Forcing 2 APs to upgrade first when migrating from a 5520 to CW9800M - Page 2

Anthony O'Reilly · ‎07-28-2025

Hello,

I have an upgrade soon where we are upgrading from a pair to 5520s (8.10.190.0) to a pair of CW9800Ms (17.14.1).

There are over 400 APs (1852s, 2702, 9115s) to be migrated. The window for this upgrade is tight.

I was thinking if we could force 2 APs to upgrade first (this is where two testers will be), we can get testers testing ASAP while waiting for the rest of the APs to register. I have the IP, mac and AP-type. If there is an issue, we can troubleshoot earlier before they all register.

What is the best way to go about it?

Thanks

Anthony

Mark Elsen · ‎07-28-2025

- @Anthony O'Reilly If you go for a big bang method then for instance use commands from https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/wireless/catalyst-9800-series-wireless-controllers/217738-monitor-catalyst-9800-kpis-key-performa.html#toc-hId--1620538988

to get useful stats and info's about the APs on the 9800 controller

M.

-- Let everything happen to you
   Beauty and terror
      Just keep going
     No feeling is final
Reiner Maria Rilke (1899)

Mark Elsen · ‎07-28-2025

- @Anthony O'Reilly You will also need to configure the AP's on a 9800 controller with the designated profiles and tags otherwise they just sit there waiting to be configured ; however this can be automated , checkout :
https://community.cisco.com/t5/wireless/change-initial-tags-for-aps-connecting-to-9800-wlcs/m-p/4145679/highlight/true#M197264

M.

-- Let everything happen to you
   Beauty and terror
      Just keep going
     No feeling is final
Reiner Maria Rilke (1899)

Leo Laohoo · ‎07-28-2025

@Anthony O'Reilly wrote:
Am I right in saying that you cannot pre-download a 9800 images from the 5520 down to the AP?

Depending on who is providing the answer, the answer could be a unanimous "no".

I, however, say "I've been there, done that. Walked away happy."

I can "pre-download" 17.14.1 firmware to the Cheetah OS in question but it will be undocumented (aka "black magic").

The "concept" (for lack of a better word) is to manually push the firmware to the APs (individually or en masse), tell the AP where to go and then force the AP to reboot.

Why force the AP to reboot? Because when the AP reboots, it will seek out the new controller. And WHEN the AP reboots, guess what firmware version the AP boots into?

Saikat Nandy · ‎07-28-2025

@Anthony O'Reilly I agree 100% with what @Leo Laohoo just said. Why you want to play with you whole network..!!!
Choose 2-3-4-5 APs from different model/site =====> Use the archive command (with no-reload) to download the lightweight image to those APs ======> Change the AP high availability configuration and point to CW9800M =====> The APs should hit the CW9800M, change the boot partition, reload and join ======> Do whatever testing you wanna do.
Once satisfied, you can plan the migration for all the APs. But predownload of IOS-XE code is not possible in 5520. We do have option of WLAN Poller to execute the exact same process as you did in those 2-3 APs.
BDW you should not be running 17.14 in the CW9800M. You need to run 17.15.3+Applicable SMUs+Applicable APSP.

Leo Laohoo · ‎07-28-2025

@Saikat Nandy wrote:
But predownload of IOS-XE code is not possible in 5520.

(@Anthony O'Reilly I would strongly upgrading to 17.15.3 because the AP firmware for the 1850, 2800, 9115 are not available for download.)

Yes and no.

It can be done. Black magic.

NOTE: All commands below are meant to be entered into the 5520.

Step 1. Download the AP firmware for 1850, 2800 & 9115 and put the files into a TFTP server

Step 2. Generate a list of APs (from the 5520): sh ap summary

Step 3. Command: debug ap enable <AP NAME>

Step 4. Command: debug ap command "archive download /no-reboot tftp://<IP ADDRESS>/filename.tar" ap-name <AP NAME>

Step 5. Wait for 2 minutes for the process to finish.

Step 6. Command: config ap primary-base <CW9800M HOSTNAME> <AP NAME> <CW9800M IP ADDRESS>

Step 7. Command: config ap reset <AP NAME>

WARNING:

There should be, at a maximum, 2 second interval difference, from Step 6 to Step 7. If the AP is not instructed to reboot, it will join the new controller and will download the firmware from the controller and will take longer.

Saikat Nandy · ‎07-29-2025

@Leo Laohoo Thanks for the process & partnership. Well, it is gonna work. But technically this is not 'pre-download', rather manually pushing the image to the APs. Also don't you feel WLAN Poller will be a much better solution to achieve the exact same result as what you are doing via debug command?

Leo Laohoo · ‎07-29-2025

@Saikat Nandy wrote:
But technically this is not 'pre-download', rather manually pushing the image to the APs.

Definitely not "pre-download", hence, I call it black magic.

@Saikat Nandy wrote:
Also don't you feel WLAN Poller will be a much better solution to achieve the exact same result as what you are doing via debug command?

I have never used WLAN Poller since it was created (a bug to identify if the classic IOS APs suffered the bug where the OS would "eat itself" causing the APs to boot into ROMMON). I have about 800 x 3500/3600 (uptime of >8 years) and have not suffered the same annoying bugs as APs in 8.10.X.X. No crashes. No tracebacks. So no need for me to get acquainted with the WLAN Poller.