WAAS upgrade help

[Vishnu Reddy]

Hi Guys,

I am doing WAAS upgrade from version 5.1.1  to 5.4.1a on the Central Manager. This would be my first time. I uploaded an image from ftp://xx.x.77.166/waas-universal-5.4.1a.17-k9.bin to the CM. I haven't enabled the Auto Reload. Once I enable Auto Reload check does that software installation is done completely?. After the upgrade is done for CM can i push the image and upgrade the SRE engines?

Thanks for your reply.

[finn.poulsen · Accepted solution]

Hi Vishnu,

Basically you should follow the procedure outlined here :

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/app_ntwk_services/waas/waas/v541/configuration/guide/cnfg/maint.html#26348

Since you've already have uploaded the software to the CM (and I assume that you want to use the CM as the "software repository" ) you should do the following :

1. Remember to create a backup of the CMS database and copy it somewhere outside the CM
2. enable ftp server on the CM (inetd enable ftp)
3. optionally create username for ftp usage (pointing to the CM itself)
4. Register the software image on the CM (see guide) - click "Auto Reload" if desired
5. on the CM device - click update
   1. now the software will be installed on the CM and the CM will reload (if Auto Reload is enabled)
6. Perform the same for your remaining WAAS devices - however I would recommend that :
   1. You use the "Accelerator image only" for non-CM devices (it's "only" 290 MB vs 395MB) and thus reduces the transfer time
   2. Upload and register this image similiar to the universal image
   3. and follow the same procedure for each SRE/WAE/WAVE

If you haven't click the "Auto Reload" you'll need to reload the device yourself ... after the upgrade.

Remember that WAAS 5.4.x is not supported on 274/474/574/674/7341/7371

Best Regards

Finn Poulsen

[Vishnu Reddy]

Thanks for your reply.

Initially I had ftp issues connecting to CM. Re-installed FTP server and I was able to download the image from the FTP server and install it. Noticed one thing that I didn't have to disable the CM services or WCCP redirect from WAE or WAVE modules. Do i need to follow this step or it doesn't matter when you are upgrading the central manger?. Also I updated the WAVE 7450 device and didn't have to disable the WCCP redirect. Also noticed that after upgrading the new feature "Akamai Connect" for all the devices as not connected. Can you please provide some document/references where it says that its not supported due to specific reasons?  I thought that this feature will help deduce some latency issues.

Again thanks for your prompt response...!

[finn.poulsen]

Hi Vishnu,

You'll need to purchase a license to use Akamai Connect features.

The CM is there only for management purposes, it's not involved in redirects/optimization etc.

So no need to do anything when upgrading the CM.

It is correct that there is a recommendation on disabling WCCP redirects, but this should be considered as a safety mechanism, and I think this recommendation was invented when in a multiple WAVE/WAE setup (e.g. in a Datacenter) where there is a master/member role in the WCCP election (one is being elected as the Lead), they need to agree 100% on the load balancing scheme (masks or bucket assignment).Cisco  made some significant changes between two releases (can't remember which), which caused some strange and undesired behaviour.

If you only have one WAE/WAVE in the same WCCP group, the requirement is more to initiate a controlled WCCP shutdown (which is always nice), but the WCCP will go down anyway after a few seconds, when the box gets reloaded.

Also you can verify that the upgrade went ok, before starting directing traffic to the box.

Best regards

Finn Poulsen

[Vishnu Reddy]

Thanks for your reply. Will this feature really help reduce latency? If yes then I will try to get a buy in from our managers. Also I am supposing this is software feature and existing hardware should support this feature. We use SM-SRE-910K9 and WAVE OE7541.

Also most of the WAE devices are showing high memory utilization (85-90%)is this normal as it does the DRE and updates database every second. Can i do anything to lower the memory issues as sometimes the device stops functioning because of high memory issue. We have to manually reboot the SRE and the device starts working once rebooted.

Thanks in advance.

[finn.poulsen]

Hi Vishnu,

If you're having operational problems with your SRE modules, you should really contact Cisco TAC and they can guide you with respect to memory usages as well.

Akamai Connect is a caching functionality at the branch WAAS and one usage is for web traffic accessing the internet (this would require Local Internet breakout though).

To gain full benefit - It requires that the WEB servers are using the "Akamai Intelligent Platform", but many global WEB servers do.

There could be some benefits towards you own (inhouse) WEB servers, but it's hard to tell, you might gain the same, by just enabling HTTP metadata caching.

But you can get a trial license from PDI helpdesk, if you are a Cisco partner, otherwise contact your local Cisco representative.

Best Regards

Finn Poulsen