Migrating from 6.x to 8.1.x Site with Mesh Point to Point

[K-Abraham]

Hi

I'm in the process of preparing to migrate from 6.x to 8.1.x + a Mobility Master and have a number of sites with Mesh Point to Point links.

Does anyone have any tips?

So far I have re-created the Mesh configuration in MM and will test that it gets pushed to a test controller and verify the configuration.

In a practical sense should I pre-load the 8.1.x firmware to the Access Point prior to the upgrade of the controller occuring e.g. load the 8.1.x to the non boot partition and do a pre-load to the APs.

Has anyone had any experience in doing somethinf similar? And what were the results?

[Victor Fabian]

Keep in mind that there's no upgrade path to AOS 8 so once you install it on your controller all the config and licenses will be erased.

A couple of things to keep in mind:

- Transfer all your controller licenses (AP,PEF,RFP) to the MM using the HPE portal

- You could use the AOS 8 migration tool to do the migration from 6 to 8

- Or start the config from scracth and build your configuration in the MM and test with the spare controller (which looks like you already did).

If you decide to not use the migration tool once you install the AOS 8 you will go through the initial wizard (CLI) and point the controller to the MM also make sure the Mac address of the controller(s) is added to the MM.

There's also the consideration of clustering your controllers if both controllers share the same L2 networks.

Check the following links for more information:
https://ase.arubanetworks.com/solutions/id/179
https://ase.arubanetworks.com/solutions/id/143
https://ase.arubanetworks.com/solutions/id/153

[jhoward]

With mesh, the migration tool is THE safest option, since it will preserve the mesh config and PSK as part of the migration. 

If you do it from scratch, you will need to make sure that the new mesh profile you create uses the exact same mesh profile config (MSSID and passphrase for sure, at least). 

[G-Tech]

Hello,

Is there any further info on this, or has anyone had success migrating remote mesh points from Version 6 to Version 8. I am currently migrating access points for a customer who have a couple of sites with Mesh'd APs. I am nervous we will loose the remote mesh points as they are re-provioned to the new controllers + software upgrade too. Is there any known process I should follow for success.

Thanks

[DKHill]

Hi - just woindering if anyone had tips re. this? Have to move site on 6.x to AOS8 (existing MM with couple AOS8 clusters). Worried about process (upgrade single controller - move CAPs, mesh portals, mesh points, upgrade and join 2nd controller to local cluster), and mesh points are not in easy to reach locations, so cannot lose them. 

[cjoseph]

The mesh access points (mesh point and portal) have a mesh PSK in their flash, that will survive an upgrade or downgrade.  The mesh psk is only introduced into flash when mesh portals and points are "provisioned", so if you don't reprovision the APs, they will always connect to each other.

If you move the mesh Portal from a 6.x controller to the 8.x controller, the portal will upgrade its code, but still have the mesh PSK in its flash, so the mesh point on 6.x will still connect to it, get an ip address, attempt to discover a controller and upgrade/downgrade its code if necessary.  The PSK for the mesh connection is burned into the flash of the AP, so it will survive upgrades and downgrades and the mesh portal will be able to connect to the mesh point.  On the 8.x controller, I would make sure that the mesh cluster profile in the ap-group has the same PSK as the 6.x controller, so that if you have to reprovision a mesh AP, it will be able to reconnect to the network.

You need to make sure that the mesh point (the far end) ia not statically pointed to the 6.x controller, but uses an infrastructure discovery method, so that if it upgrades/downgrades, you know what controller will attempt to connect to after the upgrade/downgrade.

I would get two regular indoor APs and make them mesh portal and point and practice the migration in the lab, so you would know what to expect.

In short:

If you point mesh APs to a new controller via lms-ip, the mesh portal should upgrade, then the mesh point should upgrade and both should join the new 8.x network, unless there is something statically pointing them to the old 6.x system.  One thing you need to be aware of, is if the mesh connection between access points is very weak, it could take quite some time for the mesh point to connect back to the mesh portal, download its code and recover, so you should be patient...

[DKHill]

Thanks very much for the quick/detailed response. 

[jhoward]

I will add a few comments...

If you are upgrading (via the migration tool) then the mesh profiles will port over. if you are doing a from scratch upgrade, you will need to make sure when you create the new mesh profiles, that you get the mesh cluster name and key form the 6.x platform before you upgrade (you can run encrypt disable on the local controllers to get get the keys from the mesh profile). Then when you create the mesh clusters on 8.x that you need to make sure you use the same mesh cluster name and mesh cluster key. 

When the portals come up on 8.x the points will see the mesh SSID and use the same key and build the L2 link and come up (again, assuming you don't have any static controller discovery settings applied make sure those are accounted for). Then when the points connect and upgrade and reboot, you will WANT TO MAKE SURE you re-provision the mesh points to ensure the new mesh recovery profile is written to the AP plash on the points. Failure to do this could result in orphaning the mesh points as they will use the old 6.x recovery profile to connect back should the portals go down or get changed later on. 

Hope that adds some additional clarity to this.

[DKHill]

Just wanted to thank you Colin/Jerrod for responding. Process worked without issue. The AP's also provisioned themselves (whitelist, auto-provision on), so painless ot get where I needed to be. Again - thanks so much. Didn't want to shimy up a pole at -20...

[jhoward]

Thanks for following up. Also if you did from scratch, hopefully you re-provisioned the mesh points (I usually just change the name slightly to force a change) to ensure the mesh recovery profiles all match up. But glad to hear you didn't have to shimmy up a pole