Wireless Access

I'm running a Active/Standby set of two 7210 controllers running 6.4.3.7-FIPS (I know, I need to update) with some AP-125. We purchased some AP-315 to replace them.

How can I perform my upgrade? We would like to avoid to do it all at once and just replace while having the two types of APs running at the same time. 6.4.x doesn't support the AP-315 and 6.5.x doesn't support the AP-125.

The APs are provisioned using DHCP options, using a virtual IP shared by the controllers.

Can I split the pair of controllers and have 1 controller with the AP-125s and the other with AP-315s? How would I go about doing this?

Thanks

This is something you probably need to prepare in a lab to make sure it works. An approach that might work (never did it, so it needs to be tested) is to break the master - backup, and upgrade the backup to 6.5 or 8.2 with no or a new virtual IP, then create a new subnet for the AP315s with DHCP provisioning parameters to the new version controller. When you don't have AP125s left, add the former master to the AOS8 cluster or as backup to your 6.5 controller.

Few additional points of attention: make sure you have licenses for both the controllers, those can be eval licenses for the period during the migration. Also be aware that roaming between the AP125s and AP315s on different controllers is expected to be problematic as they are separate. So for the AP replacement planning make sure you schedule that you work in buildings/areas to prevent users too much from shifting between the controllers.

If you made up a plan, and can't test it, I would at least check with Aruba TAC if they agree on the approach and they even may have some suggestions to further improve or reduce the risk.

Thanks. I believe this is the way I'll go. I got all the equipement I need to start testing in a lab.

Depending on how many AP-125s you have, a second option would be to try and get hold of some of the older APs that work both under 6.5.x and 6.4.x, such as the AP-105s or AP-205s. These are end of sale now but you might still be able to get hold of them.

You could then swap the AP-125s for the 105/205s as a temporary measure, then complete the controller upgrade and then swap out the temporary APs for the 315s. The temporary APs would still work so you can always use them elsewhere (depending on how many licences you have).

I now this sounds like a lot of fuss, but it will be much easier than having to split your controllers up and then having to recombine them. Staff time has its own costs, so if you are going to spend a considerable time testing and then reconfiguring your network, and then reversing the configuration again, you might find that the cost in staff time for this costs more than it would for putting in temporary APs. 

One thing to bear in mind the AP-315s are much more advanced than the AP-125, for a start for full functionality they require 802.11at/POE+ power from your switch. If you switch does not supply POE+, you'll get reduced 2.4GHz performance amongst other things.

I hope that helps

Alexander.