With the Unified controllers, the APs which come online will dynamically get their configuration from the controller when they establish the LWAPP tunnel.

When AP based feature are configured, such as AP provisioning or AP-based user authentication (de-central authentication), it can be useful to understand and see what is going on on the AP. The APs have a console port, but this console port cannot be used once the AP has established the LWAPP tunnel.

This post shows how the administrator can enable console and telnet access to the AP.

Default behavior

By default, when the AP has the LWAPP tunnel open, and you attempt to open the console connection of the AP, it will just show the interface is available:

******************************************************************************
 * Copyright (c) 2010-2014 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.          *
 * Without the owner's prior written consent,                                 *
 * no decompiling or reverse-engineering shall be allowed.                    *
 ******************************************************************************

User interface con0 is available.

Please press ENTER.

This will just re-appear whenever you hit ENTER, so no access is possible.

Enable Console/Telnet access to the AP

The steps for this procedure are:

• lookup the AP template name for the AP
• enable console and telnet access for this AP name
• lookup the AP IP Address
• make telnet connection

Lookup AP Template name

The AP Template names can be found using the display wlan ap all command

[wifi-830-ac1] display wlan ap all
 Total Number of APs configured           : 2
 Total Number of configured APs connected : 2
 Total Number of auto APs connected       : 0
 Total Number of APs connected            : 2
 Maximum AP capacity                      : 12
 Remaining AP capacity                    : 10
 AP Profiles
 State : I = Idle,   J = Join, JA = JoinAck,   IL = ImageLoad
 C = Config, R = Run,  KU = KeyUpdate, KC = KeyCfm
 M = Master, B = Backup
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 AP Name                          State Model              Serial-ID
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 be-ant-ap01                      R/M   425-WW             CN44G679YK
 be-ant-ap02                      R/M   425-WW             CN44G679YG
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Enable console and telnet access for this AP name

Console access just be enabled  using the hidden commands context.

[wifi-830-ac1] _hidecmd
 Now you enter a hidden command view for developer's testing, some commands may
 affect operation by wrong use, please carefully use it with our engineer's
 direction.
[wifi-830-ac1-hidecmd] wlan ap-execute be-ant-ap01 exec-control enable
[wifi-830-ac1-hidecmd] wlan ap-execute be-ant-ap01 telnet enable
[wifi-830-ac1-hidecmd] quit
[wifi-830-ac1] quit

Lookup the AP IP Address

To open a telnet connection, you need the target IP of the AP

<wifi-830-ac1> display wlan ap all address
 Total Number of APs configured           : 2
 Total Number of configured APs connected : 2
 Total Number of auto APs connected       : 0
 Total Number of APs connected            : 2
 Maximum AP capacity                      : 12
 Remaining AP capacity                    : 10
 AP Address
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 AP Name                          IP Address                     MAC Address
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 be-ant-ap01                      10.0.3.10                      4431-92ae-d9a0
 be-ant-ap02                      10.0.3.11                      4431-92ae-d9c0
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Open telnet connection to AP

Telnet client must be run from user-view

 <wifi-830-ac1> telnet 10.0.3.10
 Trying 10.0.3.10 ...
 Press CTRL+K to abort
 Connected to 10.0.3.10 ...
 ******************************************************************************
 * Copyright (c) 2010-2014 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.          *
 * Without the owner's prior written consent,                                 *
 * no decompiling or reverse-engineering shall be allowed.                    *
 ******************************************************************************
<be-ant-ap01>
<be-ant-ap01>
<be-ant-ap01>

At this point, you have full access to the local Comware on the AP, all display, debug etc. commands can be used to view the AP local status/files etc.