[Ruckus] Ruckus Primer: Ultimate AP Reset Technique without WebUI

Recently, I have purchased couple Ruckus APs through Ebay. They came pre-installed with Smart Zone firmwares and I could not access their WebUI despite multiple reset and other attempts. After spending hours, I have finally figured out a way to flash Unleashed firmware on these units without WebUI. On today’s article, I’d like to share what I call “ultimate reset” technique for Ruckus APs.

General

Who is this guide for?

This guide should be useful for those who have Ruckus APs that

• can not be factory reset
• can not be accessed via WebUI
• is bricked (?)

In this guide you will learn

• Basic Ruckus AP reset techniques
• How to flash new firmware on Ruckus AP without WebUI access

What you need

• Ruckus AP
• Firmware to be installed
• Ability to ping the Ruckus AP

Background

Ruckus access points can operate in various distinct modes including stand alone AP, Unleashed (controller less), cloud based (now Ruckus One), and local controller based (Smart Zone). Each setup requires their proper, distinct version of firmware installed.

For example, we cannot use Smart Zone or standalone firmware installed AP in Unleashed network or vice versa. For switching from one mode of firmware to another, we need to download the firmware and flash it. For most users, though inconvenient, this process is as easy as follow step by step instruction.

However, if we lose the WebUI access, this becomes a real challenge.

The general steps to follow are:

• Standard reset
• Confirm ping-able AP
• Enable https/http via CLI*

*If for any reason you don’t want to reset your AP (if you could avoid it), you can try enable https/http step first to see if it works.

During any step if WebUI becomes accessible, you should stop there and just use WebUI to configure/flash firmware etc.

Standard reset techniques

The first thing to try if you have not done so already is to perform the standard reset technique. Ruckus APs have three main ways to reset.

1. Physical reset
2. Command Line Interface reset
3. UI reset

Physical reset

The first line technique is to use the physical reset button (ref). On Ruckus APs, we need to hold reset button with clip for 10 seconds while the AP is power on. Then release the button. This process should reset the admin id and password to their default, “super” and “sp-admin” if for nothing else.

CLI reset

If you have command line access to the AP, you can reset via Ruckus AP through CLI.

1. Log into AP via SSH
2. Run the command “set factory”
3. Run the command “reboot”

*This method does not work on cloud managed APs.

UI reset

Supposedly, cloud managed APs need can be reset from the Web UI, but physical reset should also work.

Make AP Pingable

For the ultimate reset technique, we need to be able to “ping” and SSH into the AP. If you can’t reach to the device, there is nothing we can do.

There are 3 main ways to make the AP ping-able.

1. DHCP network
2. Configure.Me SSID
3. Direct connection

DHCP network

Even if you are not able to access its WebUI, you may still be able to ping the AP from your network connected computer. This was my case.

Configure.Me

After resetting AP, it should advertise “Configure.Me-xxyyzz” SSID.

The password is serial number of the AP. When connected to the SSID, the AP should have IP address of “192.168.0.1”. You can try to see if WebUI is now accessible. If not, check at least you can ping it.

Direct connection

The third option is to connect AP directly to computer via ethernet. In this case, you most likely need alternative way to power the AP e.g. PoE injector or power supply.

Since there is no DHCP server to assign IP address automatically in this set up, you need to manually set IP address to your computer so it can communicate with the AP.

Since Ruckus AP will use 192.168.0.1 for its IP, we should set computer’s IP to be on the same subnet e.g. 192.168.0.2 and subnet mask 255.255.255.0.

Once connected, you can try if WebUI is now working at 192.168.0.1. If not, see if you can at least ping it.

Enable https/http

If you have reset the AP, and able to ping the AP, you should be able to log into the AP’s command line interface. There is one thing we can try to fix possible issue accessing WebUI.

First, you need to SSH into the AP. After resetting, user ID should be “super” and password is “sp-admin”. Due to security, you may need to use ssh command with extra argument as below.

ssh -oHostKeyAlgorithms=+ssh-rsa [ip address of the AP]

Please login: super
Password: sp-admin

Next, you can run following command.

