Mass AP Replacement Procedure?

[heath]

I use Cisco APs, wireless controllers, and Prime Infrastructure.  We've spent the last few years beefing up our wifi on campus so everything up to now has been new installs.  I'm about to hit my first round of straight replacements.  I have a building with about 50 Cisco 3602I APs that I will be replacing with 3702I APs.  Those 3602s I pull out will be redeployed to replace about that many older model 1252 APs I've still got lingering out there.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a good process to use?  What I'm hoping for is a way to copy the config for the old AP (AP name, map location, AP group, etc), apply that to the new AP in its place, and then clear the config on the old one in preparation for its redeployment.  (Prime Infrastructure has a "copy and replace" feature, but that doesn't clear the config on the old AP.)  And do this as we move from AP to AP. 

[routerdork]

Typically I've included a small DHCP scope in my VLAN when I'm migrating. Then I move one at a time as a technician is going around unplugging/plugging them.

[heath]

Can you explain your procedure a little more?  They're already using DHCP. 

[routerdork]

I worked for a global company so we weren't able to go play much. Local IT did all the hands on and we configured remotely. All of our AP's were statically set and we used a specific IP range for the AP's starting at .101 and counting up. So in the event we had to add more or replace one I would create a small DHCP scope in the management subnet. This way the new AP's could find the WLC and register. I would get the info from the AP ahead of time. The tech would unplug the old AP and put in the new one. Once the AP showed up in the WLC I would enter the information from the old AP (Location, IP, Gateway, DNS, etc.). Doing it one by one we didn't have a massive disruption to wireless on our production floor as fork trucks and pickers relied on the connections for pick tickets. All of the old AP's would get boxed up and sent back to us. We would then re-deploy them as needed. Sometimes 1 to a site sometimes 5. Just depended on who had gaps we need to fix. When we re-deployed them we would manually remove the IP/WLC info from them. Then when they got to their new site we would create a small DHCP scope in the management network and get them added. It was the simplest method I found for doing it remotely and as long as I got all the documentation ahead of the tech I was good.