Wireless Access

Hi,
I'm working through the process of updating our firmware on Access Points, and I'm puzzled by the wide variety of firmware versions and release dates.
Any help, or pointing me in the right direction for how you make your Firmware decsions would be of help, particulary when do you decide to move to a Major version, do you skip major versions? Is there a guide to follow, do Aruba provide any recommedations?
I ended up having to put the versions into a spreadsheet to understand when they were released, I had choosen to go to 8.9.0.3 but then realised it had a release date of March, should I go to 8.7.10 (seems weird to go backwards, is it backwards?) or 8.10.0.2? We dont have Aruba Central so not sure if 10.3 is an option. Any help, recommedations or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

Reasons to upgrade:
- Fixes (security and bugs)
- Features
- Hardware Support

Which are you looking for?

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Any opinions expressed here are solely my own and not necessarily that of Hewlett Packard Enterprise or Aruba Networks.

HPE Design and Deploy Guides: https://community.arubanetworks.com/support/migrated-knowledge-base?attachments=&communitykey=dcc83c62-1a3a-4dd8-94dc-92968ea6fff1&pageindex=0&pagesize=12&search=&sort=most_recent&viewtype=card
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Original Message:
Sent: Aug 09, 2022 09:22 PM
From: Clayton Smith
Subject: Choosing Firmware versions

Hi,
I'm working through the process of updating our firmware on Access Points, and I'm puzzled by the wide variety of firmware versions and release dates.
Any help, or pointing me in the right direction for how you make your Firmware decsions would be of help, particulary when do you decide to move to a Major version, do you skip major versions? Is there a guide to follow, do Aruba provide any recommedations?
I ended up having to put the versions into a spreadsheet to understand when they were released, I had choosen to go to 8.9.0.3 but then realised it had a release date of March, should I go to 8.7.10 (seems weird to go backwards, is it backwards?) or 8.10.0.2? We dont have Aruba Central so not sure if 10.3 is an option. Any help, recommedations or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

This may help.

New major versions introduce new features, new functionality, new AP support, etc. Minor versions within a major version provide fixes without adding new features.

Normally customers will standardize on a specific major release, take the most recent minor, then follow the minors when applicable. At some point they will upgrade to a new major release.

Which major release to pick is dependent on the AP types you have, and/or if there are features that were introduced in a later version. Many people tend to stick to a Long Supported Release (formerly Conservative) because you can stay on that major for longer time, and those may be considered more stable (but other releases are stable for me as well)

8.6 (CR; end of maintenace Aug 2024) would be my pick if you have (older) APs that support it, and if you don't need the features introduced after 8.6.
otherwise I would pick 8.10 (LSR; end of maintenance April 2026) if all APs support it.

AOS10.x is Central only.

------------------------------
Herman Robers
------------------------
If you have urgent issues, always contact your Aruba partner, distributor, or Aruba TAC Support. Check https://www.arubanetworks.com/support-services/contact-support/ for how to contact Aruba TAC. Any opinions expressed here are solely my own and not necessarily that of Hewlett Packard Enterprise or Aruba Networks.

In case your problem is solved, please invest the time to post a follow-up with the information on how you solved it. Others can benefit from that.
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Aug 09, 2022 09:22 PM
From: Clayton Smith
Subject: Choosing Firmware versions

Hi,
I'm working through the process of updating our firmware on Access Points, and I'm puzzled by the wide variety of firmware versions and release dates.
Any help, or pointing me in the right direction for how you make your Firmware decsions would be of help, particulary when do you decide to move to a Major version, do you skip major versions? Is there a guide to follow, do Aruba provide any recommedations?
I ended up having to put the versions into a spreadsheet to understand when they were released, I had choosen to go to 8.9.0.3 but then realised it had a release date of March, should I go to 8.7.10 (seems weird to go backwards, is it backwards?) or 8.10.0.2? We dont have Aruba Central so not sure if 10.3 is an option. Any help, recommedations or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

Hi Herman,
Thanks for your response, this is exactly what I was after, particluary the End of Mainetance links.
I think I will go for 8.10 which should see me out until we replace our AP's, we have a bunch of 303, 305, 315, 345.

Thanks again!
Clayton
Original Message:
Sent: Aug 10, 2022 04:33 AM
From: Herman Robers
Subject: Choosing Firmware versions

This may help.

New major versions introduce new features, new functionality, new AP support, etc. Minor versions within a major version provide fixes without adding new features.

Normally customers will standardize on a specific major release, take the most recent minor, then follow the minors when applicable. At some point they will upgrade to a new major release.

Which major release to pick is dependent on the AP types you have, and/or if there are features that were introduced in a later version. Many people tend to stick to a Long Supported Release (formerly Conservative) because you can stay on that major for longer time, and those may be considered more stable (but other releases are stable for me as well)

8.6 (CR; end of maintenace Aug 2024) would be my pick if you have (older) APs that support it, and if you don't need the features introduced after 8.6.
otherwise I would pick 8.10 (LSR; end of maintenance April 2026) if all APs support it.

AOS10.x is Central only.

------------------------------
Herman Robers
------------------------
If you have urgent issues, always contact your Aruba partner, distributor, or Aruba TAC Support. Check https://www.arubanetworks.com/support-services/contact-support/ for how to contact Aruba TAC. Any opinions expressed here are solely my own and not necessarily that of Hewlett Packard Enterprise or Aruba Networks.

In case your problem is solved, please invest the time to post a follow-up with the information on how you solved it. Others can benefit from that.

Original Message:
Sent: Aug 09, 2022 09:22 PM
From: Clayton Smith
Subject: Choosing Firmware versions

Hi,
I'm working through the process of updating our firmware on Access Points, and I'm puzzled by the wide variety of firmware versions and release dates.
Any help, or pointing me in the right direction for how you make your Firmware decsions would be of help, particulary when do you decide to move to a Major version, do you skip major versions? Is there a guide to follow, do Aruba provide any recommedations?
I ended up having to put the versions into a spreadsheet to understand when they were released, I had choosen to go to 8.9.0.3 but then realised it had a release date of March, should I go to 8.7.10 (seems weird to go backwards, is it backwards?) or 8.10.0.2? We dont have Aruba Central so not sure if 10.3 is an option. Any help, recommedations or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!