Field Notice: FN70253 - Wireless Client Fails to Associate: AID Error - Software Upgrade Recommended

After some time of operation, all association attempts to a given access point (AP) radio are rejected with Association Response status 17 and one of these error messages: 

• In local mode: 'All the AIDS are in use'
• In FlexConnect mode: 'Association identifier...is already in use'

Note: Association Response status 17 can occur for a variety of reasons.

Each AP radio has an Association ID (AID) table that contains an entry for each client. The WLC maintains a table that corresponds to the AID table. The AID table and the WLC table can sometimes become out of sync with each other. If the tables become out of sync, all association attempts to the affected radio will fail until the AP is reloaded.

After some time of operation, all association attempts to a given AP radio are rejected with Association Response status 17. In addition, the WLC message log (msglog) shows an error message similar to one of these examples:

• In local mode:

  *apfMsConnTask_3: Jun 29 09:02:24.301: %LWAPP-3-INVALID_SLOT: spam_api.c:1636 The system detects an invalid slot identifier (1) - All the AIDs are in use. Could not allocate association identifier; AP 00:53:00:33:44:50

• In FlexConnect mode:

  *apfMsConnTask_0: Jun 06 13:25:27.175: %APF-3-AID_UPDATE_FAILED: apf_80211.c:7631 Error updating Association ID for REAP AP Client 00:53:ff:33:44:55 - AID 2

*apfMsConnTask_0: Jun 06 13:25:27.175: %LWAPP-3-INVALID_AID2: spam_api.c:1791 Association identifier 2 for client 00:53:ff:33:44:55 is already in use by 00:53:ee:06:08:0a for AP 00:53:00:33:44:50 slot 0 vap 1

Note: Association Response status 17 can be sent for a variety of other reasons. In order to confirm this problem, look in the message text for either of these phrases:

• In local mode: "All the AIDs are in use"
• In FlexConnect mode: "Association identifier...is already in use"

Workaround

Reload each affected AP in order to resolve the problem temporarily.

Solution

Upgrade to software that includes the fixes for Cisco bug IDs CSCve81314 and CSCve81269:

• 8.0MR5esc (available from the Cisco Technical Assistance Center)
• 8.3.140.0 and later
• 8.5.110.0 and later
• 8.6 and later

This issue affects Cisco IOS^® APs such as the 3500, 2600, 3600, 2700, and 3700 series. This issue can affect APs that run in local mode or in FlexConnect mode.

The issue does not affect Cisco IOS APs that run in autonomous mode.

This issue does not affect AP-COS APs such as the 1800, 2800, or 3800 series.