Aruba AP-to-IAP conversion

darcseed Feb '21

So a lot of people like the IAP-207’s that have had good deals lately.

Turns out Aruba now allows for converting standard Campus APs (CAPs) to Instant mode with their
controller software. Some enterprising folks on Reddit managed to lay out how one would achieve such a
thing without a controller…

Seeing as how I know the 207’s are on the lower end of Aruba’s lineup, there were other APs that I use at
work that have better performance than the 207…and I had an AP-225 laying around. And a serial console
cable. And some time. So you need the following:

RJ45 serial console cable

PuTTY or other serial terminal software
Aruba AP of the desired type
Instant AP firmware matching desired type
PoE switch
tftp server on a machine

A lot of this is from the link above, but I’ll modify a few things so you know how to do this the right way if
you’re in the US:

1. obtain your ArubaInstant firmware for your appropriate AP type.

2. Configure a TFTP server on your computer of choice, and place the firmware in the appropriate
directory so the AP can find it later.
3. Connect to the AP with a serial console cable (in some cases, this is just an RJ45 console cable like
any other network switch, but Aruba also uses USB serial cables as well with embedded serial
controllers for some models)
4. Open your serial software, check that you’re connected to the right COM port, usually 9600-N-8-1.
5. plug the Ethernet cable into the AP. You should see human-readable info.
6. Stop the apboot by any key when you see “Hit to stop autoboot:3”
7. You should be at a prompt. Game time!
8. proginv system ccode CCODE-RW-de6fdb363ff04c13ee261ec04fbb01bdd482d1cd

a. Here’s the deal: this is for EVERY COUNTRY NOT THE US. Turns out “CCODE-RW-xxxx” is

country-code-rewritable and the SERIAL OF THE ACCESS POINT, SHA1 HASHED.

b. Use this hasher to create your code from your serial number.

c. In this case, you would make your code CCODE-US-whatever came out of that hasher.
9. invent -w (unlocks flash)
10. dhcp

a. This actually says “go dhcp an address” but if you want to set it static…

b. setenv ipaddr 192.168.1.20 (or whatever IP you want)

11. setenv serverip 192.168.1.10 (replace with IP of your TFTP server)
12. upgrade os 0 ArubaInstant_xxx_6.x.x.x-4.x.x.x_5xxxx
13. upgrade os 1 ArubaInstant_xxx_6.x.x.x-4.x.x.x_5xxxx

Skipa.tothere
mainare
content
TWO partitions on the AP’s storage. this prevents accidental rollback to not-Instant
 14. factory_reset (THIS IS OPTIONAL, if you set an IP earlier in step 10; if you dhcp’d you can skip it)
15. saveenv (writes changes to AP)
16. reset (reboots AP)

You’ll eventually see “Instant” as an open SSID on 2.4GHz. You can start configuring. It’ll prompt to select a
country if you didn’t set it as US. If you MEANT to set it as US…you messed up if it prompts you.

…I can’t provide you any firmware. And I can’t point you at it. But… above should be helpful. If there’s
questions I’ll do what I can to help.

essessaynch Apr '21

In order to flash a US AP, instead of hashing just the serial number, you need to hash
US-SerialNumberHere

Therefore, the command would be: progenv system code CCODE-US-SHA1HashFromAbove

darcseed Apr '21

Sure. that’s 8c.

Edit: OH. You mean hash the string US-SERIALNO. Got it.

I didn’t have to do that with the 225.