Controllerless Networks

Our wifi network includes 195 IAP-305s, about a dozen IAP-315s and one IAP-225. On the 305s and 315s we're running firmware version 6.5.3.3. I checked for an available firmware upgrade and the version that was indicated is 8.3.0.0. Seems like a big jump, unless there's been a change to the versioning procedure. My question is, can/should we move from 6.5.3.3 to 8.3.0.0? If so, do we need the incremental 6.5.x.x versions first?

Thanks for any info.

The unwritten rule is "if you don't have a bug that needs fixing or a feature that you need, don't upgrade".

8.3.0.0 is new and if you don't have hardware that requires it, you should probably wait until the first patches come out.

I'd agree with cjoseph.

I've recently made that transition in a few places from 6.5.4.x to 8.3.0.0. (305 upgrade to be compatible with 345s)  On comparison, the look/feel and the config of the APs doesn't differ much from 6.5 to 8.3.  There are several good bug fixes in 8.3 as well.

I've even dumped a 6.5 config on an 8.3 IAP and had few issues beyond the encryption hash seed changing (apparently).

This transition looks to be far less drastic than the 6.3 to 8.1 AOS jump. 

Just make sure if you use any pre-hashed PSKs that you update them on an 8.3 device so you can pull the correct encrypted value.

I think this may be a bug worth fixing if a firmware upgrade will take care of it. I get these alerts constantly, around 45 - 60 every day.

KERNEL(MS-Lib-2@10.30.72.168): [8081057.163012] protocol 0000 is buggy,
dev br0

I delete them and there seems to be no impact on performance, but I have been told by TAC that it is a bug - so maybe going to 8.x is appropriate?

My other question is, why a jump from 6.5 to 8.x with not 7.x in between?

I don't remember that particular Kernel message amongst the release notes for 8.3 but it might need a bit of digging .

I'd give the 8.3 notes a once over. (Most of my fixes were on the "checksum" and an AP classifying itself as rogue problems). 

If I had to take a shot at the versioning jump, I'd say it's to match up with the AOS releases and they've either merged branches of code or are going for a uniform scheme for their "newest" line of software.

Hi Jon,

I will check on those error messages & update the thread.

7.x series is already used for Aruba Mobility access switches (MAS).

So, we have jumped to 8.x for controllers/IAP's.