Adding second 5508 Wireless Controller, how to best configure for load balancing and redundancy?

Question

We recently purchased a second 5508 wireless controller (both licensed for 100+ AP's).  What is the easiest way to configure and add the second controller so I can split the load between the 2 controllers and provide failover capability?  I do not want to run in an active/standby mode since that will effectively cut our AP capacity by half even with both controllers running. 
Should I just manually configure the new controller (long and drawn out process to configure all the parameters), backup the current controller configuration and import to the second controller (then change the ip address) or is their an easier way to cause the two controllers to synchronize the configurations? 
We are currently running 7.0.240.0 on our active controller and I would rather not upgrade it until we get the new controller online so I can have less downtime and fail AP's between controllers.
What can you recommend? 
Jim

Answer 1

I'm assuming then, when I update the software on the controllers I won't be able to choose which controller is primary for an AP anymore and will lose access to the 100 AP licenses (and the capability to have 100 AP's registered, 100 licenses on each Controller).
Read the Deployment Guide.  It should mention that you can choose which controller is the "primary" and which one is the "secondary".
If I'm not concerned about quick failover can I still assign a primary and secondary controller for each AP and utilize all 200 AP licenses that are split between the 2 controllers?
You sure can.  But this "old school" method is a very expensive method.  Why?  Because this means that you have two controllers with similar AP licenses.  The newer AP SSO means one controller has a full license and the other has only an HA SSO license, which is a lot cheaper.