import AP names on standby controller

[dwilson09]

We have two 9800 controllers in our environment. One active & one standby.

Can I import AP names to the standby controller without having the APs join it? 

[Flavio Miranda]

Hi

 Trying to understand why you would need it. I believe this is not possible and not necessary. IF they are really active/standby which means HA SSO, they share the config, the APs and clients data base.

"The new High Availability (HA) feature (that is, AP SSO) set within the Cisco Unified Wireless Network software release version 8.0 and above allows the access point (AP) to establish a CAPWAP tunnel with the Active WLC and share a mirror copy of the AP database with the Standby WLC. The APs do not go into the Discovery state when the Active WLC fails and the Standby WLC takes over the network as the Active WLC. "

[Rich R]

I suspect you're referring to N+1 HA which is 2 separate WLCs.  You configure HA preference on the AP config.  If it can't reach primary it moves to secondary.  AP names are stored on the APs themselves.  As long as you're running a version of software which supports tag persistence then the AP stores all tag info too (refer to TAC recommended version and best practice guide below).  There is no automatic way to keep N+1 WLCs in sync.  You simply need to keep the WLAN, profile, tag config in sync.  When an AP moves from one to the other the AP name does not change.
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/9800/config-guide/newconfigmodel/b_catalyst-9800-configuration-model/m_n1-highavailability.html

If you want WLCs which are fully synchronised then as Flavio said you should be using HA-SSO.
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/wireless/catalyst-9800-series-wireless-controllers/220277-configure-high-availability-sso-on-catal.html