Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controller Software Configuration Guide, Cisco IOS XE 26.1.x

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Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controller Software Configuration Guide, Cisco IOS XE 26.1.x

Auto-upgrade feature

Updated: April 10, 2026

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Explains the Auto-Upgrade feature that enables the standby controller to upgrade with the software image of the active controller so that both controllers form an HA pair.

The Auto-Upgrade feature is a wireless controller capability that

  • enables the standby controller to upgrade with the software image of the active controller

  • allows both controllers to form an HA pair, and

  • supports the active controller in INSTALL mode.

Auto-upgrade feature requirements

The Auto-Upgrade feature has the following requirements:

  • This feature supports the active controller in INSTALL mode.

  • This feature supports Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controller software versions 17.5.1 and later.

  • This feature is triggered in the standby controller only when the active image is in committed state.

Auto-upgrade use cases

Auto-upgrade use cases are scenarios that

  • handle software version mismatches during upgrades by copying packages between redundancy ports

  • support HA pair deployments where controllers may have different versions, and

  • manage SMU installations when standby controllers come online after being offline.

Auto-upgrade functionality details

The following are the use cases and functionalities supported by the Auto-Upgrade feature:

  • Handling software version mismatch: During an upgrade, if one of the redundancy port is upgraded to a newer version, and the other one is not upgraded at the same time, the active port tries to copy its packages to the other port using the Auto-Upgrade feature. You can enable Auto-Upgrade in this situation using configuration or by manually running the software auto-upgrade enable privileged EXEC command.

    The auto-upgrade configuration is enabled by default.

    Note

    Auto-upgrade upgrades the mismatched redundancy port only when both the active redundancy port and the mismatched redundancy port are in INSTALL mode.

  • HA pair: If one of the controller is not upgraded successfully, use Auto-Upgrade to upgrade the controller on the newly deployed HA pair, which can each be a different version.

  • SMUs (APSP, APDP, and so on): If the SMUs that are successfully installed on the active controller when the standby controller was offline. In this scenario, when the standby controller comes up online, the Auto-Upgrade copies this SMU to the standby controller and installs it.

Configuration workflow

Configure auto-upgrade (CLI)

Enable the Auto-Upgrade feature to automatically upgrade software when new versions become available.
The Auto-Upgrade feature is enabled by default but can be disabled. When disabled, manual upgrades must be performed using the install autoupgrade command.

Procedure

1.

Enter global configuration mode.

Example:

Device# configure terminal
2.

Enable the Auto-Upgrade feature.

Example:

Device(config)# software auto-upgrade enable

This feature is enabled by default.

If you disable this feature using the no form of this command, you need to manually auto upgrade using the install autoupgrade command in privileged EXEC mode.
3.

Return to privileged EXEC mode.

Example:

Device(config)# end

Auto-upgrade is now enabled and will automatically upgrade software when new versions are available.