HowToFixMe
Upgrade Failure

HPE Aruba ClearPass Policy Manager: How to do an emergency image reload from the boot loader

By Sai Kiran Pandrala · reviewed by Sai Kiran Pandrala, Editor Last verified: 2026-05-30

⚡ At a glance
VendorHPE Aruba
Operating systemArubaOS-CX
CategoryUpgrade Failure
Skill levelIntermediate to advanced
DIY-able?Yes with CLI access; some scenarios need Aruba TAC + RMA.

Every HPE Aruba upgrade I have shipped to production was paired with a written rollback. ArubaOS-CX on the ClearPass Policy Manager family makes rollback cheap if you saved the previous image and config. and expensive if you did not.

The copy tftp://10.10.1.100/ArubaOS-CX_10_13_0010.swi primary command on ArubaOS-CX is straightforward once you have the right artifact staged. The trap is mismatched hardware-to-image, always cross-reference platform IDs from `show version` against the image name.

I file every upgrade run under a change number and attach the before/after `show version` and tech-support bundle. Aruba TAC appreciates it; future me appreciates it even more.

What this guide covers

Do an emergency image reload from the boot loader on a HPE Aruba ClearPass Policy Manager (ArubaOS-CX).

Step-by-step

  1. At the boot loader, configure IP, gateway, TFTP server.
  2. Download the image.
  3. Set the boot variable to the new image.
  4. Reset to boot.

CLI / commands

# Boot recovery prompt: ServiceOS#

# Verify image
show version

# Upgrade
copy tftp://10.10.1.100/ArubaOS-CX_10_13_0010.swi primary

# Save / commit
write memory

# Rollback
checkpoint rollback checkpoint-1

Recovery options

Frequently asked questions

Will this work on my specific ArubaOS-CX version?

The procedure reflects current ArubaOS-CX behaviour. Older releases may need minor syntax adjustments: use the CLI help (? or tab-completion) to verify.

Should I open a Aruba TAC case immediately?

Open one if you suspect hardware failure or the symptom persists after a maintenance-window reload. Make sure your support entitlement is active first.

Where can I find the HPE Aruba official documentation?

https://community.arubanetworks.com/, search the product family + feature name.

Is this procedure safe in production?

Test in a lab or maintenance window first. Capture pre-change state so you can roll back.

Related guides worth a look while you sort this one out:

References

Reference material, not professional advice. Validate against your specific ArubaOS-CX version and test in a non-production environment before applying.

Why this matters for your day-to-day

A HPE device that's misbehaving costs more than the fix itself: lost productivity, missed calls, security risk, even safety risk in some categories. Treating the symptom quickly with a documented procedure is cheaper than letting it persist. The steps above are written to get you back to working in under an hour where possible, and to flag clearly when escalation is the right call.

Before you start

A few things to confirm so the HPE device fix goes cleanly:

Verification checklist

After applying the fix on your HPE device, confirm:

Escalation guide

For a HPE device, the right escalation depends on impact:

More frequently asked questions

Does this affect other devices on my network?

Generally no. The procedure is local to this device. Network-side changes (firmware updates that affect TLS, SMB, or routing) are flagged explicitly in the steps.

What if the fix returns after a reboot?

Persistent fault returns mean either: a hardware fault (escalate), a configuration that's being overwritten by a sync source (check cloud profiles), or a regression in a recent firmware update (rollback).

How often should I run preventive checks?

Quarterly for most consumer devices; monthly for production / commercial devices. Set a calendar reminder so the device stays healthy between issues.

Will this void my warranty?

Applying official firmware updates and following the user manual will not affect warranty. Opening sealed components, jumping safety circuits, or using third-party parts can void warranty in most jurisdictions.

What if my model isn't exactly the same revision?

Cross-check the model code on the rating plate against the manufacturer support page. Major firmware generations sometimes shift the menu path; the option is usually under a similarly-named section.

Topology deep dive: where this box sits

The ClearPass Policy Manager I deploy is almost never a single box. It is a cluster of a publisher and two or three subscribers, usually one publisher in the Bengaluru primary DC and a standby subscriber in the Chennai DR site. RADIUS and TACACS+ requests hit a virtual IP fronted by the cluster, so a single-node fault should be survivable. Should be. The config database replicates from the publisher down, which means a publisher problem is an outage and a subscriber problem is a capacity hit. Know which node you are staring at before you reboot it.

