management – Networks and rants

Hi all

Lately I have been working with the mobility express AP’s from Cisco. One of the important things to do when you set up new equipment is to have a backup and restore policy for the config.. I chose the easy way out using tftp, it’s the quickest and easiest way to transfer files as long as you have the tftp server secured. The other option you have is ftp.

transfer upload mode tftp
Sets the mode to tftp, you can also choose ftp but then you need to add in username and password too.

transfer upload datatype config
Choose config as the information to store on the server

transfer encrypt enable
Turns on encryption for the file

transfer encrypt set-key supersecret
Gives the encryption a password

transfer upload serverip 10.10.10.10
Gives the ME an IP to the server where to store the config

transfer upload filename MEconfig.cfg
Filename for the config.

transfer upload start
Start the upload.

transfer upload mode tftp
transfer upload datatype config
transfer encrypt enable
transfer encrypt set-key supersecret
transfer upload serverip 10.10.10.10
transfer upload filename MEconfig.cfg
transfer upload start

You should then get the following output.

Mode……………………………………… TFTP
TFTP Server IP…………………………….. 10.10.10.10
TFTP Path………………………………….
TFTP Filename……………………………… MEconfig.cfg
Data Type…………………………………. Config File
Encryption………………………………… Enabled

Are you sure you want to start? (y/N) y

File transfer operation completed successfully.

So far you have done the backup. Then the second most important thing comes, do the restore. It’s almost the same, but you swap out upload with download.

transfer download datatype config
transfer download mode tftp
transfer encrypt enable
transfer encrypt set-key supersecret
transfer download serverip 10.10.10.10
transfer download filename MEconfig.cfg
transfer download start

After the commands have been entered you should see the following output.

Mode............................................. TFTP
Data Type........................................ Config
TFTP Server IP................................... 10.10.10.10
TFTP Packet Timeout.............................. 6
TFTP Max Retries................................. 10
TFTP Path........................................
TFTP Filename.................................... MEconfig.cfg
Encrypt/Decrypt Flag............................. Enabled

Warning: Downloading configuration will cause the controller to reset...

This may take some time.
Are you sure you want to start? (y/N) y

TFTP Config transfer starting.

TFTP receive complete... updating configuration.

CCO Username & Password will NOT be imported. Please Re-Configure the Credentials 'transfer download ap-images cco-username '
'transfer download ap-images cco-password ' after bootup for Image Download

TFTP receive complete... storing in flash.

Sync config to peers.

System being reset.

Today I did change IP of one of our HA Wireless Controllers. Since the company I work for got bought last year we have to change IP of our systems to fit into our new and bigger network.

Changing the IP address isn’t a big thing and you can do it without any downtime on the AP’s if you run flexconnect. If you run in local mode you will be looking at a short downtime. If you want to do it with the minimal of downtime you need a third controller that can host your AP’s while the HA cluster is down.

If you have a third controller that can host your AP’s you have to make sure that the mobility groups are configured and working to your HA. You can check this in the following menu: Controller -> Mobility Management -> Mobility Groups. In this menu all your mobility groups are listed. If the mobility group towards the controller is Up you should see it on the right side of the page. You also have to check this on the HA controller.
MobilityGroupCheck

If the mobility group is up and running then the next thing is to change primary controller for the AP’s. This is a very easy task but it’s time consuming if you don’t have Cisco Prime ( I got that luckily). From Cisco Prime you can just send out a template to all the AP’s and make them move to another primary controller. If you want to do it manually you can do it to. Then you have to first open an AP and choose High Availability. Then you configure the third controller as Primary. Within the next few minutes all the AP’s should be moved to a new controller.
HASettingAP

When there is no connected AP’s left we can start the work to re-IP the HA controller. The first thing we have to do is to break the HA cluster. We are not able to change the IP without breaking the cluster. When breaking the cluster there will also be a restart, so if you don’t have another controller for your AP’s, be ready for some downtime!

To disable the cluster you go to Controller -> Redundancy -> Global Configuration. In the lower part of the page you have the option to Disable or Enable the cluster. Set the drop down to Disabled and press Apply in the top right corner. The controller will then ask you if you are sure about breaking the cluster and that the controller will restart. Accept this and wait for a few minutes.
DisableCluster

The WLC will after a few minutes boot up again on the same IP address as before. Then you should go to the Interface menu to change the management IP address.

Change the IP Address, Netmask and Gateway to the new values and press Apply. You will now loose connection and need to connect on the new IP’s It’s very important to enter the correct IP’s so you don’t loose contact (or you could use the integrated service port if you have a 550x).
ManagementInterface

The next interface you need to change is the redundancy management IP address. This IP should be in the same subnet as the management IP. So unless you change the IP to something in the same subnet as your previous IP you need to change this IP also. This IP also needs to match the Redundancy mgmt IP in Controller -> Redundancy -> Global Configuration.

The last thing you need to do o this controller is go back to Controller -> Redundancy -> Global Configuration and change the IP’s for the Redundancy mgmt IPs and enable the cluster again.
2016-09-06_22-53-56

You should now be finished With the first Controller. The IP for the WLC HA is now active and if you want to move the AP’s to the New Controller you can do that now. You shoudl be able to Connect to the remaining Controller on the old management IP address. You should repeat the steps for changing the Redundancy mgmt IP and Redundancy port IP. When this is done you only need to enable the cluster on this Controller also and the HA should be working again as before.

When you have enable HA on the second Controller you can go to Monitor -> Redundancy -> Summary. There you will be able to see if the HA cluster is running successfully again.
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Your cluster should now be working correctly. If you got questions or feedback please leave a comment!

Tag: management

Backup and restore config of Mobility Express.

Changing IP of HA WLC controller.