Meraki Upgrades

[This2shallpass]

Hi, 

I am planning to upgrade MS firmware on a recommended version. In total there are 15 switches within a network.

Will upgrading 15 switches at once create any issues ? And do the switches upgrade all at once or one at a time.

Thanks

[rhbirkelund · Accepted solution]

When you schedule an upgrade, all switches will begin downloading and upgrading their firmware at the specified time. But most probably it will happen in a first come, first serve, manner, meaning that depending on your LAN topology, a switch may upgrade and reboot, while others are still downloading their firmware, thus they will have to start over.

Another option could be using Staged Upgrades, and define groups of Switches that will upgrade following a sequence that you set. Personally, I don't have experience in using this feature, as I usually just schedule the upgrade outside business hours, and let the switches do their own thing.

In theory, using the Staged Upgrade with groups, may provide a more leaner upgrade experience.

[This2shallpass]

Thank you so much for the detailed explanation. In my case there is an activity window too, so i will go for the upgrade at once. From your experience do you recommend any post checks to be done ? something that needs to be looked at particularly?

[rhbirkelund]

Nothing really comes to mind.

Personally, I have yet to experience ports not coming online again after switch upgrades.

Check release notes, before upgrading, and refer back to it, incase something shows up. Otherwise you can easily roll-back, if that's necessary.

[PhilipDAth]

To build on @rhbirkelund 's answer, once the upgrade starts all switches download their firmware.  They then start a 20 minute count down to give all other switches a chance to finish downloading firmware.  They then perform the upgrade.

You can find more info about the process here:
https://documentation.meraki.com/Architectures_and_Best_Practices/Cisco_Meraki_Best_Practice_Design/... 

It should be safe to upgrade all switches at once.  This is how I usually do it.

[rhbirkelund]

Ah - I was not aware of the 20 minute countdown. Good to know. 🙂

[This2shallpass]

Thank you @rhbirkelund @PhilipDAth for helping me understand this so easily.

Wish me luck for the upgrade 🙂