Technical Tip: Preventing FortiAP-F series root and leaf are offline when using the Mesh topology

[ehamud]

Description	This article describes how to prevent lost communication with FortiAPs in Mesh mode.
Scope	FortiAP-F series.
Solution	Sometimes, when the proper configuration is done on the Mesh environment following this topology, the Root FortiAP and the Leaf FortiAP or sometimes only the Leaf FortiAP are under offline state without any reason, and the workaround is to restart both FortiAPs in order to recover the association to the FortiGate acting as WLC. Topology: To Fix permanently this issue, follow these steps: Validate there are no defective ethernet cable failures with a certified tester, check that 100Mbps speed or CRC errors are not present. Validate that the correct country code is correct according to the region where the FortiAP is installed. Install FortiAP v7.4.4, which has the code fix on Mesh environments to avoid the Offline state, the potential reason is that the fsm-state is at random times stuck starting all over the Discovery process. Before the upgrade: FortiAP # wcfg | grep fsm fsm-state : DTLS_SETUP 9 After the upgrade: FortiAP # wcfg | grep fsm fsm-state : RUN 930065