topic Re: Advice on upgrading WLC with large number (4300-4400) of APs in Wireless

Advice on upgrading WLC with large number (4300-4400) of APs

omz — Mon, 05 Jul 2021 15:58:28 GMT

Hi all,

Looking for for some advice on upgrading a large number of access points appr. 4300-4400 access points associated to the WLC.

I ll be doing the predownload on the APs.

Is the there a limit on the WLC on how many simultaneous connections it will allow?

How long can the whole upgrade process take?

Thanks

Re: Upgrading large number of APs 4300-4400

Scott Fella — Sat, 11 Aug 2018 20:14:19 GMT

What code from to? What AP models?

Re: Upgrading large number of APs 4300-4400

omz — Sat, 11 Aug 2018 21:36:52 GMT

It’s a mix of APs 7xx 72xx and some others can’t remember on top of my head.

All models supported in the release notes. Upgrading to an escalation release suggested by TAC.

Re: Upgrading large number of APs 4300-4400

Scott Fella — Sat, 11 Aug 2018 21:46:19 GMT

I don’t know those AP’s. List the AP models and controller model and code version current and what you plan to use.

Re: Upgrading large number of APs 4300-4400

omz — Tue, 28 Aug 2018 12:14:50 GMT

AIR-CAP2602E-E-K9

AIR-CAP2602I-E-K9

AIR-CAP2702I-E-K9

from 8.0.152.0 to 8.0.152.8

7500 controller

Re: Upgrading large number of APs 4300-4400

Rasika Nayanajith — Sat, 11 Aug 2018 22:53:21 GMT

Are you using "FlexConnect smart AP image upgrade" option ? If it is following need to be noted

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/8-4/config-guide/b_cg84/configuring_flexconnect_ap_upgrades_for_flexconnect_aps.html

A maximum of 3 slave APs of the same model can download the image from their master AP (a maximum of 3 TFTP connections can serve at a time). The rest of the slave APs use the random back-off timer to retry for the master AP to download the image. The random back-off value is more than 100 seconds. After a slave AP downloads the image, the AP informs the Cisco WLC about the completion of the download. After random back-off, the waiting slave AP can occupy the empty TFTP slot at the master AP.

Refer below for smart upgrade procedure

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/technotes/8-6/Flex_7500_DG.html#pgfId-43836

HTH

Rasika

*** Pls rate all useful responses ***

Re: Advice on upgrading WLC with large number (4300-4400) of APs

Leo Laohoo — Sun, 12 Aug 2018 01:13:41 GMT

@omz wrote:

Is the there a limit on the WLC on how many simultaneous connections it will allow?

Depends on the controller. WiSM2 can do up to 500 APs. 5508 will do only 250. 8540 will do 1,000.

@omz wrote:

from 8.0.152.0 to 8.0.152.8

Be aware that 8.5.152.8 is a special engineering release where the main was released October 2017.

Re: Advice on upgrading WLC with large number (4300-4400) of APs

Scott Fella — Sun, 12 Aug 2018 01:39:19 GMT

It’s really hard to say how long it will take because you want to pre-download if possible and depends if the AP has enough space or not. Having FlexConnect groups can help depending if you have master setup like Rasika mentioned. Also I’m not a fan of “special versions”. If there is a newer version in which the issue is resolved, that’s what you should upgrade to. TAC should of provided guidance on that to be honest.

Re: Advice on upgrading WLC with large number (4300-4400) of APs

omz — Tue, 28 Aug 2018 12:55:22 GMT

Update

-4 controllers and 4364 APs upgraded

- 'FlexConnect smart AP image upgrade' was not configured for all the groups - appr. 1500 APs

- uploaded the image to controllers

- predownloaded image on the APs one controller at a time

- 1000 APs initiated the download

- FlexConnect smart AP image upgrade - only master initiated the download

- rebooted the controllers one by one

- time spent appr. 1.5 hours for each controller

I noticed that the APs with FlexConnect smart AP image upgrade took longer than the other APs. I guess - A maximum of 3 slave APs of the same model can download the image from their master AP (a maximum of 3 TFTP connections can serve at a time). - made it slower. To save WAN utilisation this would be the best approach.

It took 7-10 mins for ~700+ out of ~1000 to complete the predownload, rest took like nearly an hour. First complete appearing in 3-4 mins.

Help

Upgrading the Controller Software

Configuring FlexConnect AP Upgrades for FlexConnect APs

- Enable session logging for Putty or similar

- config paging disable/enable

- sh boot

- sh ap summary

- sh ap image all

- config ap image predownload primary all

Scott, Rasika and Leo - Thanks guys!