Wireless Redundancy

[rays]

HI I have a primary 5508 WLC with approx 200 AP licenses. I have recently renewed support on this so I want to continue to use it. As wireless has become critical for the business I have now been asked to implement N+1 or HA controllers and deploy a controller at our DR facility.

I understand the 5508 has limited lifespan so I do not want to invest in this technology and my prefernce is to purchase the 5520.

Question is, can I have the 5520 as my primary controller and re-deploy the 5508 at DR for backup?

Are there restrictions for both of them working together? My plan would be to eventually replace the 5508 with another 5520 HA controller.

Mau thanks

Rays

[Leo Laohoo]

Can be done and it is recommended that both run the same firmware.  

The final version of firmware the 5508 can support is 8.5.  5508 won't be able to support 8.6 and later.  

Don't forget, if you want to upgrade the 5508 to 5520 the license of the 5508 can be transferred to the 5520.  This alone will save you a lot of money.

[rays]

thanks Leo. I didnt realise you could re-host the license from 5508 to 5520! Is that a new thing?

Do you have a reference to this from Cisco?

If I can do this this would be the preferred route..

Thanks again

Rays

[Leo Laohoo]

Send an email to Cisco Licensing Team to confirm.