Black Box LWN602A User Manual page 91

Because SmartPath AP3 is a mesh point and the update involves changing its cluster—from cluster0 to cluster1-test—you must
make sure to update its configuration before updating the configurations on SmartPath AP1 and SmartPath AP2. If you upload
the configuration on all of them at the same time and schedule them to reboot too quickly (say, 1 second after the upload pro-
cess completes), there is a chance that the portal through which the configuration for the mesh point is passing will reboot before
the mesh point finishes receiving its configuration. If that happens, only the configuration on the portals will be updated. As a
result, the portals will become members of a different cluster (cluster1-test) from the mesh point (cluster0). The mesh point will
no longer be able to connect to the network through a portal using cluster0 and will become disconnected from the network
and from SmartPath EMS.
To avoid the preceding scenario, you must first change the cluster on mesh points while they can still connect to the network.
After you change the cluster to which the mesh points belong, they will will lose network and SmartPath EMS connectivity tem-
porarily until you update the configuration on the portals. After they also join the new cluster, the mesh points will once again be
able to connect through their portals to the network and to SmartPath EMS. For more information on this topic, see Section 7.6.
1. On the Monitor > Access Points > SmartPath APs page, select the checkbox for SmartPath AP3, and then click Update >
Upload and Activate Configuration.
The Upload and Activate Configuration dialog box appears.
2. When initially sending the configuration to SmartPath APs, SmartPath EMS must perform a complete upload, which it does
automatically. After that, it automatically performs a delta upload by comparing the current configuration for the SmartPath AP
stored on SmartPath EMS with that running on the SmartPath AP and then uploading only the parts that are different. The
three options (found in the Settings section) for uploading configurations are as follows:
Complete Upload: This option uploads the complete configuration to the selected SmartPath APs and reboots them to
activate their new configuration.
Delta Upload (Compare with last SmartPath EMS config): This option uploads only the parts of the configuration that
were not previously pushed to the SmartPath APs from SmartPath EMS.
Delta Upload (Compare with running SmartPath AP config): This option uploads only the changes to the configuration
based on a comparison of the current configuration for the selected SmartPath APs on SmartPath EMS with the current
configuration running on the SmartPath APs.
Uploading a delta configuration does not require activation by rebooting the SmartPath AP and is, therefore, less disruptive.
However, before SmartPath EMS can upload a delta configuration to a managed SmartPath AP, it must first upload the full
configuration and activate it by rebooting the SmartPath AP. After that, you can use the delta options.
NOTE: If there is any failure when performing a delta upload, use a complete upload the next time.
3. Click Settings, select Activate after, leave the default interval of 5 seconds, and then click Save. The three options for controlling
the activation of an uploaded configuration are as follows:
Activate at: Select this option and set the time when you want the updated SmartPath APs to activate their new configuration.
This is a good choice if you want to stagger the activation, or if you want to load a configuration now but activate it when the
network is less busy. To use this option accurately, both SmartPath EMS and the managed SmartPath APs need to have NTP
enabled.
Activate after: Select this option to load a configuration on the selected SmartPath APs and activate it after a specified interval.
The range is 0–3600 seconds; that is, immediately to one hour. The default is 5 seconds.
Activate at next reboot: Select this option to load the configuration and not activate it. The loaded configuration is activated
the next time the SmartPath AP reboots.
4. Select Upload and activate configuration (the other items that can be uploaded are inapplicable at this point), make sure that
SmartPath AP3 is selected, and then click Upload.
SmartPath EMS begins transferring the configuration to SmartPath AP3 and displays the Monitor > Access Points > SmartPath
AP Update Results page where you can observe the progress and the result of the operation.
Chapter 8: Basic Configuration Examples
724-746-5500 | blackbox.com
Page 91