Forum Discussion
Nimbostratuswhen is it better to upgrade my F5 box to a new version of TMOS?
Hello guys,
This should be a simple and repetitive question, I know.
How could one know when is the perfect time to upgrade a box from one version to another? I have performed several upgrades, but sometimes I had to perform rollback even though I reviewed the release notes before and there was no danger at all. Then one can realize that the ISO image is not mature enough to perform greatly in production environments. So, how much time one can wait before trying to install a new iso? Is there any documentation besides the version policy which could give advise about what time is better to wait before perform the upgrades?
Thanks in advance.
Luis
JGCumulonimbus
I'd be ready to apply a point release and a maintenance release a few days after their release, for it's generally an eventless operation and you need the security fixes as soon as possible.
I'd be extremely cautious with an upgrade to a major release, for a major release contains incompatible changes by nature.
It is generally recommended not to upgrade to a major release unless you need the new/improved features/functionality that comes with a new release.
Always test thoroughly if you can.
Yeah, the release notes don't document all changes, and an unexpected change is always the concern of an F5 admin, for the F5 mostly hosts high impact services.
For a major release version I generally wait until several releases have occurred. For instance, with 12.x, we didn't put it into general production until it was well into the 12.1.x branch, around 12.1.2.
As Jie mentioned for hotfixes and minor updates inside of a major branch, we generally apply these within 6 weeks of release. Depending on the severity of any vulnerabilities that may be fixed by them, we might do it more quickly.
