Getting APs to join a large scale vWLC that's replacing a small scale vWLC

[fcfs]

Good afternoon everyone. I'm in a bit of a bind. Here's our situation:

• We have two small scale vWLC (.210 and .211), each with the max of 200 AP licenses. They're both on version 8.1.120.0.
• vWLC .210 is maxed out and .211 is about halfway there, as far as APs go. All of their APs are AIR-CAP702I-A-K9.
• We recently purchased more APs, but little did we know, these APs are now the 702i-B, which will only work with a newer version.
• We were already looking to upgrade the .210 to a large scale vWLC, but ran into issues (screenshot of error attached) and for some reason couldn't do it.
• I was on vacation (about a week or so), came back and my colleagues had already set up a new, large scale vWLC, running version 8.2.111.0. Its IP is .212.
• So now what we're trying to do is to have the +300 APs connect to .212 the most efficient way possible.
• The one way we've figured out to move an AP over was to set it to factory defaults, but that would be gruesome.

At this point, we're wanting to have just one virtual controller (large scale) for all APs. If somebody has been able to upgrade from a small scale (version 8.1.120.0) to a large scale (version 8.2.110.0), that would definitely be the way to go. I just couldn't get past that error with our support team.

If we can't upgrade from small to large, then the second option would be migrating them all to the new, large scale (.212) controller. What would be the best/efficient way to do that.

Thanks

[Rasika Nayanajith · Accepted solution]

I would simply disconnect .210 vWLC from the network and change the new vWLC to the same IP (.210). In that way all your AP should register with new vWLC.

If you intend to use all these vWLCs, then you have to change each AP primary controller (under AP config - High Avaialbility tab) to new vWLC name & management IP. You can do it via vWLC CLI as well. If you get all your AP details you can prepare your config in notepad & applied it once.(first test it out & make sure it works for you)

(WLC) >config ap primary-base <vWLC_Name> <AP1_Name> <vWLC_mgt_IP>
(WLC) >config ap primary-base <vWLC_Name> <AP2_Name> <vWLC_mgt_IP>
.
(WLC) >config ap primary-base <vWLC_Name> <APn_Name> <vWLC_mgt_IP>

HTH

Rasika

***Pls rate all useful responses ***

[fcfs]

Good morning Rasika. Thanks for your prompt reply and I apologize for taking this long to respond (weekend hit :-) ). What you're suggesting is exactly what we tried to do, but none of the APs registered to the new controller when we did so. We gave the APs plenty of time to register (a couple of hours), but nonetheless, they didn't.

Unfortunately we didn't capture any logs from any of the APs or controller through that process as they're spread out all over. Our final design will feature the new large scale controller as the primary one. Once all of the APs are on it and off of the other two controllers, we will probably do away with those two (small scale) controllers and create a new, second large scale one as a backup.

Thanks

Cesar

[Rasika Nayanajith]

What you're suggesting is exactly what we tried to do, but none of the APs registered to the new controller when we did so. We gave the APs plenty of time to register (a couple of hours), but nonetheless, they didn't.

Which option you tried. Add the new vWLC with same IP or the change the Primary/Secondary.

If 2nd option did not work, you may need to take AP console output while you trying this to identify the issue

HTH

Rasika

[fcfs]

Initially we took the original .210 offline and changed the IP on the new one to .210. APs didn't register.

Looking back at it though, I think there may have been an issue with the new controller licensing that night and that's what prevented the APs from registering to it. The very next day we were trying to register a new AP in our lab and it wouldn't register to the new vWLC either. We looked at the logs and noticed a licensing error kept popping up. The AP finally registered after activating the controller's evaluation licence. 

Since we were in a bit of a time crunch we opted to create a mobility group with all three controllers. We then modified an access list in every one of the remote routers to force every AP to only talk to the new vWLC. Once all of the APs are on the new vWLC, we'll do away with the two small scale controllers. We're about half way there.

It's probably not the most efficient way of doing it, but it's what we found worked at the time.

Thanks again for your input, Rasika. I'm going to go ahead and select your first answer as the correct one since I'm about 99% sure it would've worked had the licensing issue not been present.