New MR 29.6 stable release candidate firmware - many individual fixes

[cmr]

Wireless firmware versions MR 29.6 changelog

Important note

• While Meraki APs have traditionally relied on UDP port 7351 for cloud communication, and TCP ports 80 and 443 for backup communications, with MR 28+ we are beginning the transition to using TCP port 443 as the primary means for cloud connectivity. In order to ensure proper connectivity to the Meraki cloud after this upgrade, please ensure that all “Meraki cloud communication” traffic specified in the "Help" > "Firewall Info" page is allowed through any firewalls or security devices that are deployed upstream of your Meraki APs. These requirements have been updated in November of 2022, so it is important that you review them. (Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E APs)

Legacy product notice

• When configured for this version, MR12, MR16, MR18, MR24, MR26, MR32, MR34, MR62, MR66, and MR72 will run MR 26.8.3

Bug fixes

• General stability and performance improvements
• Ethernet PHY optimizations (MR30H)
• AP may stop sending MQTT updates
• AP may send client balancing updates when disabled
• AP may stop beaconing 5GHz BSSID after multiple DFS events (Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E APs)
• AP may continue to send traffic to a client after it has roamed to a new AP
• AP may reply to every LLDP packet from a PSE
• AP may not broadcast setup SSIDs on factory firmware (Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E APs)
• AP may reboot when the “Client Balancing” feature is enabled (Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E APs)
• Numerous fixes to address MT connectivity at scale (Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E APs)

Known issues

• Sporadic packet loss & instability on Layer 3 roaming & Teleworker VPN SSID's (Wi-Fi 5 Wave 2 and Wi-Fi 6 APs)

[cPanel]

I do not see this available in the portal yet for installation. Is this coming soon?

Thanks!

[WB]

It was definitely available as a stable RC the other day as I've deployed it to a few Networks. I am also not seeing it now as an option to upgrade to.

I do note however the Networks that did get upgraded show v29.6 Firmware type as 'General Availability' not 'Release Candidate'

[JohnnyGomez77]

We installed it on the APs in 2 of our networks a couple of days ago but now it seems it's not available anymore.

[cmr]

Indeed, it has disappeared, but is still there if you go to 29.5.1 release notes and go to the next version...  There must be some issue with it, that we haven't yet seen where we've deployed it...

[WB]

Has anyone got any insight as to why this was suddenly pulled after a few days?

[cmr · Accepted solution]

29.6.1 has now been released and fixes an issue where Wi-Fi 5 wave 2 APs frequently rebooted.  I can see why it was pulled!

[WB]

Wouldn't have affected my deployments at least as we're exclusively Wi-Fi 6/6E. I note there is a new known issue introduced with 29.6.1 "In high capacity wireless networks APs may experience instability when the “Client Balancing” or "Band Steering" feature are enabled".

That one would impact us.. think we might 'steer' clear for now. Also, do this mean that the previous bug fixes from the v29.6 release that was pulled are included in this?