How to Convert Cisco C9115 to Embedded Wireless Controller (EWC)

February 13, 2021 By Rowell Leave a Comment

Embedded Wireless Controller (EWC) is a powerful way to deploy access points in an environment without the need for a dedicated physical controller such as the C9800-L. One of the access points will carry the virtual controller role and all other supported access points join to that controller.

Another great use case for EWC is for AP-on-a-Stick surveys. This is the reason why I needed to convert a Cisco C9115 to EWC mode from CAPWAP. A client of mine plans on deploying the C9115 but we needed make the predictive survey more accurate.

My Cisco C9115 was originally joined to a Cisco 3504 controller running 8.10 code and thus is running in CAPWAP mode.

Download EWC

Download the Embedded Wireless Controller (EWC) code from Cisco’s website. For this example, I’m using version 16.12.4.

It’s up to you which version you want to download. I generally stay with the recommended version unless there’s something specific you need from another version. You will need a login to download the file, which is in zip format.

Extract the contents of the zip file.

We must extract the contents because we only need two files. One is the image for the C9115 and the other is the C9800 controller file.

The C9115 needs the ap1g7 image file and our controller file is C9800-AP-iosxe-wlc.bin.

If you’re using another access point model, consult with the table below:

AP ModelImage File NameAP1815, AP154xap1g5AP180x, AP183x, AP185xap1g4C9115, C9120ap1g7C9117ap1g6C9130ap1g6aAP380x, AP280x, AP156xap3g3

Transfer Files to the C9115

Next step is to fire up a TFTP server and transfer the files to the access point. Obviously, you’ll need connectivity to the access point in order to SSH and issue some commands.

First, transfer the two required files to your TFTP directory and ensure you set the correct permissions. I’m using MacOS and an application called TftpServer.

Files showing up in TftpServer

Next, SSH into your access point and run the conversion command to convert the C9115 from CAPWAP to EWC:

P6-AP-01#ap-type ewc-ap tftp://172.16.103.37/ap1g7 tftp://172.16.103.37/C9800-AP-iosxe-wlc.bin

The IP address you see here is my TFTP Server. Change yours accordingly. Once the files are successfully downloaded, the AP will reboot. The C9800 bin file will be downloaded first followed by the AP image.

 
 p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 14.0px} 
 P6-AP-01#ap-type ewc-ap tftp://172.16.103.37/ap1g7 tftp://172.16.103.37/C9800-AP-iosxe-wlc.bin
 Starting download eWLC image tftp://172.16.103.37/C9800-AP-iosxe-wlc.bin ...
 It may take a few minutes. If longer, please abort command, check network and try again.
 ################################################################################################################# 100.0%
 Image download completed.
 Checking ...OK
 Checking image size...OK
 Verifying ...OK
 Versioning ...ws_management_version: 16.12.04a.0.9
 Successfully downloaded and setup eWLC image.
 Starting download AP image tftp://172.16.103.37/ap1g7 ...
 It may take a few minutes. If longer, please abort command, check network and try again.
 ################################################################################################################# 100.0%
 Image download completed.
 Upgrading ...
 upgrade.sh: Script called with args:[NO_UPGRADE]
 do NO_UPGRADE, part1 is active part
 upgrade.sh: Script called with args:[-c PREDOWNLOAD]
 do PREDOWNLOAD, part1 is active part
 upgrade.sh: Start doing upgrade arg1=PREDOWNLOAD arg2=,from_cli arg3= ...
 upgrade.sh: Using image /tmp/cli_part.tar on axel-bcm ...
 Image signing verify success.
 

 [2/8/2021 10:56:28] : Shadow is now in-synced with master
 

 [2/8/2021 10:56:28] : Verifying against bundle image btldr.img...
 upgrade.sh: part to upgrade is part2
 upgrade.sh: AP version1: part2 8.10.121.0, img 16.12.4.31
 upgrade.sh: Untar /tmp/cli_part.tar to /bootpart/part2...
 upgrade.sh: Sync image to disk...
 upgrade.sh: AP version2: part2 16.12.4.31, img 16.12.4.31
 upgrade.sh: AP backup  version: 16.12.4.31
 upgrade.sh: Finished upgrade task.
 upgrade.sh: Cleanup for do_upgrade...
 upgrade.sh: /tmp/upgrade_in_progress cleaned
 upgrade.sh: Cleanup tmp files ...
 upgrade.sh: Script called with args:[ACTIVATE]
 do ACTIVATE, part1 is active part
 upgrade.sh: activate part2, set BOOT to part2
 upgrade.sh: AP primary version after reload: 16.12.4.31
 upgrade.sh: AP backup  version after reload: 17.3.1.9
 Successfully setup AP image.
 Archive done. 

Provisioning

Once the access point successfully boots, you’ll see a provisioning SSID called CiscoAirProvision-XXXX. The last part of the SSID will be the last octet of the AP’s MAC address.

CiscoAirProvision

The default password for the provisioning SSID is password.

The IP address of the controller is 192.168.1.1.

Log into the web interface with the following credentials:

Username: webui
Password: cisco

You’ll be required to perform Day 0 configuration which are the basics to get EWC running. Sections to configure include the country code, management user, management IP address, and a wireless network.

General ConfigurationWLAN Configuration

When you’re done, click on Finish.

Wait for things to reconfigure and then you’re off and running with your Cisco Embedded Wireless Controller. Just remember to use the new management IP address you configured, if you changed it.