Wireless Access

I have dorms which are running 103H APs and am replacing them with 205H APs.

I have 7210 controllers, running AOS 8.3.0.4 (the goal of replacing all the 103Hs is to be able to upgrade off 8.3)
Airwave is running 8.2.6.1

Our AP naming scheme is that each new AP will have a different name than the old AP.

I've got 100 APs to do, so a somewhat manual process is fine.

I know that I need to provision the 205Hs in Mobility Master, giving them names and putting each in its group. (Each dorm building is its own group.) (We provision to use ADP and DHCP.)

I need to add each 205H AP in Airwave, getting it in the right spot on the dorm floor plan, and I need to remove the 103H from airwave at approximately the same time, or I will run out of AP licenses in Airwave. (I've got some headroom, in that I can have a single dorm's 103Hs and 205Hs in Airwave at the same time, but I need to get one dorm's 103Hs out before I move on to the next dorm.) I know how to do each step of this manually on the new APs, and then to click "Manage" and individually delete the old APs. That is a whole lot of individual clicks in the airwave GUI -- is there a more efficient way to transfer over the folder name and VisualRF placement of the 103H to the 205H that's replacing it?

How I should handle the 103Hs in MobilityMaster? As soon as all the 103Hs are replaced, we are upgrading to 8.6. Since the 103Hs won't run any higher version of AOS than 8.3, I'm guessing that we should completely remove them from the controllers now. What's the best way to do that?

Thanks for any tips!

If you don't want to lose historical stats/data about the AP you are replacing, you should be using the Replace Hardware option and not just deleting the old AP from Airwaves.

The new APs need to be in the "New Device" list (or I think at least in the same folder of the AP you are replacing). Then with the old APs down, you can select the old AP in Airwave, choose Replace Hardware, and select the new AP replacing it.

You should be able to do this "in bulk" by viewing the AP device folder, click the "modify devices" button and select a few different APs, then under "device actions" you can choose Replace Hardware. Then select which AP replaces you older, down AP.

Original Message:
Sent: Jun 17, 2022 11:48 AM
From: Cathy Fasano
Subject: Workflow/checklist for MobilityMaster & Airwave when upgrading campus AP hardware

I have dorms which are running 103H APs and am replacing them with 205H APs.

I have 7210 controllers, running AOS 8.3.0.4 (the goal of replacing all the 103Hs is to be able to upgrade off 8.3)
Airwave is running 8.2.6.1

Our AP naming scheme is that each new AP will have a different name than the old AP.

I've got 100 APs to do, so a somewhat manual process is fine.

I know that I need to provision the 205Hs in Mobility Master, giving them names and putting each in its group. (Each dorm building is its own group.) (We provision to use ADP and DHCP.)

I need to add each 205H AP in Airwave, getting it in the right spot on the dorm floor plan, and I need to remove the 103H from airwave at approximately the same time, or I will run out of AP licenses in Airwave. (I've got some headroom, in that I can have a single dorm's 103Hs and 205Hs in Airwave at the same time, but I need to get one dorm's 103Hs out before I move on to the next dorm.) I know how to do each step of this manually on the new APs, and then to click "Manage" and individually delete the old APs. That is a whole lot of individual clicks in the airwave GUI -- is there a more efficient way to transfer over the folder name and VisualRF placement of the 103H to the 205H that's replacing it?

How I should handle the 103Hs in MobilityMaster? As soon as all the 103Hs are replaced, we are upgrading to 8.6. Since the 103Hs won't run any higher version of AOS than 8.3, I'm guessing that we should completely remove them from the controllers now. What's the best way to do that?

Thanks for any tips!