Experience WLC 8.2 -> 8.5 upgrade

[patoberli]

Hi all

Just wondering if somebody already made the upgrade from 8.2.x to an 8.5.x release in one step?

I'm running a SSO with 5520 controllers and will probably upgrade to 8.5.130.0 once it's released, because of the new "IoT" feature (WPA2 with per device PSK) for which I have some need here (dumb IoT devices not supporting PEAP).

Anyway, the release notes state that only 8.3 -> 8.5 is supported and I wonder if I really have to do a two step upgrade to get to 8.5, or if you already have made that in medium sized live environments?

Thanks

Patrick

[d.friday]

Release notes state ......If you are using Release 8.2.x, we recommend that you upgrade to Release 8.3.x and then upgrade to Release 8.5.x.

There has been a lot of changes between 8.2 and 8.5 so I would recommend following Cisco Guidelines.

I hope this helps

David

[aleopoldie]

Hi,

As for me I do not go above 8.3.141.0 for 5520 WLC's.

But 8.5.130.0 is not available anymore on cisco.com , isn't it ?

[patoberli]

Why don't you want to go to 8.3.141.0?

8.5.130.0 isn't yet released, it's still in Beta. See here https://supportforums.cisco.com/t5/other-wireless-mobility-subjects/85mr3-interim-build-availability/m-p/3361962

Should be released this/next week if they don't find any major bugs.

[aleopoldie]

8.3.141.0 is quite stable, and I'm a little afraid to go to 8.5 in the moment, it's too early, as for me of course

[Rasika Nayanajith · Accepted solution]

I would follow release note advice and go with step upgrade 8.3 -> 8.5 

"If you are using Release 8.2.x, we recommend that you upgrade to Release 8.3.x and then upgrade to Release 8.5.x."

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/release/notes/crn85mr2.html#upgrade-software_85mr2

HTH

Rasika

[Freerk Terpstra]

Hi Rasika,

Do you know what the reason is for this advice? Any bugs with pre-downloading images perhaps? I have done a lot of image switches lately between 8.2 and 8.5 in our lab and not discovered issues (yet) while doing so.

Most of our customers are still in the 8.2 train, only a few of them are in 8.5 due to using the 3504 controllers or using IPSK/PPSK for example. At this moment I would wait for the final 8.5 MR3, wait two weeks before bringing it to production and perform own testing in the meantime. If you have some spare time you could already start with some testing with the current 8.5 MR3 interim.

[patoberli]

I'm already testing 8.5MR3 on my testing 3504 WLC. So far it fixed one bug, my 3504 with 8.5.120.0 tended to reboot one or twice per two weeks, now it hadn't in the last two weeks since on 8.5mr3.
Will do more testing once the final release is out.

[patoberli]

Scratch this, it just crashed 2 minutes ago.

[Manish Mathur]

Hail Cisco !!!  ;)

Anyways , we upgraded our 5508 WLCs directly from 8.2.160.0 to 8.5.120.0. These WLCs were in AP-SSO. We encountered two issues.

1. The CPU ACLs got disabled after the upgrade.

2. The Active 5508 WLC was left in a reboot loop if we tested "reset system self" after the upgrade.

Hope this helps.

Manish

[kahsieh]

Refer to the table 3 of the doc; direct upgrade from 8.2.16x to 8.5.140 is there.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/release/notes/crn85mr4.html#upgrade-software_85mr4