Cisco 9800 WLC migration

[adrianportier]

Customer has a 2504 WLC running Software Version 8.5.171.4 and roughly 22 AP’s (2802e/1832i). There is a more current software version 8.8.x, however the customer is hesitant to upgrade the current 2504 and AP’s. Their preference would be to go straight from 8.5.x to 17.3.4……

I have upgraded the 9800 WLC to the TAC recommended code release of 17.3.4 plus applied the corresponding SMU and APSP packages to support the 2802's, 1832's and 1542's.

I have found ZERO documentation spelling out the upgrade path from Aireos to IOS XE with regards to getting the AP’s from legacy 8.5 code to 17.3 XE code. This is not an IRCM Deployment, as the 2504’s will be decommissioned once all the AP’s are transitioned to the 9800.

Will the 8.5.x code AP's join a WLC running 17.3.4? Should I suggest they get to at least 8.8.x before migration?

[Leo Laohoo]

Move small quantity of APs to the new controller and do some testing.

[marce1000]

 - Ref : https://www.ciscolive.com/c/dam/r/ciscolive/us/docs/2020/pdf/DGTL-BRKEWN-2004.pdf

                        Start reading from AireOS to C9800 migration

 M.

[Rich R]

1. There is lots of documentation, videos, webinars on migrating from AireOS to 9800 including that provided above - just need to search for it.

2. Last supported release for 2504 is 8.5 - it cannot run 8.8.  If you want to update then it can only be to the latest 8.5 release 8.5.182.0 but note the TAC warning about a bug in that release which can cause reloads (although we're running it and not seen any problems so far).