9120AX APs migrating from 5520 to 9800 taking forever to download

[Alex Capistran]

1 hour and 16 minutes, to download an image from the 9800 on a 10M MPLS circuit. My aps are running in Flexconnect and i've seen where you can modify the capwap window size; however, it's only recommended for use with OEAPs. 

it doesn't seem to make sense to me that they take this long to download a file that's roughly 100MB... granted on a 10M link but still that seems quite a bit excessive. Anyone have an idea of a workaround?

[eglinsky2012]

What code versions are the 5520 and 9800 running?

[Alex Capistran]

17.9.5 and 8.10.183

[Leo Laohoo]

This is a known bug. 

Upgrade to an intermediate version, like 17.3.5 (or later) or 17.6.X first, and upgrade to 17.9.X (or later).

[Alex Capistran]

running 17.9.5 and still an issue unfortunately

[Rich R]

You don't mention software versions at all. 
What version is the 5520 running?
What version is the 9800 running?
There have been a few similar discussions before .. check out:
https://community.cisco.com/t5/wireless/wifi-ap-upgrade-from-controller-takes-3-hours/td-p/5012041
https://community.cisco.com/t5/wireless/3802i-ap-and-migration-from-5508-to-v9800-cl/td-p/5104607
https://community.cisco.com/t5/wireless/access-point-image-download/td-p/4891946

If you're using the latest (17.12) 9800 software then you might want to think about Out-of-Band AP Image Download

[Alex Capistran]

whoops, forgot to mention that i'm using 17.9.5 on the 9800s and 8.10.183 on the 5520s. i had a lot better luck using the archive /download /no-reload command on the ap itself after a short little test. seemed to work a lot faster anyway. i was thinking of going this route if it will continue to be a problem. 

[marce1000]

  @Alex Capistran - Note  that in the more recent release you can also achieve faster image download by using https
                              as mentioned in https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/9800/17-12/config-guide/b_wl_17_12_cg/m_eff_image_upgrade_ewlc.html#dld-ap-image-wlc
                                             Not sure if this is applicable to your current scenario , 

 M.

[Leo Laohoo]

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@Alex Capistran wrote:
i had a lot better luck using the archive /download /no-reload command on the ap itself after a short little test. seemed to work a lot faster anyway. i was thinking of going this route if it will continue to be a problem. 

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I agree and manually upload the firmware using this method works better.

[DJW487]

I have experienced this also when migrating AP's from one controller on 17.9.4 to another on 17.9.4a, each took over 45 minutes on a 50Mb MPLS connection and I was doing one at a time.