Wireless Access

Has anyone used Centralized Image Upgrade (CIU) and/or AP Preload (APP)?

I've been testing it on our testbed and can't see how it would be ready for primetime unless I'm missing something.

CIU:  The Master has to be upgraded through normal methods, so at some point you'll have the Master

           on a different release than your Standby and Local Controllers.

APP:  The preload has to be instituted on the local controllers, not the master.  So you would have to have the

           local controllers already upgraded (or maybe pre-loaded themselves?) before you can Apply the APP config.

          After the local controller is rebooted, the APP configuration is no longer active and has to be re-enabled

          again. 

Seems like there are too many Catch-22s with these two new features that render them ineffective unless

there's a SOP that I'm missing.  Can anyone shed light how to reduce the steps and downtime on the controllers

and APs by centralizing image upgrades and AP image preload?

thanks

mike

Hi Mike,

The sequence to steps to minimize downtime during upgrades should be:

1.  Configure CIU upgrade parameter on master controller.  The "Reboot automatically" checkbox should be left unchecked.

2.  The Master controller will provide download instructions to the standby master and local controllers and load the image to the system partition that is not marked "Default boot".

3.  If AP Preload is configured, the ap upgrade process will occur in the background after the controller image has been upgraded.

4.  After CIU and API has completed, reboot controller.  Rebooting AP right before controller reboot will minimize AP downtime.

Things to keep in mind:

1.  CIU parameters are configured by the master.

2.  API parameters are configured for each controller.  API needs to be re-enabled after a reboot.

Please let me know if this helps.

Regards,

 -michael

I just had a chance to revisit this, doing the 6.4.0.2 upgrade onto my testbed.  The problem comes between steps #2 and #3, whereas the AP Preload on the local controllers has to use an existing partition to preload from.  But as of Step 2, the local controllers haven't been upgraded yet unless the Master was rebooted.

So my original quest to have the CIU and APP done in one step is still not obtainable. 

Old thread, but I'm looking at this myself.

So does the Master need to be running the new code to initiate the CIU?  Normally I would disconnect the locals from the masters and upgrade them first, then the locals.

I've done the AP pre-image upload.  That is a really neat feature.

Hi Michael,

Yes, CIU requires the master controller to be updated first.  Afterwards, CIU can be used to upgrade image to locals.

Regards,

 -michael

So I guess you wouldn't really do this for a major version upgrade like 6.3 --> 6.4

.