CTS 205: 5 Tips For Migrating to the Cisco Catalyst 9800

Dave Benham was first introduced on the show as a highlight to him and what he does. We interviewed him at a previous Cisco Live. Today we have the joy of having him speak on the show about his tips for migrating to the Cisco Catalyst 9800 wireless controller. The Cisco Catalyst 9800 wireless controller is a completely new, from the ground up, IOS XE based wireless controller. The future of Cisco wireless is migrating away from AireOS and into IOS XE. Dave Benham has done some deployments and migrations which makes him a perfect person to talk about his migration tips. Before we get to the tips, Dave mentions that this boils down to “tweakability”. Many of the nerd knobs are in different locations as the menu has changed. This is a fresh start to the controller, different from the converged wireless we saw in the past. Migration Tips to Cisco Catalyst 9800 1. Understanding the configuration model The IOS XE version is a transition to a new configuration model. No more AP groups, for example. Get ready to use something called site profiles. There’s more flexibility here. It scales better. There is the use of three different tags. We also have the possibility of programmability, both push and pull. 2. Time to get rid of baggage (Starting Fresh) With the migration to the Cisco Catalyst 9800, it is time to start fresh by getting rid of configurations that are no longer being used. Or maybe configuration that won’t transfer at all. We go into this topic in the episode. 3. AireOS Config Translator Built into the C9800, there is a tool to translate your AireOS configuration to IOS XE. You simply upload to the browser. The tool analyzes the configuration and outlines what can and can’t be migrated. 4. Establishing Mobility You will want to establish mobility between the Catalyst 9800 controller and older controllers. Then you can gracefully configure APs to migrate over to the 9800 controllers. There is a special release to establish mobility with the 5508 controller. 5. Wave 1 APs Access points older than Wave 1 not supported on Catalyst 9800. If you have older access points, there may be a good reason to keep the AireOS controllers. Links and Resources * Dave Benham’s blog* Cisco C9800 deployment guide* Build a Catalyst 9800 lab with an Intel NUC* Viewing network telemetry from the Catalyst 9800 controller* Cisco Embed...