rates/Speed: basic6 9 basic12 18 basic24 36 48 54
Last Adoption: 0 days 20:55:16 ago

Configuration:
Adoption-pref-id: 0
Max-mobile-unit: 256, Detector: N, On-channel-scan: N
WLAN-BSS mapping: [BSS 1]: 1
RTS-thres: 2346 bytes, Beacon-intvl: 100 K-uSec
Dtim-count: [BSS 1]: 10 beacons
Dtim-count: [BSS 2]: 10 beacons
Dtim-count: [BSS 3]: 10 beacons
Dtim-count: [BSS 4]: 10 beacons
CCA level: 1, CCA Mode: 1, mobile-unit power: 0 dBm
Short-Preamble: disabled, Antenna-Mode: diversity (both antennas)
Placement: indoor, Channel-Mode: acs, Power: 20 dBm
Data-Rates/Speed: basic6 9 basic12 18 basic24 36 48 54
WMM [best-effort]: aifsn: 3 txop-limit: 0 cwmin: 4 cwmax: 6
admission-control: disabled, max-mobile-unit: 32
WMM [background]: aifsn: 7 txop-limit: 0 cwmin: 4 cwmax: 10
admission-control: disabled, max-mobile-unit: 32
WMM [video]: aifsn: 1 txop-limit: 94 cwmin: 3 cwmax: 4
admission-control: disabled, max-mobile-unit: 32
WMM [voice]: aifsn: 1 txop-limit: 47 cwmin: 2 cwmax: 3
admission-control: disabled, max-mobile-unit: 32

It doesn't look like the Motorola switch shows us the radio description above so we'll need to use another command to get the description;

WS5100# show wireless radio config 30

Radio: 30, Description: Main Building Lobby, MAC: 00-15-70-11-34-32
Radio Type: 11a, AP Type: ap300
Adoption-pref-id: 0
Max-mobile-unit: 256, Detector: N, On-channel-scan: N
WLAN-BSS mapping: [BSS 1]: 1
RTS-thres: 2346 bytes, Beacon-intvl: 100 K-uSec
Dtim-count: [BSS 1]: 10 beacons
Dtim-count: [BSS 2]: 10 beacons
Dtim-count: [BSS 3]: 10 beacons
Dtim-count: [BSS 4]: 10 beacons
CCA level: 1, CCA Mode: 1, mobile-unit power: 0 dBm
Short-Preamble: disabled, Antenna-Mode: diversity (both antennas)
Placement: indoor, Channel-Mode: acs, Power: 20 dBm
Data-Rates/Speed: basic6 9 basic12 18 basic24 36 48 54
WMM [best-effort]: aifsn: 3 txop-limit: 0 cwmin: 4 cwmax: 6
admission-control: disabled, max-mobile-unit: 32
WMM [background]: aifsn: 7 txop-limit: 0 cwmin: 4 cwmax: 10
admission-control: disabled, max-mobile-unit: 32
WMM [video]: aifsn: 1 txop-limit: 94 cwmin: 3 cwmax: 4
admission-control: disabled, max-mobile-unit: 32
WMM [voice]: aifsn: 1 txop-limit: 47 cwmin: 2 cwmax: 3
admission-control: disabled, max-mobile-unit: 32

So it looks like the device we're looking for, wireless-laptop.acme.org (10.1.193.55), is connected to radio 30 (802.11a) which has a description of "Main Building Lobby". While this will give you an idea of the basic location it doesn't provide you a specific location. While there are new APIs in the WS5100 and RFS7000 that can provide locationing by means of triangulation between multiple Access Ports, they require external applications and management software.

Obviously you'll need to make sure that you've put descriptive locations on each radio (AP300) through the Motorola console when configuring/installing the APs.

Cheers!

If you loose the administrator password for the Motorola Wireless LAN Switch (WS5000, WS5100) you can factory default the configuration and administrator password with the following procedure.

You'll need to console up to the physical switch with a null serial cable. I believe the majority of Motorola (Symbol) equipment defaults to 19200-8-N-1. You need to login to the console as the username "restore" with the password of "restoreDefaultPassword". Here's an example;

WS5100 login: cli

User Access Verification

Username: restore
Password: restoreDefaultPasword

WARNING: This will wipe out the configuration (except license key) and
user data under "flash:/" and reboot the device
Do you want to continue? (y/n): y

After the switch reboots you'll need to use the default administrator username and password to log into the switch. They are username "admin" and password "Symbol". I've seen some cases where the password was "symbol", the difference being the case of the first letter.

Cheers!

