Bulk upgrade of new units

Hi

Is there a way to bulk upgrade large quantities of new units, fesh out of the box?

We have a large number of PMP450's that are all on f/w 13.2.1 but all our AP's in the field are running 14.1.1.

Is there an easy way to bulk upgrade these units to 14.1.1 before deployment?

Thanks

Colin

Hi,

You can use CNUT software to upgrade the PMP radios, you can upgrade single radio as well as multiple radios. This should help you to resolve the issue.

Please find the link below for the CNUT software

https://support.cambiumnetworks.com/files/cnut/

Regards,

Sanjay Kumar

Hi Sanjay

Thanks for your response.

We use CNUT already for upgrading units in the field.

My question is how to use CNUT to bulk upgrade units on the bench before deploying them.

If we set up a test environment with AP and connected CPE's, will CNUT be able to communicate with all the CPE's as they all have the same IP?

As I understand it, DHCP is disabled by default on CPE's.

Thanks

Colin

Hi,

When you add the AP in the CNUT, when the CNUT discovers the AP it also discovers the connected SMs using the LUID as the AP uses different LUID for each SMs.

The CNUT will discover the AP and all the connected SMs.

To upgrade all the SMs automatically please follow thebelow procedure,

1. Discover the AP and make sure the package is added under Update >> Manage Packages.

2. Select the AP and Under Update>> Configure select ''Enable Auto Update When an Access Point is Updated''. This will update all the SMs once the AP is updated. (In this Procedure after the upgrade make sure the SM should not disconect from the AP because of the software mismatch so make sure to upgrade in a sequential rder eg: 13.2.1>> 13.4 >> 14.1.1).

If you dont want to upgrade the SMs first rather than the AP follow the below steps:

1. Discover the AP and make sure the package is added under Update >> Manage Packages.

2. Select AP and Under Update >> select ''Enable/Disable APs for SM auto update''.

I hope this should work for you, please let us knwo if you face any issues.

Regards,

Sanjay Kumar

1 Like

Thanks Sanjay

Will give this a shot now.

I take it instead of stepping through the f/w's I can just enable Legacy mode on the AP?

Or will i still need to go 13.2.1 -> 13.4 -> 14.1.1?

Hi,

You can try the Legacy mode but it's best to go on sequential order for the software upgrade..

Regards,

Sanjay Kumar.

The easiest way to do bulk updates in the office is to set up an AP in your office.  Lay out a dozen or so SM's on a desk, the AP is configured to work "out fo the box" with the SM's, discover the SM's, boom they're all easily updated.  We step through them after, and add the config file and they're ready for deployment.  We try to minimize our tech's time spent on site.

The other justification for doing this, as AP's aren't exactly a cheap commodity, is that we have a known working spare sitting in our office for emergency deployment.  YMMV.

In the running PMP450 network, where all APs are of the same version 13.1.3 but SMs are a mix of 12.0 to 13.1.3, and I want to finally upgrade all these APs and SMs to latest now 16.0.1, can I do it within one step upgrade or should I do it sequentially to retain the configuration on all SMs and APs? This important topic is missed in all release notes for software versions.

If you have any PMP 430's in your sectors you should go to 14.1.2 first.   Being your AP's are all running 13.1.3 eliminating an SM registration issue in 13.2.1 upgrading the SM's first to keep from SM's not registering is small cases, go to 14.1.2 then 16.0.1.   Note that if you are using DES encryption it is no longer supported in 15.2.  The radios will default to no encryption.

1 Like

@Cambium_DaveS wrote:

If you have any PMP 430's in your sectors you should go to 14.1.2 first.   Being your AP's are all running 13.1.3 eliminating an SM registration issue in 13.2.1 upgrading the SM's first to keep from SM's not registering is small cases, go to 14.1.2 then 16.0.1.   Note that if you are using DES encryption it is no longer supported in 15.2.  The radios will default to no encryption.


On a related note, 16.1 (currently in Beta) AP's run Uplink Scheduler Version 2.1, which will come into session with PMP 430 SMs or PMP 450 SMs running 15.1.5 or earlier.

Also for PTP 450 units, 13.2.1 and 13.3 have an incompatibility so update the remote side first to 14.1.2, link will not come into session, then upgrade local side and session will be restablished.


Device Agent was added in release 14.2 (I recommend 14.2.1), so any release after that will allow communication to cnMeaestro where upgrades can be done there.

This method does not work for me.

Here is my set up:

 All subs have poe  and one AP in the room

Laptop connects direct to AP. with default ip. Frequency is set. Generate sync is on.

I am running Cnut 14.12.8

I have pmp 450 3.65Ghz Ap running 16.2 and all subs are running 16.1.

Cnut will transfer files to ap and enable auto update but the subs will show update started for a while then fall back to ide  with no update.

Any ideas?