Unleashed R310 to R550 Upgrade Path

[greg_sieg_ajghk]

Hello everyone, I am aware of the following the R310 can only upgrade to 200.7.x and the R550 lowest firmware is 200.9.x.  I am also aware that I can only have 1 unleashed network on a network at a time.  That said I'm trying to figured out the best path with a minimal downtime.  I have 14 APs in 5 different buildings, I'm hoping to find a solution that does not require me to disconnect all of the APs before and then installing them all and configuring them.

One potential option is to build and configure the network on a test network and then move them to the existing network (I'm trying to avoid building a new management network for this)  I just want to make sure there isn't any unforeseen issues by changing the IPs on them.

Thoughts or suggestions?

[syamantakomer]

Hi @greg_sieg_ajghk,

First of all, you cannot have both AP models in the same setup, because of their firmware requirements.

Quickest and easiest solution is to onboard all your APs to RUCKUS One (formerly RUCKUS Cloud) and you can manage them all from same product solution.

If you do not want to go with RUCKUS One and buy licenses, then best possible solutions is, divide your APs into two Unleashed networks, one with only R310s and other one with only R550 or any other supported AP model.

Now configure R310 Unleashed network on VLAN-x and configure R550s on VLAN-y, make sure intervlan communication is blocked between VLAN-x and y.

This way you can configure two Unleashed network utilizing existing AP models, but management and maintenance will be difficult and there will be no centralize roaming, captive portal and other feature.

[greg_sieg_ajghk]

Syamantak,

Thanks for the reply.  To clarify here, I'm looking to replace all of the R310s with R550s.  What I'm trying to avoid is a long downtime where I have to disconnect all of the R310s and then go back and connect all of the R550s and then configure everything.  In testing I found that if I disconnect an R310 and plug in an R550 that device won't complete the boot process.  Thus I'm thinking right now unless I can (via software) turn off the R310 Unleashed network I'm going to have to go and disconnect all R310s before I can then plug in the first R550.  I then need to configure the network and test everything which will probably take several hours.

I could build a new vlan but that would require me to update all of the switching equipment and firewall with another vlan.  So one thought I had was currently the APs are all on a management network I thought if I configure a new R550 on my production network so it will get say a "192.168.0.x" address instead of a "192.168.50.x" address from my management network then I can at least test everything and get it all configured.  Then go and "kill" the existing unleashed network and move it to the management network and then go swap all of the APs 1 by 1.  I'm just trying to save some time again here, these are spread out in 5 buildings some of them are in areas that I would be required to get a lift to replace.  Worst case scenario at this point I'll probably via the switches turn off POE to all of the AP ports and then go start changing them and bring them back online 1 by 1.  Again just was looking to see if there was an easier way to process this.

[syamantakomer]

Hello Greg,

Now I understand your query.

I think there can be two possible ways to configure new R550s as a new Unleashed network.

First:

1. Power up and access one R550 using a laptop in network isolation. This means AP should not be able to reach your local network.
2. Now access R550 using it's default IP and setup it as Unleashed master, use the option preferred master.
3. Configure all the WLANs, AP group and other settings and you have your one master AP ready to be plugged into the network.
4. Shutdown the switch port interfaces where R310s are connected, replace R310s with R550s, keep the switch ports off till this point.
5. Now un-shut the switch port interface of the R550 master AP (configured in step-2 and 3).
6. Once R550 master is up and accessible, you can un-shut rest of the switch ports where other R550 APs are connected. All APs will discovery the master, upgrade the firmware and restart, post this all entire network should be up.

Second:

1. Connect all R550s on a isolated switch, access one AP, configure as master and also complete the WLAN and other configuration.
2. Since all the R550s are on same switch, they all should join the master and get firmware upgrade and config as well.
3. Replace all the R310s with R550s, but make sure R310s and R550s are not up on the same time. Results maybe unexpected if both AP models with two different Unleashed network are up on the same network. 

Second option will only help a little to shrink the overall downtime because R550s already have firmware and configuration, thus no reboots are expected, APs will come online on Master right away.