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WLC upgrade procedure

Bernhard Kohl
Level 1
Level 1

Hello,

I would like to ask some questions regarding steps 4, 5, 19, 21 from Release Notes for WLC Release 7.0.240.0.

The (optional) step 4 recommends to disable the controller 802.11a/n and 802.11b/g/n networks and a note says: "For busy networks, controllers on high utilization, or small controller platforms it is advisable to disable the 802.11a/b/g/n networks as a precautionary measure."

What's the purpose of the precautionary measure? What could go wrong? Intermittent disassociations of Access Points? Would they recover?

Then, step 5 requires to disable any WLANs on the controller and to re-enable after a controller reboot with the upgraded software (steps 19, 21).

Unfortunately, I can't find any rationale for this. What would go wrong if the WLANs remain enabled? Please, could someone explain this in more detail?

I assume that these instructions are for an "immediate" update. Another procedure is to upgrade the software by predwonloading the new version to the controllers, then issue a "boot image backup" on the controllers to keep the old version for a time. Now I would predownload the new software to the APs. After a successful predownload I would do "boot image primary" on the controllers and "Reboot Controllers and APs(Swap AP images)" from a WCS.

Do I have to disable/enable anything before/after rebooting with this procedure, too? Or is this the way to upgrade with minimal outage?

I would like to thank in advance for any help you could provide!

1 Reply 1

Scott Fella
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame

The reason is maybe with FlexConnect and the WLAN to vlan mapping changing. If the radios are disabled well you don't get any user complaining that they get a 169.x.x.x address. I never disable the radios or the WLAN in any of my upgrades/downgrades.

I download the image to the wlc, makes sure the image is set to be the default boot (automatically does this), then I pre download the image to the APs and then swap the image before i reboot the wlc. Thats how i do it.

Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPhone App

-Scott
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