Meru Technical Note - Upgrading the controllers running an Nplus1 (N+1) setup

Upgrading the controllers running an Nplus1 (N+1) setup; Commands to upgrade the controllers to a newer/older firmware code, when running the Nplus1 redundancy setup.

KB ARTICLE TYPE: Configuration

RELATED PRODUCTS:  AP, Controller

RELATED SOFTWARE VERSIONS: N/A

KEYWORDS: Slave controller, AP, master controller

CLI Steps:

STEP 1: Stop Nplus1 on the Slave controller

#Controller: configure terminal
#Controller (config):nplus1 stop
​#Controller (config):end

Verify the service is stopped, by executing:
#Controller: show nplus1

STEP 2: Stop Nplus1 on the Master controllers

#Controller: configure terminal
#Controller (config):nplus1 stop
#Controller (config):end

Verify the service is stopped, by executing:
#Controller: show nplus1

STEP 3: Verify in the release notes of the proposed upgrade version if it is supported to directly upgrade to that version, from the current firmware version on the controller.

STEP 4: Start tftp/ftp server on host machine with access to the controller CLI

STEP 5: type “copy tftp://x.x.x.x/filename .”  for ftp "copy ftp://username:password  <url/ip address>/ filename .".
Where x.x.x.x is the IP address of the tftp server, filename is the name of the new firmware code file to be transferred. Make sure there is a period (.) at the end of the command, as shown above.

STEP 6: After successful transfer of the new code onto the controller, type “show flash” to verify that the new code is available on the controller.

STEP 7: type “configure terminal”

STEP 8: type “auto-ap-upgrade disable”

STEP 9: type “exit”

STEP 10: type “upgrade Controller xxxx” where xxxx is the name of the new firmware code to which the controller has to be upgraded.

STEP 11:After which the controller will reboot and come online with the new firmware code. Once the Conroller comes online, upgrade the APs with below command

#Controller: upgrade ap same all/<ap ids>/ range of aps force

You can either upgrade all the APs at the same time by using "all" or can specify range of APs, separated with "-". For example "upgrade ap same 1-20, 50-60 force". This will upgrade all the APs from 1 to 20 and  50-60. 

STEP 12: type “configure terminal”

STEP 13: type “auto-ap-upgrade enable”

STEP 14: type “exit”

STEP 15: type “show controller” to view the controller firmware version.

STEP 16: Start Nplus1 on the Master controllers

#Controller: configure terminal
#Controller (config):nplus1 start master
​#Controller (config):end

Verify the service is started, by executing:
#Controller: show nplus1

STEP 17: Start Nplus1 on the Slave controller

#Controller: configure terminal
#Controller (config):nplus1 start slave
​#Controller (config):end

Verify the service is started, by executing:
#Controller: show nplus1

TEST RESULTS: Nplus1 must always be stopped on the slave controller first, and then the master controllers.

LIMITATIONS IF ANY: If there are a large number of APs on the network, it may take several minutes for the controller to upgrade these APs before upgrading itself and rebooting.