Changing DPSK character length deleted all our previous DPSKs

[ken_yeh]

We just had a mini-crisis working with the DPSK settings. To make it easier for our mobile users who have to manually enter a generated DPSK, we changed the number of characters required for the Dynamic PSK passphrase from 12 to 8. This ~immediately~ caused all our previously generated DPSKs to be deleted from our system, with no warning whatsoever. Thankfully I had a ZD backup from yesterday and I was able to restore everything within a few minutes, but this was a completely unexpected and disturbing behavior.

The thing is, when we had first started testing the DPSK feature, we used the default 62 character passphrase for some of our initial mobile devices, but we then changed it to 12 characters to make it easier to copy and paste for devices that required manual PSK entry. When we made the change back then, I do not recall that this erased all the previously generated 62 character PSKs.

What bothers me is that this is not documented at all in the User Guide, nor is there any warning or indication in the WLAN setting screen when the number of characters for the DPSK passphrase is changed. Is this supposed to be expected behavior? If so, why is there no warning whatsoever in light of the catastrophic consequences that this simple change can cause?

[michael_brado]

I wasn't aware of this behavior, but certainly agree that there should be a warning.
I've filed a Field Request with the development engineers.  (FR-1991)

[ken_yeh]

Thanks, Michael. We are on firmware 9.8.3.0 build 14.

[marco_eichstet1]

Hi,

you are right.
I had same issue/Problem, too.

There really should be a warning.

KR
Marco

[it_dept_7556737]

Yes, me too. No warning and nothing in the documentation. Other settings in the same area, such as expiry time specifically state it will not impact existing keys. The D-PSK Generation per user setting also causes no issues. We have a recent backup but having been burnt once I'm just waiting on Ruckus to confirm this will restore the PSK's although comments above suggest this is the case.  Firmware 9.12.0.0 build 336. Update: Resolved by a full backup restore as per other posters comments. Not impressed by the technical advice received by the Ruckus engineers over the phone. They could not confirm a restore would restore the keys - apparently "sometimes it does". They could not confirm which type of restore I should use and changed their advice after being questioned. In the end I was convinced they didn't know and simply did not want to admit that. I would have preferred honesty.