Controllerless Networks

I am researching how the auto-update feature works for IAP clusters and was hoping somebody with practical experience could bring some clarity to the process.  If I have a existing IAP105 clusters, what happens when I add a new IAP115 to one of the clusters?  From the documentation I have read, it seems like the IAP105 should redirect the IAP115 to either Aruba's Cloud service, or, if the cluster is being managed by an AirWave server, to the AirWave server for its new image.  Is this correct and complete?  I assume this presupposes that the IAP115 image has been loaded onto the AirWave server.

 

Does this upgrade proceed without human intervention?  For example, if I ship new IAP115s to a remote office, can they be installed into an existing cluster and have the upgrade and cluster join happen automagically?

This will work but the 105's have to be running version 4.0 or newer, because 4.0 is the minimum required version for the 115. If you have airwave you also have to make sure it is running a version compatible with 4.0 and it has the 4.0 firmware files loaded on it.

Sent from my iPhone

Thank you, Yan.  It sounds like there are a few caveats, but it should work as advertised.  Someone at a remote office should be able to plug a new IAP115 into an existing cluster and, provided that the IAP105 cluster is on 4.0, or higher, and the AMP server has the proper firmware release, the IAP115 should get its firmware and join the cluster with no human intervention.  Is that correct?  Having no human intervention is important, since these are remote locations, with no technical staff.

 

I have not experimented with this specific scenario, so I have no practical experience with it.

One caveat to be aware of is that the Cloud based update servers do not have the latest releases that the TAC site has for manual upgrades.   The cloud typically lags 1 - 3 months depending on how major a release the version is.  After a period of time the latest release on the TAC site is migrated to the Cloud based system for mass adoption -- this is done after any early trouble reports have been resolved.

 

As such, you need to be aware of the version running on your existing IAP clusters.  Is the version running one which you downloaded manually or from the Cloud?  

 

For example....v.4.1.0.2 is the most current (as of this post) and you can download it manually from the TAC site and do a manual upgrade of your clusters.  You can also load it into AirWave.  However, if you are running 4.1.0.2 in production then introduce an AP of a different class / model then the existing cluster then it cannot get its code from the VC and must obtain it from the cloud but since that version is not up in the Cloud it cannot upgrade and cannot join the cluster.

 

Working scenario:

Existing cluster: IAP-105 on v.4.0.0.7

New addition to cluster: IAP-115 on some other 4.0 release

Expected result: IAP-115 attempts to join but there is a SW mis-match.  The VC (IAP-105) cannot send SW to the IAP-115 as it is a different model / class and instructs the IAP-115 to upgrade to v.4.0.0.7 from the Cloud.  The IAP-115 upgrades, reboots, then joins the cluster.

 

Example of failure scenario:

Existing cluster: IAP-105 on v.4.1.0.2 (manually upgraded from TAC site)

New addition to cluster: IAP-115 on 4.0.0.7

Expected result: IAP-115 attempts to join but there is a SW mis-match.  The VC (IAP-105) cannot send SW to the IAP-115 as it is a different model / class and instructs the IAP-115 to upgrade to v.4.0.0.7 from the Cloud.  As v.4.1.02 is not currently available from the Cloud the IAP-115 cannot upgrade and cannot join the cluster.

 

Thank you, Marcus.  The working scenario I have is an IAP115 is added to an existing IAP105 cluster that is running 4.1.0.2 and is managed by AirWave.  The IAP115 fails to join, because, I'm guessing, 1. the IAP105 does not have the 115 binary to distribute to the new IAP and 2.) 4.1.0.2 for the IAP115 has not been uploaded to the AirWave server.

 

This should be pretty easy to verify by simply adding 4.1.0.2 for the IAP115 to the AirWave server via the Device Setup > Upload Firmware & Files page.  I am assuming that, in order to protect you from accidentally propogating buggy code, there is no option to auto-upload the latest code version to the AMP server for auto-distribution.

There is no mechanism, today, to auto-load IAP SW from the cloud into AirWave.   That sounds like a cool feature request you might want to submit via the Idea's portal.

Excellent idea ;-)

 

Thank you for your fast responses.

Actually the IAP addition scenario will work going forward. The very latest version will not be visible when you check for new version in the UI but will be available for a joining slave to download in an image synchronization scenario.

Thanks

Yan

Sent from my iPhone

Thank you, Yan.  Are you saying that if an IAP115 joins an IAP105 cluster, the 115 will download the upgraded code from the cloud?  My understanding is that if the cluster is managed by AirWave, then the APs must get their code upgrades from the AMP server.

 

I believe my 105s currently get their code from AMP, since they are on 4.1.0.2 and that is a very new code version that is probably not yet available from the Cloud service.  I am also assuming that if you have a cluster with an IAP105 master, the master upgrades and then pushes the upgrade to the other IAP105s in the cluster?  If that is the case, what is the upgrade process for the other model IAPs in that cluster?  Are they instructed to go to the AMP server for their upgrade?  Or are they sent to the cloud?

 

Is there any documentation on how this actually works?

What I had posted earlier apply to deployments that are not managed by Airwave. For airwave deployments the new APs joining the network has to be able to obtain the right software image from AirWave server.

Thanks,

Yan Liu
Product Manager
Aruba Instant
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