Looking for a quicker way to predownload image onto 8540 WLC APs

[CarrieRasak13520]

I'm predownloading 8.10.171.0 onto our APs, using a 8540 WLC. There are over 2000 APs on the controller. I know you can predownload to every AP at once, and also individually by AP name. I was wondering if anyone knew of a wildcard to use as a catch all for a site name instead of listing each one individually. So for example, instead of sitename-ap-01, sitename-ap-02, sitename-ap-03 etc, is there like a sitename-ap-* that can be used to reduce the number of commands that need to be pasted?

I know you can also predownload to all on the GUI but did not see a way to go by site there either. I am willing to use either GUI or command line if anyone knows of a way to do this.

Thanks for any help or insight provided!

[Flavio Miranda · Accepted solution]

I dont see an easy way to perform that. Actually, the easiest way is predownload all but since you want to do per site, I think you can take all the AP from one site in a spreadsheet and run on cli.

ap sitename-ap-1-01  predownload

ap sitename-ap-1-02 predownload

sa sitename-ap-1-03 predownload

Then run for other sites

ap sitename-ap-2-01  predownload

ap sitename-ap-2-02 predownload

sa sitename-ap-2-03 predownload

.

.

.

[CarrieRasak13520]

Yeah, I've been doing several sites at once but wasn't sure about predownloading 2000+ at the same time. The spreadsheet plan is probably the easiest way along with a concatenate formula so I can just edit the AP names. Thanks for your reply

[Leo Laohoo]

---

@CarrieRasak13520 wrote:

Yeah, I've been doing several sites at once but wasn't sure about predownloading 2000+ at the same time. 

---

The 8540 has a (pre-)download "hard set" limit of 1000 APs. This means only 1000 APs will, on a first-come-first-serve basis, will download/pre-download the image.  

How many APs are there?

[Arshad Safrulla]

You can download 1000 at a given time, but believe me that this process will take much more time as WLC will be bogged down. If I am to do it I will do preferably 300-400 AP's at a given time. If you have a N+1 environment look at rolling AP upgrades where you upgrade one of the WLC's to new code and then select certain AP's in a certain location to move to  at a given point of time while others are serving clients (considering that you have redundant coverage at all places)

If your AP's are in Flex then you can make use of flex group master upgrade, here you have to manually trigger the predownload for each flex group name.

Cisco Wireless Controller Configuration Guide, Release 8.10 - FlexConnect AP Image Upgrades [Cisco Wireless LAN Controller Software] - Cisco

[CarrieRasak13520]

That's a great idea, thanks! We usually just do it after hours as it's not a 24/7 environment so they aren't being used in the late evenings/early night depending on your view point.

[CarrieRasak13520]

That makes sense. I've been doing around 250-350 at a time which seems to be fine. There are about 2100 APs on the controller.

[Leo Laohoo]

---

@CarrieRasak13520 wrote:

That makes sense. I've been doing around 250-350 at a time which seems to be fine. There are about 2100 APs on the controller.

---

I have several controllers with >3500.  I used to (past tense) pre-download them 900 at a time.  No issue.  

However, I have found a way to "pre-download" the entire lot in one "big bang" and we have never encountered any problems.  

[Aleck_Sei]

And what is that method, please? I did the 'pre-download all' of all 5000 APs of our WLC 8540 but it only ran correctly on 2800. The rest of the APs have been left with status=NONE and there is no way to pre-download the new image on them... . Thank you very much for your help

[Leo Laohoo]

---

@Aleck_Sei wrote:
And what is that method, please? 

---

A "cheat".  

I instruct the 8540 to tell the APs to manually download the firmware from a TFTP server.  I can do >1000 at a time and bypassing the 8540 hard limit.  

[Aleck_Sei]

Thanks for the trick, Leo!

I understood that this limitation of 1000 APs was for concurrent predownloads, that is, if you launched the 'predownload all' command for 2000 APs, it executed the first 1000, queued the remaining 1000 and the latter began to pre-download once the first ones had finished. But I don't think that's the case, right?

Do you know if when the WLC restarts, the APs that have not preloaded the image will download it on their own when they recognize that the WLC has a new version? I was planning to reset the controller with the 'reset system' command including 'reset-aps' so that the APs reboot along with the WLC

[Leo Laohoo]

---

@Aleck_Sei wrote:

I understood that this limitation of 1000 APs was for concurrent predownloads, that is, if you launched the 'predownload all' command for 2000 APs, it executed the first 1000, queued the remaining 1000 and the latter began to pre-download once the first ones had finished. But I don't think that's the case, right?

---

If Pre-Download was not used and the controller reboots, 1000 APs will join the controller (and nothing more) and download the new firmware.  The rest will "hang around" until it is their turn.