Wireless Access

I currently have a mix of RAP5s & 2 terminating on master/local controllers running 6.1.3.6.  We have setup an new environment that has a master/local controllers running 6.2.1.2.  I'm trying to find a way to migrate my RAPs to these controllers without having to factory default them.

I have created a new ap group with a ap system profile that contains the public IP address of the new controller environment.  I reprovisioned a RAP to the group.  I can see the RAP come up on the new controller environment in the correct ap group for that controller, however, it appears the radios never come up on the RAP.  The RAP then reboots and goes back to it's original controller.

Does anyone have any suggestions on this process?

Are you sure the 

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@msales wrote:

I currently have a mix of RAP5s & 2 terminating on master/local controllers running 6.1.3.6.  We have setup an new environment that has a master/local controllers running 6.2.1.2.  I'm trying to find a way to migrate my RAPs to these controllers without having to factory default them.

 

I have created a new ap group with a ap system profile that contains the public IP address of the new controller environment.  I reprovisioned a RAP to the group.  I can see the RAP come up on the new controller environment in the correct ap group for that controller, however, it appears the radios never come up on the RAP.  The RAP then reboots and goes back to it's original controller.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions on this process?

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On the new controller, why don't you put NOTHING in the LMS IP of the AP system profile?  It is not necessary.

But I want the RAP to terminate on my local, not my master so I have entered the public IP of the local for RAP termination

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@msales wrote:

But I want the RAP to terminate on my local, not my master so I have entered the public IP of the local for RAP termination

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Okay,

If you want to migrate from one controller to another, you must:

(1) Provision the AP to the new controller

(2) Make sure the new controller has the AP whitelisted and the existing AP-Group exists on the new controller

(3)  Not sure where the master/local relationship comes in.... Do you already have RAPs working on that local?

So if I'm on the old local controller, and I provision the RAP to a new AP group called rap-newcontroller-ap-grp that has a AP system profile with a LMS IP for the new controller I need to make sure that "rap-newcontroller-ap-grp" exist on the new controller as well and that group is what is in the whitelist for the RAP?

Absolutely.

Thanks Colin, I"m testing that process now for my wired RAPs.  With that same process work with a RAP 5 using USB aircard uplink or will the RAP 5 loose connectivity since the new controller will not have the USB settings for that RAP yet.

The USB settings for the access points are in flash, so those are persistent.

As a tip, if you want to move RAPs from one controller to the other, you could export and then import the local database into the new master.  The RAP whitelist is a table in the local database and cannot be separated so, all your local users, guests, mac addresses, etc will be exported/imported as well.  

After that is done, you can use a provisioning profile on the old controller to burn a new master ip address into the flash of the existing access points.  A provisioning profile can be added to an ap-group and will overwrite whatever was previously provisioned for that RAP.  In your case, you would only want to override the master ip address, so you would attach it to the ap-group of your raps that you want to migrate and it will write the new ip address into flash onto those APs.  Setup a test RAP ap-group and apply the provisioning profile to that and see what happens.  

Colin, the process for my wired RAPs doesn't seem to be working.  Here is what i'm seeing:

RAP was provisioned out of the box and pointed to IP address x.x.x.145 which is the old local controller.  The AP group listed in the white list was called "RAP5-ap-group".  I created a new group called "rap-newcontroller-ap-grp" which has a LMS IP of x.x.x.147.  I also created group "rap-newcontroller-ap-grp" on the new local controller.  It has a LMS IP of x.x.x.147 on the new local.  When i provision the RAP from RAP5-ap-group to rap-newcontroller-ap-grp the RAP reboots, the both the New Master and Old Master are showing the RAP as UP.  Then the RAP reboots again and only shows up on the OLD Master Controller.  I'm also seeing this in the log of my new local controller:

Jun  6 08:21:26  authmgr[3486]: <522048> <WARN> |authmgr|  AP-Group is not present in the Radius server for username=00:0b:86:80:0c:5d; AP will take the ap-group as provisioned in the AP

I attached a quick drawing of the network layout as well.

What does not change is the initial master ip address that is in the access point's flash.  That ip address survives a reboot and is the first thing that an AP reaches when it reboots.  This is probably what you have going on:

AP comes up on old master controller in new group and then is redirected to new controller.  AP hits new controller, upgrades, reboots and then ends up on old master controller because of the ip address provisioned in flash.  The ap hits the old master and downgrades.....   rinse and repeat.

The only way you can change this on a large scale is to apply a provisioning profile to that ap-group which will change the master ip address that is provisioned in flash to the new controller.

Here is how to attach a provisioning profile to an ap-group:  First edit that AP group with your RAPs and then expand AP and provisioning:

Create a new provisioning profile and change the masterstr parameter to the ip address of the new master.  This parameter will be burned into the flash of all of your access points in that ap-group and will survive a reboot.  Try on a test RAP ap-group first...

Ok I have 2 questions related to this.  I do not have my master NATed to the internet, only the local since the RAP can get it's config and the whitelist from the local.  So in the provision profile I'm entering the public IP address i'm using for the local in the master ip field correct?

If I do this for the RAPs with aircard and leave the USB fields empty in the provisioning profile with the RAP still retain it's old USB settings?

Thanks for all your help on this.

Correct on both.  Let us know how you do with a test ap:

Here is what shold happen:

- You create a test RAP group that is identical to ones you have right now  (you don't even need the LMS for the new controller in the new ap-group if you don't want)

- Add the provisioning profile that puts in the new controller's address

- Move a RAP to that ap-group

- Provisioning profile edits the master ip address when the AP contacts the old controller.  AP reboots and goes to new controller forever.

Let us know how you do.

Colin, looks like using the provisioning profile worked perfectly in my test.

Right on msales!

Sorry for revising this old thread -

Couldn't you just provision the RAP like normal and change the master IP from "aruba-master" to the outside address that then gets NAT'd to the controller?

To answer my own question - Yes. You can use the typical provisioning under AP Installation and Host Controller Name can stay aruba-master, change the Master Controller IP Address/DNS to the new public address/DNS name and provision.

Make sure the AP group is the same on both controller pairs.