What to do if Omada Device Adoption Failure

This troubleshooting guide provides some steps to deal with the failure of Omada device adoption.

In the process of adopting a pending Omada device or a device managed by others via the Omada Controller, the device is not successfully adopted if the status is shown as Adopt Failed.

Step 1: Check the error messages on the Controller first and troubleshoot based on the scenarios corresponding to the messages.

Step 2: If the error message is “Failed to adopt the device because the username or password is incorrect.”, continue this step. If not, skip to Step 3.

This error message occurs when the username or password you use to adopt the device does not match the device’s account information. In this case, follow the steps below:

1. Click Retry and enter the correct username and password to adopt the device.

a). If the device is in the Standalone mode, user can try to use the login username and password for the Web GUI to adopt the device.

b). If the device is Managed by Others, user can go to Settings > Site > Device Account of the Controller that has adopted the device to check the username and password.

2. If the device still cannot be adopted, reset the device to factory settings:

a). If the device has a reset button, long press the button until the LED indicator begins to flash. The device will then be reset to its factory settings.

b). If the switch has no reset button, use a console cable to connect the console port of the device to your PC and run a console tool (e.g. Tera Term, MobaXterm). Choose 38400 as speed and enter BootUtil to reset the device.

Step 3: If the error message is “Device adoption failed because the device does not respond to adopt commands.”, continue this step. If not, skip to Step 4.

In the adoption process, if the message switching between the Controller and the device is hindered, choose the corresponding troubleshooting method based on your Controller type.

Cloud-Based Controller:

1. Refer to CBC-Device Compatibility List in advance to have an idea of the compatibility of your Omada devices before using the Cloud-Based Controller for management. By doing so, you can avoid situations that your devices cannot be adopted by the CBC due to incompatibility.

2. Make sure all the switch ports between your devices and the gateway/DHCP Server have been configured with the correct VLAN tags.

3. Use other clients in the same network to check the Internet connection to make sure the device is connected to the Internet.

Hardware Controller/Software Controller：

1. Make sure the device is the normal network. Make sure all the switch ports between the device and the gateway/DHCP Server have been configured with the correct VLAN tags and no other problems like network loops occur in the network.

2. Check the communication between the device and the Controller:

a).If the device and the Controller are in the same network or VLAN, use the built-in ping tool on the Hardware/Software Controller or perform ping command on the PC running the Software Controller to the device IP address to ensure the device is reachable.

b).If the device and the Controller are in the different network or VLAN, check your L3 network configurations and whether you have already enabled device adoption in different network via Discovery Utility/Controller Inform URL/DHCP Option 138.

3. Check whether the following ports in the network have been blocked or disabled by firewalls or antivirus software. For Software Controller users in particular, check the status of the port connected to the PC that runs the Controller.

Table 1 Ports for Device Discovery, Adoption, Management

Step 4: If the error message is “Failed to link to uplink AP.”, continue this step. If not, skip to Step 5.

This error message occurs when the mesh APs take a long time to respond or there is a communication timeout between the devices and the Controller. In this case, follow the steps below:

1. Make sure your APs are powered on and runs normally.

2. Shorten appropriately the linear distance between the Root AP and the Mesh AP and move away the obstacles to reduce their impact on wireless signals and wireless channel utilization.

3. Try to re-adopt the device with using another uplink AP.

Step 5: If the error message is “This device does not exist.”, continue this step.

In rare cases, the browser cache that stores the device status information has expired, causing the device to be adopted to disappear from the device list. In this case, follow the steps below:

1. Refresh your browser.

2. If the device still does not exist in the device list, refer to Step III to troubleshoot the device and the Controller again until the device can be adopted.