AAA, NAC, Guest Access & BYOD

IMPORTANT: ClearPass version 5.0.x and older do NOT support upgrading a VM to a newer version of ClearPass.

You may see an error similar to below if an attempt has been made to upgrade a VM based ClearPass server that does not support it:

INFO - Backing up current config...
INFO - Starting backup. This may take some time...
INFO - Backup databases for Insight
INFO - Backup databases for AppPlatform
INFO - Backup databases for PolicyManager
INFO - Backup complete
INFO - Setting up upgrade area...
ERROR - Setting up upgrade area failed
ERROR - Exception performing upgrade: Pre-install task=30-prepare-second-partition failed
ERROR - Upgrade failed

If you are running ClearPass 5.1.0.41000 or newer then see below for upgrade instructions:

This section describes the upgrade procedure for users running ClearPass Policy Manager 5.1.0.41000 on VMs and hardware appliances.

Download the patch file: ClearPass Policy Manager 5.1.1 Update Patch (For versions 5.1.0.41000) from the support site

1. Download the software patch located from the Aruba support site, under the
ClearPass -- Current release -- Patches folder
2. Login to CPPM UI and navigate to
Administration -- Server Manager -- Server Configuration -- ”Select the server” -- Import Updates
3. Browse and upload the patch file
4. Login to the CPPM’s Command Line Interface using “appadmin” credentials.
5. Start the upgrade process by typing-in the below command,
 system update -i <Patch filename>
 [e.g. system update –i CPPM_Patch_File-1.bin ]
6. The system update process should start after executing the above command.
7. After the system update is completed, login to the CPPM User Interface and verify that it has been updated to the latest version of CPPM 5.1.1.

Otherwise if you are running ClearPass 5.0.x or older you'll need to follow the below instructions to upgrade to 5.1.1 or newer:

Please download the latest ClearPass Policy Manager 5.1.1 VMware ESX/ESXi images from the Aruba Networks support site. The following procedure will describe provisioning a new VM and migrating configuration from your older VM to the new one.

1. Backup configuration from your existing VM
2. Bootstrap the new VM and install the same license as that of old VM. If you are running CPPM 5.0.X then the licensing information is available at
a. Administration  Server Manager  licensing
3. If you are migrating from a CPPM version older than 5.0.X, then please contact support for licenses at support@arubanetworks.com
4. Restore the configuration onto the new VM.
5. Import the Server Certificates into the new VM. This is required even though the certificates exist in the backup file we retain the certificate of the node where it is being restored.
6. Retire the old VM (poweroff, decommission...)
7. If you are upgrading a cluster, then install another VM and bring it up as suggested in above steps (1-6). From your current Subscriber, backup the log database and restore only the log database onto the new Subscriber VM.
8. Join the Subscriber to the cluster.