Wireless Access

This morning our Aruba 3200XM wireless controller has lost its configuration and has been reset to factory defaults.  This controller acts as the master on our network, and has 14 local controllers connected to it.  I do have a running-config backup of this controller which I have restored to it, but I see that a complete backup/restore of the flashbackup.tar.gz file should have been done, however a backup of this file was never made.  Upon restoring the running-config file the controller does not show any of the AP's which were connected to it which leads me to believe I am missing some files which should have been backed up...  My question is, If I connect this restored master controller back to the network, and it is in fact missing some settings, is it going to replicate this incorrect configuration over to the 14 other local controllers and cause them to stop working?  Currently the 14 local controllers and all AP's attached to them are still working.  The Config ID on the restored master controller is 166, where the Config ID on the 14 local controllers is 273.  Because the Config ID is lower on the restored master controller than the other controllers will this prevent the config on the master from being replicated to the others?

Simple way to recover is to get one of your existing local controller as a master controller which already has the config of 13-14 controllers then add the current master controller to add it to join as a local controller; do the write mem and push the config which will have the config re-pushed of what you got on all 14 controllers. Once the config is pushed and successful you can either change the controller role to master and leave it to remain as local controller. The ultimate point is to keep your network stable and at the same time dont mess up with your existing config.

Thank you,

Sriram

Hello Sriram,  thanks for this suggestion.  I wasnt sure if the local controllers would all contain the exact configurations of the master, as the master is responsible for pushing the config changes to the 14 separate local controllers at separate sites.  I figured that the locals would all contain their separate configuration for their respective site, and the master would be the only one which holds the configuration for all sites.  I will give this a try.  Thanks.

Master controller can only send updates and can push the config to other local controllers.

However config would be the same between master and local in terms of ap-group config, VAP profiles, ssid, aaa profiles etc. Anything switch specfic config like VLAN based config or routing based config would be individual to the controller will not synch between master and local.

Master controller holds the config all the sites and even local controller holds the config of all sites however master maintan the database sync, owns the config to pushed, maintains the AP database, WMS database, whitelist, etc and those jobs are not owned by local as they take the command whateven given to them by master. As i said earlier, all your switch specfic config of vlans etc would be independent and wouldnt sync between controllers.

Thank you,

Sriram

Also, I would like to confirm I am doing this right.  To convert the existing local controller to a master I should login to the controller and browse to Configuration -> Network -> Controller -> System Settings, and change the Controller Role from Local to Master ... then on the other local controllers change the Master IP Address to point to the new Master controller?    Will there be any downtime or a controller restart required when doing this? as this is being done on a production network.

Yes; we had to do this during the maintenance window and a reboot of controllers required. I wouldnt recommend to do this during production network. Set up a downtime of 2-3hrs and point the local to new master controller to take effect. You can also contact TAC for any help. Below procedure is correct by the way.

Thank you,

Sriram

Thanks for the assistance.  I followed your steps and made one of the existing Local controllers the new Master, then proceeded to join one of the other Local controllers to the new Master.  After joining one of the Local's to the new Master, the Local controller dropped off all of its associated AP's and the controller showed no associated AP's to it.  The AP's did however re-appear several hours later on the controller.  Not sure why the AP's disappeared however ultimately this did work for me in the end.