We are thrilled to introduce the public preview of the improved MS staged upgrades!
Public preview allows all customers to test the feature and leverage Meraki support if they encounter issues. However, this feature is still considered “beta” and customers should be prepared to test for unexpected issues that may occur before deciding to roll out the feature to critical networks.
To upgrade or not upgrade?
That is a question many of us have been asking ourselves when it comes to new software versions. On the one hand, the upgrade process can be painful, especially for large, cross-site operations, and the maintenance window is short (often during weekends or late at night). On the other hand, it can be nerve-wracking not having the latest software updates to protect from bugs and enjoy the latest features.
Make the switch (pun-intended) to better efficiency.
Staged upgrades is a great feature for uses in situations such as these:
“I have a one-hour maintenance window each night, but I also have 200 switches.”
And:
“I can handle a daily outage for access switches, but only have one window a month to upgrade the core”
What’s new?
Staged upgrades improves on the previous version with:
- Reusable upgrade groups
- Easier rescheduling
- Better upgrade progress monitoring
- Ability to use the API to manage and schedule staged upgrades
- A single-page workflow so the entire upgrade can be managed from the org-wide firmware page.
- Switch stacks are treated as a single logical unit, rather than assigning individual stack member switches to upgrade stages.
> Yes, you can prepare upgrade groups and the sequence ahead of time and reuse them!
(If you didn't know these functions existed, now you know. Use them to help you minimize potential disruptions and time spent on these manual tasks! )
- Create and modify staged upgrade groups without scheduling a firmware upgrade by navigating to Switch > Staged Upgrades, and choosing the "Groups" tab.
- Modify the staged upgrade groups and sequence between upgrades by navigating to Switch > Staged Upgrades, and choosing the "Sequence" tab.
Need more information?
This new improved staged upgrades page will automatically appear and replace the previous Switch > Staged upgrades page on the dashboard. Please see the documentation page for more information.
