Scheduled maintenance by Meraki support?

[Capt_Caaaveman]

Does Meraki auto schedule a firmware upgrade on you periodically?

I received an email from Meraki Technical Support that one of our networks will be upgraded to MS 16.7/CS 16.8.

We have not scheduled any updates yet.

I know I can reschedule them , but are these "forced" updates?

We have change control process and I can work with these emails, just want clarification so I can present the updates to the to the board 

[alemabrahao]

Administrators and network alert recipients will be notified when an automated firmware upgrade is scheduled. By default, these upgrades are scheduled 1 to 2 weeks from the date of notification. Additionally, a notification banner within dashboard will be present for organization administrators after the upgrade has been scheduled. Networks that do not contain devices or where all devices are dormant will have upgrades scheduled immediately.

This firmware upgrade process cannot be opted out of as it is a core service provided by Meraki however the upgrade(s) may always be rescheduled.

https://documentation.meraki.com/Architectures_and_Best_Practices/Cisco_Meraki_Best_Practice_Design/...

[PhilipDAth]

These are normal and expected.  It's one of the reasons why cloud-managed devices are "lower touch".  I suspect the amount of cyber incidents this prevents in companies without full-time network engineers is probably staggering.

https://documentation.meraki.com/General_Administration/Firmware_Upgrades/Managing_Firmware_Upgrades 

Also note under Network-Wide/General, you can configure your maintenance window.

[BlakeRichardson]

Really? I've never had updates apply automatically. I check every 1-2 weeks in my dashboard and schedule them myself.

[Capt_Caaaveman]

thank you!

[BlakeRichardson]

It's possible that support are updating the minimum required firmware but I wouldn't have thought so.  Does it show as a schedule upgrade under Organization > Firmware Upgrades and the "Schedule Upgrades" 

If not I would contact support for an answer.

[Capt_Caaaveman]

yes for the three networks that I got emails for.  I have a mix of "up to date", and some networks with "upgrade available"

[PhilipDAth]

Wait 6 months and you will.  You only get them if you don't proactively do patching.

[dcatiller]

I have the same concern, as I'm working with my company to develop a change management process. 

I get these once in a while, but I'm always (so far) able to reschedule them. 

I can't imagine Cisco would ever force an update, but they don't really make it very clear how it can be cancelled. 

It would be nice to be able to opt out of these, but I'm not aware of an ability to do that.

[cmr]

@dcatiller you can easily cancel them from the firmware upgrades page in the dashboard.  They usually give you a week to ten days in my experience and I've not had it rescheduled once cancelled.

[dcatiller]

Thanks, I usually do that. They make the reschedule easy to find, but the cancel options wasn't so obvious first time I dealt with this. I'd like to be able to opt out of that anything automatic, as I'm regularly looking for updates and evaluating.