The release of v3.x software for the Motorola WS5100 and v1.x software for the Motorola RFS7000 finally supports the deployment of Layer 3 Access Ports (APs that could be deployed across a Layer 3 network as opposed to those that can only be deployed across a Layer 2 network).

The latest release of firmware for the AP300 will first attempt to locate a wireless switch for adoption via a Layer 2 broadcast request. If it's unable to locate a wireless switch it will make a DHCP request for an IP address. If the DHCP response does not include option 189 (string) it will make a DNS request to try and locate the wireless switch.

There are two ways the Access Port can locate the Wireless LAN Switch (WS5100/RFS7000) in Layer 3 mode;

• DHCP Option
  
• DNS Query
  

You can use DHCP and configure option 189 (string) with the IP address of the Motorola Wireless LAN Switch. You should note that you may need to enclose the string in quotation marks depending on your DHCP server software.

You can also create a DNS alias which the AP can use to locate the switch through a DNS query. The default DNS anme requested by an AP300 is "Symbol-CAPWAP-Address".

You might also notice that the AP300 will also support LLDP (802.1ab) if your Ethernet switch supports it.

Cheers!

If for whatever reason you've lost the Web UI or "admin" password your only recourse is to factory default the wireless switch.

To access the switch using a password recovery username and password:
1. Connect a terminal (or PC running terminal emulation software) to the serial port on the front of the switch. The switch login screen displays. Use the following CLI command for normal login process:

WS5100
login: cli

2. Enter a password recovery username of "restore" and password recovery password of "restoreDefaultPassword".

User Access Verification
Username: restore
Password: restoreDefaultPasword
WARNING: This will wipe out the configuration (except license key) and user data under "flash:/" and reboot the device
Do you want to continue? (y/n):y

3. Press Y to delete the current configuration and reset with factory defaults.

Once the switch has complete it's reboot you should be able to login with the default userID or "admin" and the default password of "symbol". If you had previously backed up the configuration of the switch you could restore your old configuration.

Motorola's WS5000/WS5100 Wireless LAN Switches (v1.x,2.x software) allow you to provision a standby backup switch that would take over for the primary if some problem affected the primary Wireless LAN switch. This is a an active/passive solution, the primary will be active while the standby listens for heartbeats from the primary in a standby mode. If the standby stops receiving the heartbeats from the primary switch it will switch to an active mode and adopt the Access Ports and start providing service to the mobile units.

First we’ll telnet into the primary switch (sw16-wireless.reh.acme.org) and backup its configuration copying it up to the TFTP server. Second we’ll telnet into the standby switch (sw16r-wireless.reh.acme.org) and then download the primary switch configuration via TFTP and then restore the configuration into the system.

Let’s start with the primary switch;

[root@linux root]# telnet sw16-wireless.reh.acme.org
Trying 10.115.255.12...
Connected to sw16-wireless.reh.acme.org (10.115.255.12).
Escape character is '^]'.

When prompted for the “user name” use “cli".

user name:cli

Symbol Wireless Switch WS 5000 Series.
Please enter your username and password to access the Command Line Interface.

When prompted for the “userid” use defaults of “admin” and "symbol" for the password.

userid: admin
password: *********

Retrieving user and system information...

Setting user permissions flags..
Checking KDC access permissions...

Welcome...

Creating the Event list...
System information...

System Name : sw16-wireless.reh.acme.org
Description : WS5000 Wireless Network
Switch Location : Data Center
Software Ver. : 1.4.0.0-026R
Licensed to : Symbol Technologies
Copyright : Copyright (c) 2000-2005. All rights reserved.
Serial Number : 00A0F8658FC0
Number of Licenses : 30
Max Access Ports : 30
Max Mobile Clients : 4096
Active Switch Policy : Wireless Switch Policy
Emergency Switch Policy : Not defined
Switch Uptime : 00d:01h:01m
# of Unassigned Access Ports : 0

sw16-wireless.reh.acme.org>

Let’s start out by backing up the switch configuration;

sw16-wireless.reh.acme.org> save configuration sw16-wireless-reh.cfg
Saving running configuration in: sw16-wireless-reh.cfg
Saving wireless network management configuration ...

