Cisco AP migration from old WLC pair to New WLC pair

[gqadirmirza]

Hi

I have exiting 3 pair of 5508 controllers and there are almost 760 APs in the environment. Now we have a new pair of Cisco WLC 5520 and i want to migrate all these APs to the new controllers. The new pair of 5520 WLC will be configured as brand new configuration and it doesn't have to match with the existing controller configuration as the existing config is not up to cisco best practice. 

I want to know that what step should i take in this case? I want to migrate few APs first and then rest. Here is what my understanding and plan is:

1- Configure the new WLC 5520 as per cisco best practice

2- Assign the different IP to WLC 5520 from the same subnet as of the existing controllers are in. 

3- For the target AP change the primary controller to new WLC 5520 

Need help and suggestions?

[Scott Fella]

What you need to add to your list is that you create mobility between the existing and the new. Make sure all your WLANs are configured before you do anything else. Once you have completed that, you can move AP’s one at a time by changing the AP’s high availability to point to the new 5520 as primary and changing the secondary and tertiary to your existing. Now I also assume that the AP’s support the code you will have on the 5520.
Now you can create a cli command to change the AP’s high availability and or use Prime Infrastructure if you have that. Test one AP first and make sure all the SSID’s are working before proceeding.

[gqadirmirza]

Hi Scott

Thank you very much for responding to my question. This will help a lot. I forgot to mention initially that the existing controllers will be going away and will no longer be in production after all APs are moved to new WLCs 5520. In that case do i still need to bring the new 5520s in the mobility group. I am thinking to configure the new 5520s with the different IP but in the same subnet as of the existing controllers are and build the configuration from scratch. In that case what is the best way to move the APs to new 5520s once all the configuration will be done. This is a new deployment and we are not copying or reusing the existing configuration of 5508s. I would really appreciate if you can guide me that what steps i have to take for the smooth transition. 

Thank you very much. 

[Scott Fella · Accepted solution]

You still do in order to keep seamless roaming. When you migrate, you want to test first and then add more and verify with users everything is working fine. When you migrate everything off, then you just remove the mobility information and any other configuration that reference the old controllers.

[gqadirmirza]

Thank you very much. I got your point. I really appreciate your help.

[Scott Fella]

No problem. Good luck with the migration.