Cisco WLC problems, really need some advice here.

Tonight I was supposed to swap in our replacement/upgrade WLC. We are upgrading from a 2504 to a 3504, and this week I was able to mirror the configs (minus teh few newer feature differences and the mgmt IP).

So I get here, I powered down the old, power up the new using the old controllers mgmt and LAN cables from the switch. After an hour only 6 of the 19 ap's showed associated. Now I did verify beforehand that all of our ap's models were in the compatibility list.

So after reading where it's typical to connect the new or second WLC to the network on a new IP, then set it's ip as the primary controller under the HA tab in each ap I thought I'd give that a go.

So I bring back up the old wlc, and after 20 minutes it has zero ap's associated. I'm at a complete loss as of what to do now. We were not using teh LWAPP or CAPWAP dns entries before.. I've added those (CISCO-LWAPP-CONTROLLER and CISCO-CAPWAP-CONTROLLER and rebooted them both. But the results are the same.. 6 on the new and 0 on the old.

I could really use some reddit love tonight.. I have no one to call for assistance on this.

Thanks