best practice: Software Upgrade wlc 8540 in HA mode with testing new sw on Primary first

[ciscoprolin]

Dear All,

is there a way to update 8540 wlc's in a way that the new Software can be tested first on the Primary WLC before the Secondary WLC also gets the new Software pushed from the Primary ?

Would it be a recommended way to break the HA (Prior to the sw upgrade), temporarily stop all APs from connecting to the Primary WLC via ACLs for the CAPWAP VLANs then upgrade the Primary wlc to new Software -> test it with one AP per model and if everything is fine - > remove ACL and reestablish the HA Connection which will in turn also upgrade the Secondary WLC.

How do you usually upgrade WLCs in an HA Cluster in a safe way (testing Image first) ?

Cheers,

Thorsten

[patoberli · Accepted solution]

Not sure if this is possible.

At the moment, with two 5520 in HA, I simply upgrade the image, wait till the secondary is upgraded, then preload the image to all APs, then switch the primary image on the APs and then reload the controllers to finish the upgrade. Then I hope for the best that everything will still work once everything has rebooted....

This is the reason why I will soon order a little 3504 WLC (runs the same software), that way I can only upgrade that one, test all models of APs we have and once I'm sure everything is running, upgrade the 5520 and all other APs.

[ciscoprolin]

Thanks guys - it's indeed as you have stated. We're gonna use our 2504 WLC for testing in the future -).

[marce1000]

 - SImply and as other stated an HA configuration is not designed for that, it it meant to be what is says,at all times....

M.

[Leo Laohoo · Accepted solution]

How do you usually upgrade WLCs in an HA Cluster in a safe way (testing Image first) ?

This is not remotely possible.  The only way to "test" an IOS for stability is to put it in a test/sandpit environment.