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Bulk AP movement from Primary to Secondary

snarayanaraju
Level 4
Level 4

Hello - We have two 5508 WLC. 120 Wireless accesspoints (AP) all associated to Primary WLC. Recently a Secondary WLC has been upgraded to latest code whereas Primary is still with old code itself.

 

The objective is to move all these 120 APs to Secondary WLC.

Method 1: Moving each APs manually by changing the Primary and Secondary Controller IP address settings in the APs. But it is a time consuming job

Method 2: Shutting down Primary WLC so that all the APs will start associating with Secondary WLC. 

 

The question is, if i follow Method 2, will it be a overhead for Secondary WLC as it has to push code to all these 120 APs simultaneously? Will this approach is advisable? Will it be a good idea for smooth migration?

 

Thanks in advance, SAIRAM 

 

2 Accepted Solutions

Accepted Solutions

Hi Sairam,

I would upgrade primary controller to same as secondary & during its reboot AP will go to secondary & being upgraded. Once the primary comes back all of them will come back to primary, by the time APs will have correct image. That is the easiest way to achieve what you want.

 

If you want to change AP HA, then best way to do it via CLI. Since you have configured both primary & secondary, you have to swap that one time (in order to APs go & register to secondary). Then another time if you want to move them back to primary. So it is double work. Here is the CLI commands that you can use on WLC to achieve it.

 

config ap primary-base <Primary_WLC_Name> <AP1_Name> <Primary_WLC_MgtIP>

config ap primary-base <Primary_WLC_Name> <AP2_Name> <Primary_WLC_MgtIP>

config ap primary-base <Primary_WLC_Name> <AP3_Name> <Primary_WLC_MgtIP>

 

config ap secondary-base <Secondary_WLC_Name> <AP1_Name> <Secondary_WLC_MgtIP>

config ap secondary-base <Secondary_WLC_Name> <AP1_Name> <Secondary_WLC_MgtIP>

config ap secondary-base <Secondary_WLC_Name> <AP1_Name> <Secondary_WLC_MgtIP>

 

In your case, if you want to swap it, best way to do it is below. First let secondary value removed (as you want to use same value as primary). If you do this for all your APs via Primary WLC CLI, you will see all those AP go & register to Secondary.

 

config ap secondary-base " " <AP1_Name> 0.0.0.0

config ap primary-base <Primary_WLC_Name> <AP1_Name> <Primary_WLC_MgtIP>

 

Once Primary upgraded, you can do below

 

config ap primary-base " " <AP1_Name> 0.0.0.0

config ap primary-base <Primary_WLC_Name> <AP1_Name> <Primary_WLC_MgtIP>

config ap secondary-base <Secondary_WLC_Name> <AP1_Name> <Secondary_WLC_MgtIP>

 

I would not worry too much about load, wihin 5-10min all your AP should be able to move from one to another (since code mismatch APs have to download image & reboot)

 

HTH

Rasika

*** Pls rate all useful responses ***

View solution in original post

Will all the 120 APs will be pushed to the new Code from the WLC simultaneously ?

 

Yes, 5508 can push it to 500 APs concurrently. See below table

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/8-5/config-guide/b_cg85/managing_software.html#ID1230

AP_Image_Concurrent.JPG

 

HTH

Rasika

*** Pls rate all useful responses ***

View solution in original post

6 Replies 6

Hi Sairam,

I would upgrade primary controller to same as secondary & during its reboot AP will go to secondary & being upgraded. Once the primary comes back all of them will come back to primary, by the time APs will have correct image. That is the easiest way to achieve what you want.

 

If you want to change AP HA, then best way to do it via CLI. Since you have configured both primary & secondary, you have to swap that one time (in order to APs go & register to secondary). Then another time if you want to move them back to primary. So it is double work. Here is the CLI commands that you can use on WLC to achieve it.

 

config ap primary-base <Primary_WLC_Name> <AP1_Name> <Primary_WLC_MgtIP>

config ap primary-base <Primary_WLC_Name> <AP2_Name> <Primary_WLC_MgtIP>

config ap primary-base <Primary_WLC_Name> <AP3_Name> <Primary_WLC_MgtIP>

 

config ap secondary-base <Secondary_WLC_Name> <AP1_Name> <Secondary_WLC_MgtIP>

config ap secondary-base <Secondary_WLC_Name> <AP1_Name> <Secondary_WLC_MgtIP>

config ap secondary-base <Secondary_WLC_Name> <AP1_Name> <Secondary_WLC_MgtIP>

 

In your case, if you want to swap it, best way to do it is below. First let secondary value removed (as you want to use same value as primary). If you do this for all your APs via Primary WLC CLI, you will see all those AP go & register to Secondary.

 

config ap secondary-base " " <AP1_Name> 0.0.0.0

config ap primary-base <Primary_WLC_Name> <AP1_Name> <Primary_WLC_MgtIP>

 

Once Primary upgraded, you can do below

 

config ap primary-base " " <AP1_Name> 0.0.0.0

config ap primary-base <Primary_WLC_Name> <AP1_Name> <Primary_WLC_MgtIP>

config ap secondary-base <Secondary_WLC_Name> <AP1_Name> <Secondary_WLC_MgtIP>

 

I would not worry too much about load, wihin 5-10min all your AP should be able to move from one to another (since code mismatch APs have to download image & reboot)

 

HTH

Rasika

*** Pls rate all useful responses ***

Thanks Rasika - I was worrying about what will happen if 120 number of APs with inferior code start getting associated to the higher version of WLC (Secondary in our case). 

 

Will all the 120 APs will be pushed to the new Code from the WLC simultaneously ?

 

thanks,Sairam

Will all the 120 APs will be pushed to the new Code from the WLC simultaneously ?

 

Yes, 5508 can push it to 500 APs concurrently. See below table

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/8-5/config-guide/b_cg85/managing_software.html#ID1230

AP_Image_Concurrent.JPG

 

HTH

Rasika

*** Pls rate all useful responses ***

Thanks Rasika - It helps. By the way thanks for your posts on https://mrncciew.com/ :)

Good to know that :)

 

Have a good day.

 

Rasika

ecarbajo
Level 1
Level 1

Hello,    I have published a method for Catalyst 9800, a python script using netconf:

https://github.com/eliascarbajo/Cisco-wlc-APs-swap

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