> set https enable
ok
> set http enable
ok

Above commands enables https or http i.e. WebUI access to the AP.

You can check the https or http status by following commands.

get https
get http

To ensure these changes have saved, and taken place, you can enter command reboot to restart the AP.

Ultimate Reset

Despite all of the above, if you are still not able to access WebUI, you can do the “ultimate reset” technique.

In this technique, we will flash new firmware through command line interface, but rather than manually entering several command, we will use a GUI tool, crossbreeder.

Crossbreeder is a troubleshooting and automating some simple commonly used tasks for Ruckus APs such as factory reset, update firmware etc. It does not rely on any controller. Instead, it runs through a list of IP addresses supplied by the user to contact each AP directly via SSH. This utility is built for windows and macOS platforms.

Crossbreeder

Crossbreeder is a free app developed by one of Ruckus employee to run SSH commands on multiple Ruckus APs on the network. This includes flashing new firmware.

Requirements

• Crossbreeder
• TFTP Server tool e.g. Transfer
• Firmware file
• Ping-able AP

General Steps

General steps are simple

1. Setup TFTP server
2. Prepare AP
3. Setup Crossbreeder
4. Run & Wait

Setup TFTP server

The first step is to setup firmware sending computer i.e. TFTP server. Personally, I’ve done this whole process from my Mac Studio through home network connected AP. Both AP and Mac Studio were on the native VLAN.

Although crossbreeder supports firmware flash through protocol other than TFTP, I found TFTP is simple without authentication.

Step 1: Setup TFTP server

There are many free TFTP server app. In fact, Mac supposedly have built in TFTP server, but I like simple GUI approach. So I have used Transfer app (3 day free trial/$19.99).

Although I already knew my Mac Studio IP, Transfer app shows it at bottom.

Step 2: Place firmware file into the TFTP folder

First, you need to download correct firmware. If you need step by step instruction of where to download Ruckus unleashed firmware, you can follow this article. I have downloaded 200.15 unleashed firmware, and placed into the TFTP folder, which was simply drag and drop on Transfer app.

Prepare AP

Next, we need to prepare AP so it can be accessed by CrossBreeder and connect to TFTP server.

If you’ve followed this guide step by step, you should be ready. The AP should’ve been factory reset so it has default user name and password. The AP should be ping-able. We will need the AP’s IP address in next step.

Setup Crossbreeder

Now that we have the AP and TFTP server ready, we will link two together using Crossbreeder.

Step 1: Download and launch Crossbreeder

First you need to download Crossbreeder to your computer where TFTP server is running i.e. in my case Mac Studio. The file does not require any install. You just unzip and open it to run.

If you are using Mac, you may need to hold command button, right click and select open to bypass security.

Even though the version says 2020 (in February 2024), this still works.

Step 2: Create CSV file

Crossbreeder will SSH into IP addresses supplied by CSV file. So we need to create the CSV file.

First you can click the “click here for template” area to download template file.

Save the file.

Edit this file to put your own AP’s address(es).

CSV file may be opened by default app such as numbers. If so, you need to ensure saving it as CSV file. Alternatively, you can open the file by plain text editor e.g. TextEdit in Mac.

If IP address of AP is 192.168.1.100, the file should look like below.

Step 3: Load CSV file

Load the CSV file by clicking “Import CSV…” button on left lower area.

Table should be populated with the CSV file content as below.

Step 4: Check Change Firmware

Step 5: Enter TFTP information

Step 6: Generate Control File

Step 7: Type/paste control name file

Run & Wait

Now we are ready to execute Crossbreeder.

Click it “Go!” on the right bottom lower corner.

Executing firmware flash should be instantaneous. You can look at the command log output to confirm no error.

In a few seconds, AP should start to reboot. Loading Unleashed firmware for the first time takes several minutes. So it is normal for not be able to access WebUI for 5-10 minutes.

Now you should have completely, factory reset (initialized) Ruckus firmware on the AP.

Reference

• The Kennel – Tools & Docs Repository
• Flashing Ruckus Access Points Using Crossbreeder