FortiGate 200D controlling 2 FortiAP 320Cs

[cgbaroudi]

Hi,

I have a FortiGate 200D controlling 2 FortiAP 320Cs. I have had several issues then I updated the firmware on the 200D and the AP 320Cs to the latest 5.6. The issue now is the controller will intermittently disconnect from the APs and consequently, the power LED will start blinking in amber. All WiFi connections drop and both APs are greyed out (down arrow) under Managed FortiAPs. Both FortiAPs drop simultaneously most of the time although one will come before the other does. over the weekend, no issue. now during business day it is occurring every 3-4 minutes where both APs drop (WiFi goes down for a few minutes) then come back for a few minutes repeatedly.

Any help, suggestions would be appreciated.

Thank you.

[MikePruett]

Were you running 5.6 previously? It is fairly buggy right now still.

Did you follow the upgrade path for both the FortiGate and the FortiAPs?

[cgbaroudi]

Hey Mike,

Thank you so much for responding.

I have resolved the issue and I will explain how after I answer your questions.

1. I was running 5.4.1 to begin with which had a list of issues. When I upgraded to v5.6.2, the Wi-Fi functionality at least appears to have improved considerably except for the issue described.

2. Indeed I  followed the upgrade path of   5.4.1 1064 >> 5.4.3 >> 5.4.4 >> 5.6.2

Solution:

Error message on APs:   Control message maximal retransmission limit reached The problem was retransmissions on our internal network. Not really a FortiAP/Gate issue but once I increased the max-retransmit value to 15, I never see the blinking amber/offline light on the FortiAP unless I deauthorize it, which is quite unbelievable. The way we have things configured is similar to remote controller setup. We have 2 FortiAPs bridged onto the user network while the controller is 2 switches away on a different subnet. Both APs were not losing heartbeats with the controller during off hours but once everyone was in the office, the APs were going offline every 5-7 minutes. Once I increased the max-retransmit on the FortiGate as follows, all was fine:

Fortigate (global) #

config wireless-controller global

set max-retransmit 15

end

Fortigate (global) #

Only thing I would recommend to Fortinet is to update the documentation on the FortiAP 320C manual to indicate that the leftmost LED on the unit blinking amber is not just power, or software updating, but "AP offline" as well.

Best Regards,

Chris

[Admin_FTNT]

Chris,

I would recommend that you use the "Report an Issue" link at the bottom of the pages at docs.fortinet.com to pass on your suggested improvement to the manual.

Your comment will go straight to the Tech Docs team.

Regards,

Admin.

[MikePruett]

Chris,

Thanks for the response on the resolution. Glad you figured it out!