Electronically Stored

Background:
The current Cisco Wireless Control System (WCS) is running version 4.2.128.0 and the plan is to upgrade it to the latest 7.0.220.0. This WCS is also running on a Cisco WLSE, which means the WCS is running on Linux. After going through the different versions of release notes, I have decided to chose the path of version 4.2.128.0 to 6.0.132.0 then to 7.0.220.0.

Pre-upgrade:
Started by downloading the two versions of WCS, WCS-STANDARD-K9-6.0.132.0.bin and WCS-STANDARD-K9-7.0.220.0.bin. The extension of .exe is for Windows while .bin is for Linux. Prepared a FTP server that is reachable by the WCS with the above WCS .bin files. Backup WCS preferable to an external server.

Upgrade 1:
SSH into the WCS and used FTP to get the .bin files using the following commands: 
ftp 10.10.100.100
binary
hash
get WCS-STANDARD-K9-6.0.132.0.bin
Ctrl + Z (to get out of FTP when transfer is done)

Changed the privllages of the transferred file with the following command:
chmod 755 WCS-STANDARD-K9-6.0.132.0.bin

Started the install script with the following command:
./WCS-STANDARD-K9-6.0.132.0.bin
Followed the prompts and the script backed up existing WCS and installed the new version of WCS. The installation completed and the WCS service started and I could access it through the web management page. All the data, maps and configuration were there as before.

Upgrade 2:
Now it is time to repeat the steps above for version 7.0.220.0. Everything was pretty much the same except towards the end. The WCS service couldn't be started. Tried uninstalling version 7.0.220.0, restarting the appliance and installing WCS again, twice but still same the problem. I was thinking it could be something wrong with the database. Tried the "reinitdb" script to reinitialise the database and that didn't work too.

Didn't really have much time to troubleshoot this so I decided to download and try version 7.0.164.3. Uninstalled version 7.0.220.0 and installed version 7.0.164.3. It works! without any of the problem earlier. Not too sure why.. Went to the web management page and all the data, maps and configuration were there.

Decided to restart the appliance (being paranoid and just want to check stability) and I couldn't believe it! A brand new, blank WCS without any configuration. SSH into the WCS and found out that everything has been deleted. Again, no idea why it did that.

Good thing there were two backups made and I could restore the configuration. SSH into the WCS and went to the directory /opt/WCS7.0.164.3 . Ran the ./Restore script, followed the prompts and the script restore the configuration successfully! Rebooted the WCS again and it is now working with version 7.0.164.3.

Version 7.0.164.3 is good enough for me because it is the minimum requirements needed to migrate WCS to NCS.

Labels: Upgrade WCS, WCS 7.0.220.0