Migration Guide—Classic Central to HPE Aruba Networking Central for MRT

This migration guide helps users who are currently using Classic Central and provide a clear step-by-step guide for transitioning Day-2 operations (Monitoring, Reporting, and Troubleshooting) to HPE Aruba Networking Central.

This guide covers the following steps to provide the best possible MRT user experience in HPE Aruba Networking Central:

Note:

This guide does not cover device onboarding and configuration, which remain managed using Classic Central.

Step 1—Preparing Sites

In Classic Central, users are required to manage devices (APs, switches, and gateways) using groups. A site, which is defined as a location where managed devices are physically installed, is optional in Classic Central. Sites can be organized as a single building, co-located buildings, or a logical grouping of buildings.

Since sites are optional in Classic Central, some users may have devices assigned only to groups and not to sites. In other cases, only a subset of devices may be assigned to sites.

When migrating from Classic Central to HPE Aruba Networking Central, sites are mandatory for Day-2 operations. This means that, for a device to be visible in HPE Aruba Networking Central monitoring workflows, it must be assigned to a site.

To view the steps for creating sites and assigning devices, see VSG documentation.

Unmapped Site

For users with wireless deployments running on AOS-10, the AOS-10 services that previously ran on Classic Central have transitioned to HPE Aruba Networking Central to improve performance. These services include Key Management Service (KMS), AirMatch, Live Upgrade, ClientMatch, Overlay Tunnel Orchestrator (OTO), Overlay Route Orchestrator (ORO), AirGroup, and Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC).

As part of this transition, an automated workflow handles devices when sites are only partially implemented:

  • Devices already assigned to sites in Classic Central are mapped to the same sites in HPE Aruba Networking Central.

  • Devices not assigned to any site are automatically mapped to the Unmapped site, which is visible in both Classic Central and HPE Aruba Networking Central.

The following images display the Unmapped site in Classic Central and HPE Aruba Networking Central.

Figure 1: Unmapped Site in Classic Central

Figure 2: Unmapped Site in HPE Aruba Networking Central

Note:

The Unmapped site is intended to be a temporary holding location for devices that were not assigned to a site prior to migration. It is highly recommended that users review these devices and assign them to appropriate sites based on their deployment.

Step 2—Migrating Floor Plans

For users that have existing floor plans in sites in Classic Central, these must be migrated to HPE Aruba Networking Central. HPE Aruba Networking Central supports account-level migration of floor plan data from Classic Central.

The migration process transfers floor plan data for all Sites in the account in a single operation, including:

  • Floor plan images

  • AP placements

  • Walls and regions

  • Planned APs

Devices that are not present in the destination site are converted to planned APs. Non-supported devices are represented as AP-635 access points.

Account-level migration is a one-time operation and uses the most recent backup data from Classic Central. Changes made in Classic Central after the migration process begins are not reflected in HPE Aruba Networking Central. Floor plan imports cannot be performed while migration is in progress.

If the migration fails, it cannot be re-initiated. In such cases, contact HPE Aruba Networking support.

The Migrate option is available only to administrator, view-edit, or custom role users with full site-scope access, and only if the account contains Classic Central VisualRF floor maps.

To migrate floor plans, complete the following steps:

  1. In the HPE Aruba Networking Central landing page, click the menu icon to open the Menu page.

  2. In the Floor Plan Management card, click Manage.

    The Floor Plan Management page containing the migration status banner is displayed.

    Figure 3: Floor Plan Migration Steps 1-2

    Figure 4: Floor Plan Migration Step 3

  3. Click Migrate and confirm when prompted.

    The Migrate button changes to View Summary once migration is initiated.

  4. Click View Summary to review the migration status for each site.

    Use the search bar to filter by site name.

    Site hierarchy in HPE Aruba Networking Central differs from Classic Central and may affect how floor plans are organized.

Step 3—Customizing Operational Settings

HPE Aruba Networking Central provides a set of operational tools that must be reviewed and configured to match the operational requirements of the environment. The settings configured in Classic Central are not automatically carried forward and must be reconfigured in HPE Aruba Networking Central.

Alerts

The new alerts framework is significantly improved in HPE Aruba Networking Central.

The following are the key improvements in alerts:

Since the alerts framework is new, it is important to treat alerts in HPE Aruba Networking Central as a fresh set of alerts. Hence, you must re-enter alert configuration for severity, thresholds, and trigger conditions in HPE Aruba Networking Central.

To reconfigure the severity, thresholds, and trigger conditions, complete the following steps:

  1. In the HPE Aruba Networking Central landing page, click the menu icon to open the Menu page.

  2. In the Alert Management card, click Manage.

    The Alert Management page containing a list of all the alerts is displayed in a table.

    Figure 5: Alerts Reconfiguration Steps 1-2

  3. For a particular alert, click the pencil icon on the right side of the table to edit the alert configuration.

    Figure 6: Alerts Reconfiguration Step 3

  4. Edit the trigger conditions, severity, and thresholds as desired.

    Figure 7: Alerts Reconfiguration Step 4

For more information on managing alert, see Alert Management.

Reports

The reports capability in HPE Aruba Networking Central has expanded with the following key features:

  • Customizable pre-defined reports

  • Custom reports across KPIs

  • Support for multi-visual representation

  • Advanced time slicing and filtering

  • Support for multi-site scope selection

  • Dynamic preview report content

The reports created in Classic Central must be re-created in HPE Aruba Networking Central.

To re-create the reports in HPE Aruba Networking Central, complete the following steps:

  1. In the HPE Aruba Networking Central landing page, click the menu icon to open the Menu page.

  2. In the Reports card, click Manage.

    The Reports page containing a list of all the reports is displayed in a table.

    Figure 8: Reports Reconfiguration Steps 1-2

  3. Click Create Report.

    Figure 9: Reports Reconfiguration Step 3

  4. Create the reports based on pre-defined templates.

    You can also customize the reports based on the required KPIs to be included in the report.

    Figure 10: Reports Reconfiguration Step 4

    For more information, see Reports.

Step 4—API Transition

As part of the Classic Central to HPE Aruba Networking Central migration, users who are currently using Classic Central MRT APIs must prepare to transition to HPE Aruba Networking Central MRT APIs.

To transition APIs, complete the following steps:

  1. Review the Classic Central API to HPE Aruba Networking Central API mapping as described here.

  2. Identify the Classic Central MRT API endpoints used by existing applications and locate their corresponding HPE Aruba Networking Central API equivalents from the mapping table.

  3. Test the new APIs using Developer Hub or Postman.

  4. Update application code to use the HPE Aruba Networking Central APIs and refactor any associated automation workflows.