In a Cisco Embedded Wireless Controller network, there are four ways in which the software image can be downloaded from the embedded wireless controller. These methods are based on the location from where the controller transfers the software image to the subordinate AP:

• From an external TFTP server
• From an external SFTP server
• From the desktop (via HTTP)

TFTP Image Download Method

In the TFTP method, the AP and controller software images are stored on a TFTP server. To download the software images from the TFTP server, you need to specify the IP address of the TFTP server and the path to the software image bundle on the TFTP server.

The TFTP image download method can be triggered using both the GUI and CLI.

SFTP Image Download Method

In the SFTP method, the AP and controller software images are stored on an SFTP server. To download the software images from the SFTP server, in addition to the IP address of the SFTP server and the software image bundle path, you need to specify the SFTP server credentials.

The SFTP image download method also can be triggered using both the GUI and CLI.

Desktop (HTTP) Image Download Method

Image download through desktop (HTTP) is applicable only in the network software upgrade (pre-download) scenario.

For the desktop (HTTP) method, download the software image bundle for the Cisco Embedded Wireless Controller to your computer or laptop desktop. This downloaded bundle contains the AP and controller software images which need to be extracted to the computer or laptop desktop before they can be uploaded to the embedded wireless controller.

Note that the desktop (HTTP) method works only for a homogenous network. A homogenous Cisco Embedded Wireless Controller network is one which contains APs that have the same AP software image type. For example, the Cisco Catalyst 9115AX series AP and the Cisco Catalyst 9120AX series AP use the ap1g7 AP software image file. So, the Cisco Embedded Wireless Controller network in this example containing Cisco Catalyst 9115AX series and 9120AX series APs is a homogenous network.

The embedded wireless controller CLI can only be used to set the mode for image download as desktop (HTTP). The Cisco Embedded Wireless Controller GUI has to be used to configure and trigger network software upgrade (pre-download) using the desktop (HTTP) image download method.

TFTP Upgrade tried on my lab

Verifying Image Download

To monitor the overall progress of the software download process during predownload, run the following command.

Device# show wireless ewc-ap predownload status

The following are the various status messages indicating the status of the predownload operation. These are displayed when you run the show wireless ewc-ap predownload status command:

• None
• Controller Image Download Initiated
• Controller Image Download In Progress
• Controller Image Download Complete
• Controller Image Download Failed
• AP Image Predownload Initiated
• AP Image Predownload In Progress
• AP Image Predownload Complete
• AP Image Predownload Unsupported
• AP Image Predownload Failed
• Controller Image Predownload to EWC Capable APs In Progress
• Controller Image Predownload to EWC Capable APs Complete
• Controller Image Predownload to EWC Capable APs Failed
• Image Activation Succeeded
• Image Activation Failed
• Invalid State

To view the AP image predownload statistics, run the following command:

Device# show wireless ewc-ap ap image predownload status
Total number of APs                         : 5
Total number of EWC capable APs             : 4
Number of APs
        Initiated                           : 0
        Predownloading AP image             : 0
        Predownloading Controller image     : 1
        Completed predownloading AP         : 5
        Completed predownloading Controller : 0
        Failed to Predownload AP            : 0
        Failed to Predownload Controller    : 0
AP Name                Primary Image (AP/Controller)          Backup Image (AP/Controller)           Predownload Status         Predownload Version                    AP Image    Role    Retries  AP image       Controller image
                                                                                                                                                                       Type                         ETA/Percent    ETA/Percent
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
APXXXX.9XXX.8FXX       17.3.0.85      /17.3.01.0.XXXX         17.2.2.2       /17.2.02.0.XXXX         Complete                   17.2.2.2       /17.2.02.0.2XXX         ap1g7       Slave   0        00:00:00/100%  00:00:00/  0%
APXXXX.5XXX.71XX       17.3.0.85      /                       17.2.2.2       /                       Complete                   17.2.2.2       /                       ap1g5       Master  0        00:00:00/100%  00:00:00/  0%
APXXXX.8XXX.59XX       17.3.0.85      /17.3.01.0.XXXX         17.2.2.2       /17.2.02.0.XXXX         Complete                   17.2.2.2       /                       ap1g7       Slave   0        00:00:00/100%  00:00:00/  0%
APXXXX.8XXX.5AXX       17.3.0.85      /17.3.01.0.XXXX         17.2.2.2       /17.3.01.0.XXX          Controller Predownloading  17.2.2.2       /                       ap1g7       Master  0        00:00:00/100%  00:00:00/  0%
APXXXX.8XXX.5BXX       17.3.0.85      /17.3.01.0.XXXX         17.2.2.2       /                       Complete                   17.2.2.2       /                       ap1g7       Slave   0        00:00:00/100%  00:00:00/  0%

To view details of the AP acting as the primary image , use the following command:

Device# show wireless ewc-ap image-master
Image Master List
Image Name: ap1g7
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Master AP MAC                AP                        AP                 Controller               Controller
                 Predownload In Progress   Predownload Complete     Predownload In Progress  Predownload Complete
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
c0XX.eXXX.90XX    No                         No                      No                      Yes             
Image Name: ap1g5
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Master AP MAC                AP                        AP                 Controller               Controller
                 Predownload In Progress   Predownload Complete     Predownload In Progress  Predownload Complete
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
70XX.1XXX.4bXX    No                         No                      No                      Yes             

To check the image download status on all the APs, run the following command:

Device# show ap image

To check AP status during image download, run the following command:

Device# show ap summary

To monitor efficient AP join status, run the following command:

Device# show ap master list

To view the details of the last AP image download attempt, run the following command:

Device# show wireless stats ap image-download

To check the current status of the upgraded image, run the following command:

Device# show install summary

To check the download status from external servers (TFTP or SFTP), run the following command:

Device# show install log