Migrating to 9800-CL, APs are flapping

[KevlarDud]

We're migrating from a vWLC (8.8.130) to a 9800-CL controller (16.12.2s). I've moved one branch to test on the new controller, but the APs will randomly dissapear, and reappear. It looks like they're reassociating- they used to bounce back to the old WLC, but I implemented MAC auth so they get forced to the new one.

One thing I see is that the Controller Association Latency is between 1-2 minutes on the APs. This seems high, but I can't find any guidance on it. I've always been told that round-trip latency should be under 300ms on the old vWLC. Any advice? APs are FlexConnect, local switching.

[marce1000]

  - It may not be advisable for the AP's  to be able to reach 2 controllers 'in any format' ; and or advising to shutdown the old (vwlc)-controller.

 M.

[Scott Fella]

I agree with Marce. Even with Mac filter, if you don’t remove the high availability, the aps will try to move. When you migrate, you should test a few aps first but switch the HA on the ap and see if the ap is stable. You should be under 300ms no matter what to make sure your environment will be stable.

[KevlarDud]

So, we never had HA setup. In order to move the APs, I set the primary-base as the new controller, restarted capwap. When they still flapped, so then we tried using an ap-auth token- Still flapping, then we did the MAC address filter. I assume they're disconnecting and reassociating because of the latency, but I'm still unsure. Should CAPWAP traffic be QoS'd?

[KevlarDud]

Thanks Marce. So do people just cut over completely from old controllers to new, rather than test? We're having to config from scratch because there is so much stuff the config transfer tool will not import. Any thoughts on the Controller Association Latency?