Upgrade vWLC pair

[robbyde0100]

Hello,

So we have two vWLC controllers, 01 and 02, they're not HA (dont ask) but are setup identically. All APs are always on 01 and if we had a problem then all APs can join 02 and keep running.

When setting up a new site, we add one hex entry into DHCP with the IPs of both controllers in, so basically all the APs join 01 and 02 if there's an issue.

I need to upgrade both contollers from 8.3.143.0 to 8.5.151.0 but I'm not sure how to go about it with least amount of down time.

Do I

Upgrade 02,

then upload to 01 and prepare the APs with the firmware,

then do I reboot the APs (one at a time) and hope they join 02 (or will they get confused as 01 is still up but on a old firmware?)?

then once every AP is rebooted reboot 01 controller?

Or

move all the APs to 02,

update 01,

upload to 02 and prepare the APs

reboot the APs one at a time,

once they're all over and updated then upgrade 02?

[patoberli]

I'd probably go for 8.5.161.0 (release notes: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/wireless/controller/release/notes/crn85mr6.html).

For the downtime, I would upgrade both WLC, reload the second, preload the image to the APs while they are connected to the first and now reload the primary WLC.
Depending on your AP configuration or if you've enabled Master Controller mode, you might first want to move all APs to the second WLC.

What you should be careful of, don't reload the APs while their configured primary WLC is on a different software release as the AP, or it will downgrade again and reboot again.

[robbyde0100]

Hello,

Good spot, I'll go with 8.5.161.0.

I've got the vWLCs setup on each AP as Primary and Secondary.  Whats the best method to move them over to 02?  I want to avoid reloading 01 as all the APs at every site would reload at the same time.

Thats a awesome tip with reloading while on the primary, definatley dont want them swapping versions.

[patoberli · Accepted solution]

You can configure which WLC is the primary for every AP. The AP would then try to associate first with that WLC on a reload.