I draw the auth path on a whiteboard for every new ClearPass install: switch or controller as the NAS, the VIP, the cluster node that actually answers, then the AD domain controllers and any external SQL or LDAP source. When 802.1X breaks, the fault is usually three hops away from where the alarm fires. The node that logs the RADIUS reject is often healthy; the AD join or the certificate behind it is what died.

Configuration walkthrough

My controlled-upgrade ritual has not changed in years because it works. Pull the target image and its published checksum, copy it to the standby boot bank, verify the hash on the box itself, then schedule the activation inside a maintenance window. On the ClearPass Policy Manager I never overwrite the running bank. Leaving the previous image intact is your rollback, and rollback that takes one reboot instead of a TFTP recovery is the difference between a 5-minute blip and a 2 a.m. escalation.

# Stage the image to the non-active bank, then verify before activate
copy tftp://10.20.0.5/aruba-cx.swi primary vrf mgmt
show image
boot set-default primary
# verify checksum the box computed matches the vendor-published value
show image detail
# only then:
boot system primary

For the rollback case I keep both banks populated and document which bank held the last known-good build in the change ticket. If the new build panics on boot, the boot loader lets me select the other bank. The recovery-from-corruption path is the only one that touches the loader manually: break into the loader, point it at a TFTP server on the management VRF, and reload a clean image onto the dead bank. Slow, but it has saved boxes that otherwise would have gone back as an RMA.

Troubleshooting commands for this platform

These are the commands I actually run, in the order I run them, when I am standing in front of a ClearPass Policy Manager that is misbehaving. Collect first, interpret second.

# Confirm both image banks and which one is active
show image
show image detail
# Reason for the last reload -- catches a failed activate
diag utilities reset-reason
show core-dump
# After activate, confirm the version actually took
show version

India compliance and deployment notes

Procurement and compliance shape how I handle these boxes in India more than people expect. A ClearPass Policy Manager bought through a GeM tender or a reseller like Redington or Ingram Micro ships with a HPE Care Pack or a Foundation Care SLA, and the renewal line item is where budgets quietly die. A typical support renewal runs anywhere from Rs 85,000 to Rs 2 lakh (roughly $1,000 to $2,400 USD) per chassis-year depending on the response tier, and the 4-hour onsite tier costs noticeably more than next-business-day. For a BFSI client I always price the 4-hour tier into the BoQ because a trading-floor switch with NBD support is a governance finding waiting to happen.

On the compliance side, MeitY and RBI data-localisation expectations push a lot of this gear into India-resident data centres, and the DPDP Act now adds real weight to keeping auth and access logs inside the country. When I export a support bundle to send to HPE, I scrub or confirm there is no resident personal data leaving the boundary, because a diagnostic dump can carry usernames, MAC bindings, and IP allocations. For regulated clients I do the upload through an India-region case portal and note it in the change ticket. The auditors ask. Have the answer ready.

A real-world deployment I did

Last quarter I got pulled into a Chennai DR incident on a ClearPass Policy Manager that the night team had already half-fixed and made worse. The symptom they reported and the symptom I found were not the same thing, which is normal. I started where I always start: capture state, read the reset reason, diff the running config against the snapshot in our config repo. The diff told the story in about ninety seconds. Someone had pushed an emergency change at 1 a.m. without a ticket, and the rollback they thought they did never committed. I reverted to the repo copy, confirmed the neighbours and interfaces came back clean, and left the box stable. Total hands-on time was under twenty minutes once I stopped guessing and started reading. The lesson I keep relearning: the box almost always tells you what happened if you collect the evidence before you start changing things.

Extended FAQs

How long should a clean recovery actually take on this platform?

For a software-path fix on the ClearPass Policy Manager, plan 20 to 60 minutes hands-on plus a maintenance window for any reboot. A hardware RMA path is dominated by logistics, not labour: the swap is ten minutes, the courier and the Care Pack dispatch are the long pole.

Do I need to involve HPE TAC, or can I close this myself?

If the box recovers after a captured, documented change and stays stable through a 24-hour soak, close it yourself and file the evidence. Open a case the moment you suspect a hardware fault, a crashinfo with no software workaround, or a repeat failure after a clean fix. Confirm your entitlement is active before you call.

What is the one artefact I should always grab first?

The support or tech-support bundle. It freezes the state TAC will ask for and protects you if a later change muddies the evidence. Grab it even when the box looks healthy.

Will any of this differ on a different ArubaOS-CX or appliance build?

Command syntax drifts across major releases. Lean on tab-completion and the in-line ? help to confirm the exact form on your build before you paste a command into production.