Hi Folks, I have some questions regarding the upgrade procedure for our Aruba Wireless Controllers.
We operate a very simple setup. A pair of Aruba6000 chassis with a single M3 controller in each operating as a Master and Master Standby with VRRP-based redundancy and all access points terminating on the Master (i.e. we do not operate separate local controllers).
We are using control plane security (with auto cert provisioning enabled) as we require bridge mode in some areas.
We're running a mixture of AP-95, AP-95H, AP-105, AP-135 and AP-175 access points.
We're intending to upgrade from ArubaOS 6.1.3.6 to ArubaOS 6.3.1.8.
To attempt to minimise the number and time of wireless network outages I'm planning on upgrading the standby controller first, then upgrading the master controller. At which point the access points should fail over to the standby which is already running the newer code. Hence the access points should connect to the standby controller, upgrade themselves and return to operation.
My first question is: Is this a valid upgrade scenario? Are there any gotchas?
My second question refers to the downgrade procedure should we need to revert for any reason. The 6.3.1.8 release notes mention disabling control plane security before downgrading. However, as mentioned, we use bridging at the access point for some of our WLANs, and this feature is not available unless control plane security is enabled. Is it an absolute requirement to disable control plane security to be disabled before a downgrade? And is it safe to re-enable control plane security after the downgrade? I'll be taking pre-upgrade and post-upgrade flash backups so there won't be a problem with switching between the configs for different versions.
Best Regards,
Martin