Your version of Airwave is good and will support your version of 6.x nicely. Since your installation is stable, do not upgrade; just monitor for the possible crash (type show crashinfo once in awhile). 6.5.4.x will not receive any new hardware support or features, but if it works for you that is the best thing.
It would seem that the bug is fixed in
8.3.0.13, 8.5.0.10, 8.6.0.5, but it is not worth making the jump from 6.5.x to 8.x if you system is stable. There is a chance that the bug is rare and not prevalent, since it was only discovered in 8.4.x.
I would:
(1) Monitor your controller for AP crashes by using "show crashinfo".
It is highly possible you don't have anything to worry about. Upgrading from 6.5.4.x to 8.x is a big deal and requires a decent amount of planning and disruption. Not worth it for a bug that might not be prevalent.
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Any opinions expressed here are solely my own and not necessarily that of Hewlett Packard Enterprise or Aruba Networks.
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Original Message:
Sent: Sep 21, 2021 04:49 PM
From: Job Cacka
Subject: Controller AOS upgrade. Known Issues
The Airwave 8.2.13.0 documentation says AOS 6.5.4.16 & 8.7.0.0 is validated for my 7030 controllers and AP-304 & AP-305 access points.
I was looking to upgrade AOS to bring it up to a more compatible patch level to better interact with Airwave 8.2.13.0 and based upon that documentation. Our controllers are currently at AOS 6.5.4.11 and our implementation has been stable prior to the Airwave upgrade. Before I moved to the latest version of AOS I read the known issues and found the long standing issue introduced in 6.5.4.13, and then when I asked about it, I did not really get a firm answer that made me feel an upgrade would be stable.
From what you are saying it seems like 6.5.4.x is a dead end long term for my implementation (with many AP-305) and to move forward I would need to migrate to a fixed version of 8. You suggested three options which aren't listed as validated versions in the Airwave supported hardware guide. So the question now does AOS 8.7.0.0 or higher implement the fix that you suggested or does it introduce additional problems. I have looked but do not see where that information would be listed. There seems to be a missing piece of information. Where does the AOS 8.7.0.0 begin from?
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Thanks,
Job Cacka
Original Message:
Sent: Sep 21, 2021 03:01 PM
From: Colin Joseph
Subject: Controller AOS upgrade. Known Issues
Ideally you would contact your Aruba Sales engineer to make sure you are making the right move, because there could be many considerations here. I would not upgrade from 6.x to 8.x to fix a bug that occurs occasionally. The notation of it being an "existing" issue is because it potentially could happen in the version of code in the notes.
You should be able to type "show crashinfo" to see if any APs have crashes, currently. As long as Airwave is already patched for your security issues, it should support any of the older APs that you are running, so no worries there. Were you looking to upgrade AOS only fix that existing bug or do you have other reasons?
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Any opinions expressed here are solely my own and not necessarily that of Hewlett Packard Enterprise or Aruba Networks.
Original Message:
Sent: Sep 21, 2021 02:40 PM
From: Job Cacka
Subject: Controller AOS upgrade. Known Issues
My original search was because We upgraded Airwave to 8.2.13.0 in order to fix a recent RCE vulnerability. In the short term should I be concerned that the Airwave documentation "AirWave 8.2.13.0 Supported Infrastructure Devices" does not support the controller with the version of AOS installed in the system?
It seems like you are saying I should avoid upgrading AOS 6.5.x.x to 6.5.4.13 or higher. The known issues gives little guidance. Does the rebooting AP occur randomly, or in certain configurations? What is the frequency of reboots? Weekly? Daily? Hourly?
Also, of the three fixed versions which should I migrate to? "8.3.0.13, 8.5.0.10, 8.6.0.5"
Page 2 of the document attached seems to indicate either 6.5.4.16 (which I think is an error) or 8.7.0.0 is recommended for that version of airwave.
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Thanks,
Job Cacka
Original Message:
Sent: Sep 21, 2021 01:00 PM
From: Colin Joseph
Subject: Controller AOS upgrade. Known Issues
It would seem that the only way to get away from this bug is to upgrade to 8.x
EDIT: It seems like it was discovered in 8.4.0.4 and they are not going back to 6.x (which is discontinued) to fix it.
It is fixed in 8.3.0.13, 8.5.0.10, 8.6.0.5
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Any opinions expressed here are solely my own and not necessarily that of Hewlett Packard Enterprise or Aruba Networks.
Original Message:
Sent: Sep 21, 2021 11:54 AM
From: Job Cacka
Subject: Controller AOS upgrade. Known Issues
In reading the Known Issues section of the 6.5.4.20 AOS upgrade I see these AOS-200084 & AOS-204429 affecting AOS version 6.5.4.20 and it looks like the known issue has been around for quite a while. I opened a TAC case (5358562989) and they haven't found information after "several days of looking" and asked them to escalate the case to engineering. Is there a place where this information should be readily available. It is concerning to me as we have many AP-305 in our installation.
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Thanks,
Job Cacka
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