Difference between running and startup config on WLC 8.5

[stokke]

Hi all. 

I'm a bit concerned now, because I by accident discovered that there is a difference between the startup-config and running-config on one of my WLCs. 

I discovered this when I compared startup-config for two of my WLCs. For instance a couple of FlexConnect groups are not present in the startup-config on one of the WLCs even though the FlexConnect groups are present when I check in both GUI and CLI on this WLC. 

I confirmed this by comparing the output of the two commands "show run-config commands" (which I presume is the running-config) and "show run-config startup-commands" (which I presume is the startup-config). In the first one the FlexConnect groups are present, in the second one they are not. 

Anyone experienced this or similar problems? This, in my case, means that I cannot trust my configuration backup to be complete because this is a copy of the "startup-config". And I'm kind of scared to loose any configuration if the controller reboots on a incomplete startup-config. 

[Dennis Mink]

if you have a statement in your start up config that is not present in your running config, to me that sounds like someone removed something from config, without saving it to start up config.well at least that sounds like the most plausible explanation. i would write the current config, if you are happy with it.

[stokke]

Hi Dennis. 

I actually checked that. Did a "save config", but still there are FlexConnect groups missing in startup-config. 

[Rich R]

CLI output on WLC is notoriously messy in my opinion so this might just be a cosmetic bug in the CLI output or you really do have config missing from the startup config.

Best thing to do is open a TAC case and let TAC check and verify if it's a problem or not.

Regards

Rich

[stokke]

My further investigations has not been able to give me an explanation for the differences, so I will open a TAC-case and let you know the outcome of this. 

[Scott Fella]

On AireOS, your true config is when you backup your config and look at it.  The show run can be missing thing. The show tech-support would have more plus your flex info. 

[kumaraguru.ayyasamy]

i have the same issue with one of my WLC. Check this bug CSCvi91017

[stokke]

Thank you so much. That's probably it. 

My main concern now is whether or not I loose the FlexConnect configurations for these groups when I reboot for an upgrade.

I'll try to extract my FlexConnect config from run-config and do a manual backup that way prior to an upgrade. And yes I know that the format of "show run-config commands" is not the same as "show run-config startup-commands". So I will have to do some manual work here. 

Thank you for the pointer to the bug. 

[Rich R]

We've also recently noticed https://bst.cloudapps.cisco.com/bugsearch/bug/CSCvn50968

We also have another TAC case open at the moment relating to anomalies in the startup config.

[stokke · Accepted solution]

Hey again. 

So I got in contact with TAC regarding bug CSCvi91017. And we confirmed that we were hitting it. 

The workaround is quite simple:

- Add a new dummy FlexConnect group

- Save configuration. 

When this is done all the missing FlexConnect groups are back in startup-config. 

NOTE: Do NOT erase the dummy FlexConnect group. This results in the FlexConnect groups disappearing again from startup-config. I guess it is possible to erase this dummy group after doing a software upgrade to 8.5.140.0 which has this bug fixed. 

[Rich R]

Thanks for the update.
The new issues we found turned out to be cosmetic - 2 new bugs opened:
https://bst.cloudapps.cisco.com/bugsearch/bug/CSCvo27826 Hyperlocation default values appear in config backup sometimes when Hyperlocation is disabled
https://bst.cloudapps.cisco.com/bugsearch/bug/CSCvo27909 QinQ eap-sim-aka enable command appears in config backup even QinQ client-traffic is disabled
So if you notice these they don't have any impact, just ignore them.

Rich