Wireless Access

Curious about what is the lastest proven stable version of code for 7210 controllers?  Currently on 6.4.3.5. Seen several security alerts lately, but don't want to upgrade to anything too current without it baking for awhile.  Thanks!

RyanNetEng,

 

Are you running a version currently without issues?  If yes, that is your stable code.  If you are having issues, you need to find a version that has the fix for your issues, so contact TAC to report your issue and see if there is a fix for it.  Stable means different things to different people.

 

If you are asking others if they see any problems with the latest version of code for the 7210, you will  probably see their posts below.

I think Aruba should take the approach that Cisco does, which is actually suggest to its customers what is currently the best version to go to based on TAC calls, known issues, etc. (See the attached screenshot below). I don't want to wait for things to break to find out I'm no longer stable. There is solid, stable code or there isn't, and as every good engineer knows, you don't upgrade to the current release that just came out 2 hours ago. You take an outage to do the original upgrade and then whoops, there's another patch...then another, then another. Cisco does it right and I think Aruba should be a little more proactive.

 

Feel Free to leave that in the ideas portal here:  https://arubanetworkskb.secure.force.com/cp/ideas/ideaList.apexp

I am assuming that you have seen that ArubaOS has General Availability vs Early Deployment code:

 

Thanks for the link to make suggestions...just posted to it. Yes, I'm aware of the early deployment/general availability section. Cisco does the same thing. If a particular code is extremely buggy, or susceptible to newer security threats, then sometimes the ED version is the play. But I'd like Aruba to suggest that instead of being the guinea pig. Make sense?

The latest GA code is the typical suggestion.  If there is a critical bug, typically ALL trains of code are updated to fix that same bug as applicable.  The GA would have the latest fixes on top of being GA code.  No features are put into GA releases, only fixes.  If there is a critical bug in a version of code, the folder is typically updated with red writing as to what the bug is.  There is also an advisory that goes out to customers who are subscribed to the support list.  

 

Please leave a suggestion on the ideas portal on how we can improve on this.

 

*warning - personal experience here.  May not apply to you.*

 

I had to rollback an upgrade (6.4.2.X > 6.4.3.6) due to 2 sigificant issues that TAC couldn't explain.  Within 24 hours, we had to revert back.  Many 7210s were affected.  I don't recall if other models were affected.  We should've tested the code first, but we our lab isn't setup yet. I would highly recommend testing your upgrades.

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@thecompnerd wrote:

*warning - personal experience here.  May not apply to you.*

 

I had to rollback an upgrade (6.4.2.X > 6.4.3.6) due to 2 sigificant issues that TAC couldn't explain.  Within 24 hours, we had to revert back.  Many 7210s were affected.  I don't recall if other models were affected.  We should've tested the code first, but we our lab isn't setup yet. I would highly recommend testing your upgrades.

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I am assuming that the lesson here is to test code that you want to upgrade to in your own environment first, regardless.  Without knowing if it was a code, configuration or an issue specific to your environment, test in your lab first is the best way to go.

I also would add that it's an anomoly to have a 7210 laying around to test with.  Most often the only controllers people have to work with are production.  Hence the need for an Aruba-suggested stable version.

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@RyanNetEng wrote:

I also would add that it's an anomoly to have a 7210 laying around to test with.  Most often the only controllers people have to work with are production.  Hence the need for an Aruba-suggested stable version.

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RyanNetEng,

 

If you email support and send your logs.tar and ask for the suggested release, they will ask you what you are doing specifically and counsel you to let you know if there are major changes or if defaults are changed.  Like I said before, users who are just starting from scratch typically have few issues and have the least to lose.  Users who have existing networks could have defaults changed, features added or removed or unadvertised functionality added.  That is where the release notes come in, so that users can see if anything affects them.  One version of code for a user is not the best version of code for another user who is depending on a feature that has changed.  There is no "one size fits all" for recommendations if you have an existing network and you have alot of things customized.

 

Compnerd's approach is the best, but I fully understand not having test hardware.

 

Precisely!  Lesson learned for me - test upgrades first in a lab.  Also, TAC said they'd never seen our issues before so it may have been environment specific.

 

Creating a lab can be difficult based on time availablility, money, etc. In regards to the money issue, see if your SE will work with you on lab gear pricing.  I've had success there.  If you don't have the time to build a lab, maybe you can perform the upgrade during non-production hours to see if anything pops up.  Our issue would've been seen immediately if we tested off-hours, but may not necessarily be the case for you.

I neglected to mention that today at the Atmosphere conference, Aruba announced the ability to run multiple OS versions and in-service upgrades.  Not much detail on these features yet, but it may be something that can be leveraged w/AOS 8.0