Note: This is pre-InstantOS 4.2
I used to do my site surveys with a lightweight AP and a small controller. I have since moved to IAPs. Once you get the initial setup done, you can just power it up and go at each survey point. Here are the steps:
- Connect a console cable to the CONSOLE port of the IAP and connect to your laptop
- Open up your Telnet/SSH client and start a session on the necessary COM port
- Connect the Data In port of the injector to the ethernet port of your laptop
- You do this because the the IAP will NOT broadcast the “Instant” SSID without an uplink in the beginning.
- Connect the Power + Data Out port of the injector to the ENET0 port of the IAP
- Once the AP starts booting, start pressing the Enter key over and over until you see “apboot>”
- You can wait until you see “Hit <Enter> to stop autoboot”, but you only have a couple of seconds once that shows up and it doesn’t hurt anything to start pressing Enter right away.
- You need to set a static address for the IAP to stay up (it needs either static or DHCP). Follow these steps to set a static address on the IAP
- Once the address is assigned, type “boot” and press Enter
- A few minutes after the IAP is fully booted, you will see the “Instant” SSID broadcasting. Connect the SSID and navigate to https://instant.arubanetworks.com
- Default login is admin/admin
- Once in the GUI, click “Maintenance” in the top-right corner to convert the IAP to Standalone mode (This configures the IAP to not look for other IAPs/Virtual Controllers):
- After converting to Standalone, create a new network:
- In the WLAN Settings tab, click “Show advanced options”:
- Uncheck the “Disable SSID on uplink failure” box:
- Then go through the rest of the steps programming your WLAN
- After setting up the new network, click on “RF” in the top-right corner and configure your RF settings (These settings keep the radio from making too many dynamic changes during your survey):
- Once those changes are done, reboot the IAP and you should see your new survey SSID show up after a few minutes
On a side note, I use a 10′ telescoping mast like this for my surveys:
Questions or comments? Leave them below and/or find me on twitter @mattbfrederick
FineSine 
Good detail. But I think Item 1 should be combined with Number 5 and the rest reordered. Also Item 9 says “the the SSID.”
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Nice catch Ernie! I went ahead and removed step 1 completely and renumbered. Shouldn’t have been there. I had wrote that before thinking of the console part and forgot to go back. Thanks!
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It does not work anymore starting with InstantOS 4.2. The “Disable SSID on uplink failure” option have been replaced by a new, larger set of options.
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Thanks Simon, I will add a note at the top.
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I’ve been testing this procedure last week running InstantOS 4.2.4.3 (Early Deployment) and it worked perfectly with IAP-275 and IAP-277. The “Disable SSID on uplink failure” have more option now but from the factory default config, these setting are disabled by default anyway.
Step 1 to 7 can be skip if you connect your IAP on a DHCP network (via PoE switchport or Injector) for the initial config. Once booted it will broadcast the “instant” SSID like step 8 and then from the GUI you can set your static IP for the Virtual Controller.
When you configure your SSID in the VLAN tab (step 13) I recommend to chose Virtual Controller assigned for the Client IP assignment and Default for the Client VLAN assignment. This way, when you do your survey, if you need to change a settings you just have to connect to your survey SSID and you can access the GUI via the default gateway IP of your wireless connection.
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