Wireless Access

Am posting this in search for advise and possibly someone is running into the same type of scenario (I would think so). 

As part of the testing and Lab setup to move to Aruba OS 8 I am trying to find the best way to move the controller from 6.x to 8.3 under hardware MM. 

I would like to avoid for now the Migration Utility due to its dependence on VMWare and reading the manual option in the below TechNote:

http://www.airheads.eu/t5/Controller-Based-WLANs/Migration-to-ArubaOS-8/ta-p/421996

It points the manual installation using ASE solution 141:

https://ase.arubanetworks.com/solutions/id/141

This explains how to connect the Controller as an MD to your MM but you need console access to the Controller for this method as it wipes the configuration completely. 

Question: 

How we can migrate from Aruba 6.x to Aruba 8 with creating a VM or without having Console access. 

Why am I asking this ? 

Without VMware based migration tool - Being a large shop there are restrictions on VM creations. These would normally be standard Windows/Linux build only from predefined images. Any "custom" Appliance type VM would have to go through exception processes within the organization - which if you run into the many 10000s of servers I do understand they don't want to support every image under the sun. 

Without console access: 

We have controllers deployed on 100s of sites - I would hate to go on a world tour to visit them all. Or actually I wouldn't so much mind but my travel budget would not allow for it :) 

So trying to think if there is a 3rd way - preping the Controller for Aruba OS8 like the migration tool and then reloading it. 

If the migration tool is able to "push" config so that controller will join the MM after the upgarde to ArubaOS8 - it must be possible to do this manually I would assume. 

Has anyone tried this - I searched the forum but could not find any guides or anyone talking about it? 

I'll be able to play around in the lab to create something like this but if anyone has some ideas of steps and order that would be appreciated. 

I'm thinking:

1. Upload ArubaOS 8 to controller

2. Copy a predefined configuration file to the controller which has basic settings to connect to MM after it restarts (rather than go through manual setup using console access). 

Thoughts ?

Did you ever get a reply to your question?

How did this pan out for you in the end?

I am in a similar situaiton, but I only have a standalone controller I need to migrate with as little fuss as possible.  Having issues with all the challenges of the migration tool and error messages.  It would be neat if I could simply copy and paste the relevant show run information from the 6.5 config into the new 8.3 config.

regards

No - haven't received any replies apart from your message.

However we are currently onboarding an HPE/Aruba Resident Engineer that will assist us with the Aruba OS 8 migration (amongst other things).

I'm hoping that having a direct line into Aruba ERT/ACE and Aruba engineering will shed some light on this topic :)

If you are migrating a standalone controller, there is not much you can do if you do not have an MM or an Airwave server, in terms of migrating without a console cable.

If you do have an MM, you can migrate your controllers via Aruba Activate and Zero Touch provisioning.  I started to write a super long post about how to do it, but it is best you contact TAC and see how to best proceed in your situation.  It will require some lab time to ensure you get it working the way you want it, but it certainly works and we have migrated a number of enterprises that way.

Thanks for the advice on utilizing ZTP Activate.

I'll discuss this with the RA when he boards in the next weeks. This could definitly be considered as a strategy.