Upgrade controller to 8.3

[mumbles202]

I'm currently required to upgrade a 2504 from 8.0.140.0 to 8.3.143.0 to support some 3802i's that are being added. I see the minimum required FUS is 1.9. The website says to upgrade the FUS first and then when the controller is back up to upgrade the firmware. I've also heard it's better to upgrade the controller to 8.3 first and then upgrade the FUS. Is either order fine?  I'll be doing this in an extended maintenance window but I'll be remote so want to be prepared. 

[Sandeep Choudhary · Accepted solution]

yes either order is fine. Also you can upgrade to 2.0 directly.

Make sure you take a min of 45-60 min downtime window for FUS upgrade .

Regards

Dont forget to arte helpful posts

[mumbles202]

Ok thanks for confirming. Yes, I've gotten a 3 hour maintenance window to complete this and upgrade the 20 WAPs. I'll go to 2.0 instead of 1.9 as well.

[mumbles202]

Upgraded the controller to 8.3 and the FUS to 2.0 last night w/o any issues.  Connected the 3802 (both E and I ) this morning but they're not joining the controller.  When I check cdp I see the devices are running 8.5.131.  Do i need to upgrade to at least that version on the controller or should the APs downgrade to 8.3?  They're getting dhcp and are on the same vlan as the existing APs so  they are getting option 43.

[patoberli]

The should connect just fine, then download new software, reboot and connect again, maybe download again software, reboot and now connect finally correct.
Make sure NTP is set correctly on the WLC!

[Sandeep Choudhary]

set the correct time on WLC!!!

[mumbles202]

WLC is getting time via NTP and it is correct.  

[Sandeep Choudhary]

WLC: sh sysinfo

AP: sh version

Paste the complete bootup process from AP console.

Reggards

Dont forget to rate helpful posts

[mumbles202]

Attached is the output of sysinfo.  I'm working on getting onsite to get console access to an AP.  

[patoberli]

This looks fine.

Do you see any messages in the WLC logfile of the joining APs?

[mumbles202]

No, I didn't see anything when I looked Friday.  If i do a show power inline as the device is coming up it show as a AIR-AP3802E-B-K9, but after a few minutes it shows as IEEE.  The device comes up in CDP for a few minutes, then disappears.  The MAC address drops out of the switch table a few minutes after the AP is power cycled as well. 

TDR test looks good for the cable as well. The APs require a lift to access so getting to them to get the console logs would need to be scheduled.

Tried a debug capwap events on the controller but not seeing any information displayed on in the logs.  

[patoberli]

I hope you are not affected by this:
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/field-notices/703/fn70330.html
But to see this you'd need to be onsite.
One more detail to check, as you don't see any capwap events, how do the APs discover the WLC? Do you use DHCP Option 43, same VLAN or DNS name? Maybe they currently can't discover the WLC by any variant.

[mumbles202]

Going onsite in the morning to get console access to an AP.  Possible they were shipped w/ Mobility Express software and that's the issue?  

[patoberli]

Should not, no, if they were previously working with the WLC.
If they are brand new thought, then they don't work without a conversion to CAPWAP.

[mumbles202]

Yes, these were brand new out of the box, upgraded controller to gain support for the 3802s.  Turns out they were running ME image so had to go onsite and convert them.  

Thanks for all the help!