Out of Box is a really good feature added by cisco; basically it’s a special RF profile for new APs to join the network.
If this feature is enabled:
GUI:
CLI:
(WLC1) >show rf-profile summary Number of RF Profiles............................ 8 Out Of Box State................................. Disabled Out Of Box Persistence........................... Disabled RF Profile Name Band Description 11n-client-only Applied --------------------------------- ------- ----------------------------------- ------------------ ---------- High-Client-Density-802.11a 5 GHz <none> disable No High-Client-Density-802.11bg 2.4 GHz <none> disable No Low-Client-Density-802.11a 5 GHz <none> disable No Low-Client-Density-802.11bg 2.4 GHz <none> disable No Out-Of-Box-11A 5 GHz System Defined Profile disable Yes Out-Of-Box-11B 2.4 GHz System Defined Profile disable Yes Typical-Client-Density-802.11a 5 GHz <none> disable No Typical-Client-Density-802.11bg 2.4 GHz <none> disable No (WLC1) > (WLC1) >config rf-profile out-of-box enable This feature is designed to eliminate RF instability due to out of box APs. Enabling Out-Of-Box will move such APs (with default-group) to a newly created AP Group and Shut Off their radios. Are you sure you want to continue? (y/N)y (WLC1) >
- If new AP joins to the network it will be moved to Out-of-Box RF profile and their radios will be administratively disabled. This eliminates any RF instability caused by the new access points.
- All default-group APs that subsequently associate with the controller (existing APs on the same controller that have dropped and re-associated, or APs from another controller) are placed in the Out-of-Box AP group.
- Special RF profiles are created per 802.11 bands. These RF profiles have default settings for all the existing RF parameters and additional new configurations.
Main points to keep in mind:
- When removing APs from the Out-of-Box AP group for the use, it’s recommended that we assign the APs to a custom AP group to prevent inadvertently having them revert to the Out-of-Box AP group.
- When we disable this feature after enable it, only subscription of new APs to the Out of Box AP group stops. All APs that are subscribed to the Out of Box AP Group remain in this AP group. We must manually move to these AP to different AP groups.
- This feature is automatically turned-off upon rebooting the controller. It has to be manually turned on!
(WLC1) >reset system Are you sure you would like to reset the system? (y/N) y System will now restart! Restarting system. <skip> ! (WLC1) >show rf-profile summary Number of RF Profiles............................ 8 Out Of Box State................................. Disabled Out Of Box Persistence........................... Disabled RF Profile Name Band Description 11n-client-only Applied --------------------------------- ------- ----------------------------------- ------------------ ---------- High-Client-Density-802.11a 5 GHz <none> disable No High-Client-Density-802.11bg 2.4 GHz <none> disable No Low-Client-Density-802.11a 5 GHz <none> disable No Low-Client-Density-802.11bg 2.4 GHz <none> disable No Out-Of-Box-11A 5 GHz System Defined Profile disable Yes Out-Of-Box-11B 2.4 GHz System Defined Profile disable Yes Typical-Client-Density-802.11a 5 GHz <none> disable No Typical-Client-Density-802.11bg 2.4 GHz <none> disable No (WLC1) >
Solution: To solve this issue, we need to enable Persistence as well.
(WLC1) >config rf-profile out-of-box persistence enable
- Same as point 1 but…..If the AP isn’t moved to another RF group (other than the default) it will be added to the out-of-box group after every time it joins the controller.
Update(May be a BUG): One more thing I noticed that APs both radios are down ….even after moving an AP from Out-Of-Box to a different AP group.
Hi, do you know if that “bug” been fixed (or if there is a workaround)? I have preconfigured 200 APs and put them in their respective AP Group. I will turn them step by step and I do not want to manually activate the radios.
Many Thanks
I did not test the newest version! You can ask this question on CSC.
Regards
RSCCIEW
I have just tried with a 5520 and 4800AP running 8.8.100 and I have the same issue. Moving the AP out of the OOB group doesnt enable the radios again. Nor does the command config 802.11a enable network
Have you found a solution to this problem?
“Update(May be a BUG): One more thing I noticed that APs both radios are down ….even after moving an AP from Out-Of-Box to a different AP group.”
No still no solution.
Hi all, this may be by design – I’m supporting a large deployment where we are using this feature to prevent radios from turning up on newly installed APs until we are ready for go-live so we can track their status and populate maps in Cisco Prime, etc. In the interim too, we can group them accordingly to ensure they are using the right interface(s) / RF Profiles, then we use a Lightweight AP script in Cisco Prime when it’s time to turn up the radios at once by adding the admin enable checkbox in addition to turning on all radios via the same script which can be configured using the tabs within the Cisco Prime GUI. Hope this helps!