Reboot or Restart Cisco WLC and Access Points – CLI & GUI

v3, Last Updated: 02-June-2024

Scenario
Cisco: WLC 2500
Access Point: 3800, 3700
Mode: CLI & GUI
Description: This article is to show stepwise how to reboot or restart Cisco WLC and Access Points via CLI and GUI. The reboot process can be done, for an instance, at a particular time and/or after some interval. We will discuss here both CLI and GUI methods to reboot or restart the cisco WLC and access points. Refer to the link article to know how to reset Cisco WLC to factory default settings.

CLI Mode

Step1: Login to WLC

login as: admin
(Cisco Controller)
User: admin
Password:**************
(Cisco Controller) >reset system
The system has unsaved changes.
Would you like to save them now? (y/N) y
This will reboot the system.

Step2: These are all options of system reset

(Cisco Controller) >reset system ?
at             Reset the system at a specified time.
in             Reset the system after a specified delay.
cancel         Cancel a scheduled reset.
forced         Reboot the controller forcefully.
notify-time    Configures trap generation prior to scheduled resets.

(Cisco Controller) >

Step3: To check and confirm the time & time zone of the controller using the below command

(Cisco Controller) >show time
Time............................................. Thu Sep 10 00:25:03 2020
Timezone delta................................... 0:0
Timezone location................................ (GMT +9:00) Tokyo, Osaka, Sapporo
NTP Servers
    NTP Version..................................     3

    NTP Polling Interval.........................     3600


     Index     NTP Key Index                  NTP Server                Status          NTP Msg Auth Status

    -------  ---------------------------------------------------------------------

       1              0                                 10.1.1.1     Not Synched         AUTH DISABLED

       2              0                                 10.1.1.2     In Progress          AUTH DISABLED

Step4a: Rest system at – Here we can define the time when do we want to reboot the controller and access points. Please note, the controller will be rebooted as per the current time of the controller.

Use “image no-swap” to ensure the primary image does not get swap with secondary. If you intentionally want to swap the image then use the command “image swap“.

(Cisco Controller)  >reset system at 2014-07-11 18:00:00 image no-swap reset-aps save-config
 System reset is scheduled for Sep 10 18:00:00 2020.
 Current local time and date is Sep 10 09:10:19 2020.
 A trap will be generated 10 minutes before each scheduled system reset.
 Use 'reset system cancel' to cancel the reset.
 Configuration will be saved before the system reset.

Step4b: Reset system in – This is used to reboot the controller after some desired time, like in 5 min or 10 min. The minimum time is 2 min.

(Cisco Controller)  >reset system in 00:01:00 image  no-swap reset-aps save-config
Time period is too short.

(Cisco Controller)  >reset system in 00:02:00 image  no-swap reset-aps save-config

 System reset is scheduled for Sep 10 20:24:29 2020.
 Current local time and date is Sep 10 20:22:29  2020.
 A trap will be generated 10 minutes before each scheduled system reset.
 Use 'reset system cancel' to cancel the reset.
 Configuration will be saved before the system reset.

(Cisco Controller)  >

Step4c: Reset System forced – This command is used to reload the system forcefully.

(Cisco Controller) >reset system forced

Step4d: Reset system notify-time – This command is used to configures trap generation prior to the scheduled reset.

(Cisco Controller) >reset system notify-time 10
 A trap will be generated 10 minutes before each scheduled system reset.
(Cisco Controller) >

Step4e: Reset System cancel – If the reset command is already configured then we can use this command to cancel the reset

(Cisco Controller) >reset system cancel
 Scheduled reset cancelled.

(Cisco Controller) >

Step5: To check the status of the reset command

(Cisco Controller)  >show reset
 System reset is scheduled for Sep 10 03:11:51 2020.
 Current local time and date is Sep 10 09:11:53 2020.
 A trap will be generated 10 minutes before each scheduled system reset.
 Use 'reset system cancel' to cancel the reset.
 Configuration will be saved before the system reset.

(Cisco Controller) >

GUI Mode

Step1:- Login to WLC via GUI
Click “Advance” to go to the advance mode.

Step2:- Rebooting WLC

Step3:- Scheduled Reboot

If rebooting the Wireless LAN Controller and the access points did not help and if you are looking to reset the WLC please follow the steps of Reset Cisco WLC To Factory Default. The article will show stepwise method to reset a WLC to factory default.

Source: Knowledge Base, Lab, Internet, Cisco

EA00025