WIFI AP Upgrade from Controller takes 3 hours

[billy-kemp]

I am trying to Upgrade code on Cisco APs by moving the AP to a New Controller with Newer Code.  This process is taking three hours per AP.  I have hundreds of APs.  Is this a known issue?  Cisco suggests upgrading via console port on each ap, but thats not feasible.

Any Suggestions?

[billy-kemp]

Thank You for the info.  In my Test environment, I am local to the WLC with only a C3850 between the AP and WLC.  Still taking 3 hours.  But I have over 100 Remote APs over MetroE circuits, also a 3 hour download for just a single AP.  Even when I find a fix, I will need to upload to remote sites a few at a time, likely after business hours.  In a Hospital Environment, downtime is nearly impossible.   Im trying to understand one of the suggestions herein to upload code to the ap from from a Server.  It suggests parking the file on a local switch or router, then running this command.  I will try it in my test environment today if I can get time.

AP# archive download-sw /no-reload ?
WORD URL of AP image <tftp|sftp>://<server_ip>/<file_path>

[Rich R]

>  I am local to the WLC with only a C3850 between the AP and WLC.  Still taking 3 hours
That is not right at all, there must be something else causing a problem there.  Get a packet capture to see why.  What version of code?  Which AP model was that?  Remember (as Leo explained) that 3700 will do the double download by default (download and reload, then download and reload again, so time is doubled).