Let’s make sure the configuration file can be found on the file system;

sw16-wireless.reh.acme.org> dir
Date & Time Bytes File Name

Jan 25 18:11 15155 WS5000Defaults_v1.4.0.0-026R.cfg
Jan 25 18:35 18819400 WS5000_v1.4.0.0-026R.sys.img
Jan 25 17:05 6517 cmd_template.sym
Mar 28 12:24 16878 sw16-wireless-reh.cfg

Let’s upload that configuration to the TFTP server (10.101.20.1) on the network;

sw16-wireless-reh.acme.org> copy sw16-wireless-reh.cfg tftp://10.101.20.1/sw16-wireless-reh.cfg
Copying 'sw16-wireless-reh.cfg' from Switch to tftp://10.101.20.1...
File: sw16-wireless-reh.cfg copied successfully to 10.101.20.1

sw16-wireless.reh.acme.org>

The configuration file is now successfully on the TFTP server. We can now turn our attention to the standby switch. Let’s start by telneting into that switch (sw16r-wireless.reh.acme.org);

[root@linux root]# telnet sw16r-wireless.reh.acme.org
Trying 10.115.255.13...
Connected to sw16r-wireless.reh.acme.org (10.115.255.13).
Escape character is '^]'.

user name:cli

Symbol Wireless Switch WS 5000 Series.
Please enter your username and password to access the Command Line Interface.

userid: admin
password: *********

Retrieving user and system information...

Setting user permissions flags..
Checking KDC access permissions...

Welcome...

Creating the Event list...
System information...

System Name : sw16r-wireless
Description : WS5000 Wireless Network
Switch Location : Data Center
Software Ver. : 1.4.0.0-026R
Licensed to : Symbol Technologies
Copyright : Copyright (c) 2000-2005. All rights reserved.
Serial Number : 00A0F8658FC8
Number of Licenses : 0
Max Access Ports : 0
Max Mobile Clients : 4096
Active Switch Policy : Wireless Switch Policy
Emergency Switch Policy : Not defined
Switch Uptime : 00d:00h:11m
# of Unassigned Access Ports : 0

sw16r-wireless>

After we’re logged into the standby switch lets copy the primary switch configuration by TFTP;

sw16r-wireless.reh.acme.org> copy tftp system
Enter the file name to be copied from TFTP server : sw16-wireless-reh.cfg

Copying 'sw16-wireless-reh.cfg' from tftp://10.101.20.1 to Switch...
File: sw16-wireless-reh.cfg copied successfully from 10.101.20.1
Verifying configuration file...
Valid configuration. Completing verification.

Let’s just confirm that the configuration file appears on the file system;

sw16r-wireless.reh.acme.org> dir
Date & Time Bytes File Name

Jan 25 15:11 15155 WS5000Defaults_v1.4.0.0-026R.cfg
Jan 25 15:35 18819400 WS5000_v1.4.0.0-026R.sys.img
Jan 25 14:05 6517 cmd_template.sym
Mar 28 01:35 16878 sw16-wireless-reh.cfg

Let’s go ahead and restore the standby switch configuration from the primary switch configuration file;

sw15r-wireless.reh.acme.org> restore standby sw15-wireless-reh.cfg

This command will reset the system and boot up with the new configuration.

Do you want to continue (yes/no) : yes

Restoring Stand By configuration from sw15-wireless-reh.cfg

Do you want to change Interface 1 static IP address(10.115.254.11)?
Creating the Event list...
Enter (yes/no) : no
INFO: Static IP address not changed.

Do you want to change Interface 2 static IP address(10.115.255.11)?
Creating the Event list...
Enter (yes/no) : no
INFO: Static IP address not changed.

Shutting down database main thread...done.
Rebooting the switch...
Connection closed by foreign host.

The standby switch should reboot at this point and should retain its original IP addressing. There is one last step required to make the standby switch a “hot” standby. The standby feature must be configured and enabled on both the primary and standby switches. The order in which you enable the standby feature is critical, so start on the standby switch by issuing the following commands;

sw16r-wireless.reh.acme.org> configure
sw16r-wireless.reh.acme.org.(Cfg)> standby
sw16r-wireless.(Cfg).StandBy> set autorevert enable

Configuring Standby....
Status : Success.

Standby Management:

StandBy mode : Standby
Standby Status : Disable
State : Startup
Failover Reason :
Standby Connectivity status : Not Connected
Standby AutoRevert Mode : Enable
Standby AutoRevert Delay : 15 Minutes

Interface (Ethernet) 1
----------------------
StandBy Heart-Beat MAC : Auto Discovery Enabled
Heart-Beat status : Enable
Received Heart-Beat : No

Interface (Ethernet) 2
----------------------
StandBy Heart-Beat MAC : Auto Discovery Enabled
Heart-Beat status : Disable
Received Heart-Beat : No

sw16r-wireless.(Cfg).StandBy> enable

Enabling...
Status : Success.

