Cannot Factory Reset H550

[jr1]

Recently purchased a house set up with 5 H550 APs.  Originally were running through a netgate router, but that's gone, and I am using an Orbi router.  I am trying to factory reset these and set them up on my network so that I can get rid of the Orbi (have a new router on the way).

I can connect to the network being broadcast by the APs.  But, whether connected to my router via ethernet or the wifi it's broadcasting (192.168.1.x), or the network broadcast by the APs (all of which have 10.10.1.x IPs), I cannot log in to unleashed (I know they were set up on unleashed)...  I have tried with every IP address for each specific AP in a browser (one is set up as the master and CTL lights on the back of the rest of them are not on) with no luck.  When we moved in, I was given an IP address and admin login to a Ruckus server (different IP address than any of the APs), but am not able to log in with that IP address either.

I tried multiple times with each AP holding the factory reset button down for 10,20 and 30 seconds, but when I connect them to my network, they still have the original IP address, not the default or one that my router should be assigning to them.  That, along with the fact that I can still access the network they are broadcasting after doing the factory reset, tells me it's not working to reset them that way, and also tells me it's not a hardware issue... if it was, would be an extreme coincidence that the hard reset button on all 5 APs isn't working.

I have tried connecting via SSH using PuTTy, but get no response from any of them, and no response when pinging any of them with command prompt.

The previous owners will be of zero help even if I could contact them, and I spoke with the person that installed these and set up the network initially (typically only does enterprise level corporate setups), but now cannot get him to return a call or email, thus the reason I'm trying to just factory reset all of them and start from scratch.

Ruckus tech support would not help since I am not the original purchaser (they were all set up new within the last 1-2 years), so as it stands now, I'm essentially left with 5 very expensive bricks that I can't use, or at least have no way to manage, and a wasted 10+ hours researching and trying every solution I have come across on forums/youtube/reddit/etc.

If anyone has any suggestions for how I can get all of these factory reset (or even access them at all through the web or mobile app), I would be extremely grateful...

[AshwinM]

Hi Jr1,

Thank you for contacting Ruckus Networks,

I understand your concern on unable to perform factory resetting the AP's.

Please try the below steps and let me know, if that helped.

Step-1 : Click the reset button for more than 10 seconds and see, if the AP reboots.
Step-2: Remove the AP from the network and connect a DC power source to power on the AP and connect a PC directly to the AP's LAN-1 port with IP[192.168.1.x] and then try the default IP[https://192.168.0.1] address of the AP.
rkscli : set factory
rkscli: reboot

Regards,
Ashwin Mathiyazhagan
Technical Support Eng. -EMEA

[martin_martin]

Alternative on using DC power, you can try the following.

Switch off the router that is providing the DHCP IP addresses.

Then use the above points from Ashwin to factory reset one AP and enter via the default IP address 192.168.0.1 if that works then change it to an IP in your range and then go to the next one. When they are all done switch on the dhcp server (router) again.

regards

Martin M

[jr1]

I finally got this resolved.  Was a long process, and I assume not the only way to do this, but here is what worked for me after about 5 more hours of trial and error, in case others come across this:

1) Unplug ALL APs from the network

2) Power 1 AP with DC power and hold SOFT reset until all the lights flash red after about 3-5 seconds, then remove.  For some reason, the soft reset seems to do what a hard reset does with every other piece of technology I've owned.  Hard reset seemingly just reboots it, but I needed to fully factory reset these.

3) Plug the AP into the network, and set up the unleashed network as desired, upgrade firmware, etc.  We now have 1 working AP with the unleashed network set up.

At this point, should be able to soft reset any other APs, plug them into the network, let them add themselves to the already set up unleashed network, and upgrade the firmware from the web console either with online or local upgrade.  But that didn't work for me.  I tried with 3 different APs after a soft and hard reset, and they all refused to upgrade to the newest firmware that the master AP was running.  And since all APs have to be running the same firmware, they were essentially offline.  Couldn't access them via their IP address or FTP/PuTTy.  So here's what I had to do with every other AP after setting up the master:

1) Unplug the set up master AP from the network.

2) Power next AP with DC power (don't connect to network yet), and perform a SOFT reset.  At least in my case, it will not work to use POE - has to be disconnected from the network, which resulted in me having to order an AC power adapter to do this.  Make sure you order the part number compatible with your AP - I tried 2-3 other adapters that I already had laying around, and those didn't work - I'm sure due to insufficient or too much power.  Regarding the comment from Martin, probably could have used POE (which for me is coming from the main switch) and just unplug the router, but I didn't have the luxury of taking my whole network offline to get these set up (I am migrating from Orbi, so family/home office was still using the internet throughout this process).

3) Plug AP into the network, and navigate to the setup using the IP address that your router assigns to it.  According to setup documentation, should have been able to use 192.168.0.1, but that wasn't the case for me.  Even after a soft reset, all APs still had unleashed on them, so were not fully reset to factory.

4) Add a dummy password (I just used "password") and do the simple setup - no configuration needed, since settings will be wiped anyways.

5) Upgrade the firmware (Admin & Services > Upgrade)

6) After upgrading the firmware, restore to factory (Admin & Services > Backup & Restore > Restore to Factory Settings).  This keeps the same firmware on the AP, but just wipes all of the settings.

A progress bar screen will show up, and for me, each time got all the way to the end, but never went away or gave a message that the factory reset was complete (I would have expected the page to refresh to something else once the factory reset was complete or at least a pop up saying it was complete).

7) After letting the progress bar sit at the end for a couple minutes, plug the master AP back into the network, and log in to unleashed using the master IP address once it's booted up.

Result = AP2 should have added itself to the unleashed network that was set up with the master, firmware on both is the same, and all is good.

Rinse and repeat with the rest of the APs, making sure all APs are unplugged when setting up a new one, rather than just the master (if you unplug the master but leave any others plugged in, it will just switch one of the online ones to being the master).