Wireless Access

Hello

I have studied  lot of Aruba material regarding the move from 6.5 to 8.x and I am just after a very simple bit of knowledge.  I don't want to create MM and a bunch of MD's etc. It's a small customer with one hardware appliance and all the AP's terminate on it. No plans to add any more controllers.  But they need to move from 6.5 to 8.3

I have done my own lab testing and can confirm that the "upgrade" does in fact wipe the config and requires console access to create a config from scratch.  But this is where I need help ... I have the show run as well as the flash backup. Are either of these artifacts useful in restoring the customer's controller, or do I really have to rebuild this thing from scratch?

What is the methodology for taking a 6.5 config and making it work in 8.3?  The migration utility does not apply in this case (I tried that).

I noticed that the filesystem was not re-formatted - I see all of my old config backups lying around.

regards

Arne

First, I don't know why you couldn't use the migration tool. Using the tool will erase all configuration?

Second, per my experience, when you upgrade the controller from 6.X to 8.X, then all configuration should be reconfigure manualy. 

My apologies.  I thought I read somewhere that the migration tool didn't support standalone controllers.  I will install the tool and have a look at that.  In your experience, is this a successful and reliable approach ?

thanks

Your mileage may vary with the migration tool.  It can be done for a single controller to single controller (MCM), but what you get depends on how complicated the configuration is.  More information on the migration tool is provided in the Migration Guide here:  https://support.arubanetworks.com/Documentation/tabid/77/DMXModule/512/Command/Core_Download/Default.aspx?EntryId=30036 for more details.

If you have a single controller and you would have a limited timeframe to migrate, you might feel under pressure to attempt to use the migration tool, without having a controller to fall back on, so the lab approach is the best way to examine it.

Just to save you some time, using the migration tool will require that the "controller-ip" parameter and the default gateway parameter be defined on the controller you are migrating from.  Also make sure to download the migration tool from the folder of the ArubaOS 8.x code that you want to migrate to, so that you get the latest version.

Yes, I have done that before. Very easy and convinient.

I can report that I was able to perform an upgrade of a standalone 7005 controller running 6.5.3.0 to 8.3.0.3 using the migration tool.  I installed the tool on my laptop because it was quicker and less intrusive to the customer.  You cannot expect that every customer will be able to host this tool for you.  The key thing was to put the VMWare vNIC on the laptop into bridged mode to allow the Aruba initiated scp traffic to find the laptop again (NAT mode works partially but opens a world of IP routing hurt - use bridged mode!).

No need to rebuild the controller from scratch! phew!

I will add however, that I was unable to migrate the licenses across.  But that is something I can perform out of band.

Thanks for all the comments.

is there any documentation for the migration tool ?

they use plenty of abbreviations in the gui;

I do not understand the options I have

any hint is appreciated

The Migration Guide is below - it does explain a few things

https://support.arubanetworks.com/Documentation/tabid/77/DMXModule/512/Command/Core_ViewDetails/Default.aspx?EntryId=23503

I know this tread is a little old but I was wondering if you recall how long the process took going from 6.x to 8.x with the migration tool.  Also can you confirm that you did not loose the config?  Just wanted to be sure b/c planning on doing this very soon.  

I can confirm that I did not lose the config because the other partiton is used for this migration.  The fall back is to use the original partition if all goes pear shaped.

In terms of time - it all depends on the size of the config.  I don't remember specifics but it wasn't a big deal.  The migration tool does some crunching but it's not major.  

My advice would be to play around in the lab if you can.  It will give you a good feel for the experience. 

Thanks just wanted to make sure.  

Grab a flashbackup from the controller with 6.5 prior to upgrading, so you have a failback plan if necessary.

The documentation said that it wouldn't work with the migration-tool and a local to local master. We are two a small shop with just one 7205. Reading this thread I grabbed the gauntlet and went for it. I'm using the migration tool from 8.5.0.0 and after a few problems with it not booting in the Nutanix-environment (got it up by going through rescue-mode and starting multi-user from there) I then started the upgrade from 6.5.4.13 to 8.5.0.0.

Everything seems OK, but the migration tool is still sitting with "SETTING LICENSES FEATURE BITS 95%" and a spinning wheel. It has been sitting there for half an hour now. I can see the licenses in the management console though.

Should I just wait?

The log-window has as a last message "cleaning passwords" something something and then Task MigrationTool.start_migration... MIGRATION COMPLETED... result SUCCESS.

That looks good to me, but it's still spinning at 95%

One good thing with the current situation is that I can have the controller down at daytime. Nobody's at the office using the wifi.

Stay strong

I don't believe Nutanix is supported as a virtualization environment.  Please see the Virtual Appliance Installation Guide here for supported environments:  https://support.arubanetworks.com/Documentation/tabid/77/DMXModule/512/Default.aspx?EntryId=36988

I am posting this so that you don't waste too much time on things that are unproven, or might break randomly in the future.  

Closing this thread because it is older than 6 months.