Standby Management:

StandBy mode : Standby
Standby Status : Enable
State : Startup
Failover Reason :
Standby Connectivity status : Not Connected
Standby AutoRevert Mode : Enable
Standby AutoRevert Delay : 15 Minutes

Interface (Ethernet) 1
----------------------
StandBy Heart-Beat MAC : Auto Discovery Enabled
Heart-Beat status : Enable
Received Heart-Beat : No

Interface (Ethernet) 2
----------------------
StandBy Heart-Beat MAC : Auto Discovery Enabled
Heart-Beat status : Disable
Received Heart-Beat : No

With the standby configured properly go ahead and issue the following commands on the primary;

sw16-wireless.reh.acme.org> configure
sw16-wireless.reh.acme.org.(Cfg)> standby
sw16-wireless.reh.acme.org.(Cfg).StandBy> set autorevert enable

Configuring Standby....
Status : Success.

Standby Management:

StandBy mode : Primary
Standby Status : Disable
State : Startup
Failover Reason :
Standby Connectivity status : Not Connected
Standby AutoRevert Mode : Enable
Standby AutoRevert Delay : 15 Minutes

Interface (Ethernet) 1
----------------------
StandBy Heart-Beat MAC : Auto Discovery Enabled
Heart-Beat status : Enable
Received Heart-Beat : No

Interface (Ethernet) 2
----------------------
StandBy Heart-Beat MAC : Auto Discovery Enabled
Heart-Beat status : Disable
Received Heart-Beat : No

sw16-wireless.reh.acme.org.(Cfg).StandBy> enable

Enabling...
Status : Success.

Standby Management:

StandBy mode : Primary
Standby Status : Enable
State : Find standby
Failover Reason :
Standby Connectivity status : Not Connected
Standby AutoRevert Mode : Enable
Standby AutoRevert Delay : 15 Minutes

Interface (Ethernet) 1
----------------------
StandBy Heart-Beat MAC : Auto Discovery Enabled
Heart-Beat status : Enable
Received Heart-Beat : No

Interface (Ethernet) 2
----------------------
StandBy Heart-Beat MAC : Auto Discovery Enabled
Heart-Beat status : Disable
Received Heart-Beat : No

Then confirm that the primary has connected with the standby switch by issuing the following command and confirm that the “Standby Status” is “Enable” and that the “State” is “Connected”;

sw16-wireless.reh.acme.org.(Cfg).StandBy> show

Standby Management:

StandBy mode : Primary
Standby Status : Enable
State : Connected
Failover Reason :
Standby Connectivity status : Connected
Standby AutoRevert Mode : Enable
Standby AutoRevert Delay : 15 Minutes

Interface (Ethernet) 1
----------------------
StandBy Heart-Beat MAC : Auto Discovery Enabled
Heart-Beat status : Enable
Received Heart-Beat : Yes

Interface (Ethernet) 2
----------------------
StandBy Heart-Beat MAC : Auto Discovery Enabled
Heart-Beat status : Disable
Received Heart-Beat : No

sw16-wireless.reh.acme.org.(Cfg).StandBy>

That’s all folks.

The following document is provided as a basic guide on how to configure the Motorola WS5100 Wireless LAN Switch with release 3.x software. You should use the initial username of “cli” at the login prompt. At the username/password prompts you should use “admin” and “superuser” respectively.

You should connect to the console port a serial cable (null) with 19200,8,N,1.

The example below will configure Ethernet 2 as a trunk port with the management interface in VLAN 200 (10.107.255.199/24) and the default gateway as 10.107.255.1. The order of the commands is very important when you start to trunk the interface.

Please press Enter to activate this console.
WS5100 release 3.0.3.0-003R
Login as 'cli' to access CLI.
WS5100 login: cli

User Access Verification

Username: admin
Password: *********
Welcome to CLI

WS5100>
WS5100> enable
WS5100# configure terminal

WS5100(config)# interface eth2
WS5100(config-if)# switchport mode trunk
WS5100(config-if)# switchport trunk native vlan 200
WS5100(config-if)# switchport trunk native tagged
WS5100(config-if)# switchport trunk allowed vlan none
WS5100(config-if)# switchport trunk allowed vlan add 200
WS5100(config-if)# exit

WS5100(config)# interface vlan 200
WS5100(config-if)# ip address 10.107.255.199/24
WS5100(config-if)# management
WS5100(config-if)# exit

WS5100(config)# interface vlan 1
WS5100(config-if)# no ip address
WS5100(config-if)# shutdown
WS5100(config-if)# exit

WS5100(config)# ip default-gateway 10.107.255.1
WS5100(config)# end
WS5100# write memory

Once you've complete those steps you should be able to ping the device. At that point you can connect to the web based console to complete the configuration.

https://10.107.255.199

You should of course substitute the IP addresses above with your own addresses.

Cheers!