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Forum Discussion
M4300 firwmare 15.4 gone from the website?
Hi, Is there a reason this FW has been removed? We've upgraded about 25 switches to this FW. Some of which reboot as soon as the FW is uploaded, others wait for us to hit reboot. This is ho...
LaurentMa could you elaborate on the stacking issue ?
is this uptime related, upgrade related, or simply stack being stuck , or others ?
the more details, the better we can know if we're impacted, or how to react.
i also have many switches (all in stack) already to v12.0.15.4 so i'm afraid now on what can happen
thanks
Hi Olivier421 ,
We are encountering several issues, mainly stability issues with units in the stack rebooting. We have removed this firmware from the publc website and we are working actively on a fix before reposting this maintenance release. It seems it pertains to the 1G models (GSM series in M4300, mainly). 10G models (XSM series) seem not impacted. Again, we should revert to previous firmware when possible, until we come up with a fix and new maintenance release for 12.0.15.x
Thanks LaurentMa
the only 1G models I have (m4300-52g) , do not have this firmware v12.0.15.4 yet (they are way older than that), so i'm good i believe and will only go for now to v12.0.13.8 on these ones.
Was there a pattern in uptime for unit reboot or fully random ? i'm not sure root cause has been identified yet, helping preventing it
regarding the X ones (10G interfaces), is this compulsory to downgrade to v12.0.13.8 ?
or leave it as is and keep ass tight until next firmware is coming later in Dec/Jan.
Also, i believe that such an event (1 every 3y or 5y ?) would require a proactive client email communication sent to all registered units / email base .
Hi Olivier421 ,
I will update this thread when we have fresh and good/better news. The NETGEAR Tech Support organization is fully aware, handling all customer requests about it.
No pattern on the issues other than some units sometimes rebooting inside the stack (not the whole stack). We are fixing it, this is highest priority here. Only the GSM models seemed affected, I repeat, the XSM models aren't. If you stacks with only XSMs, this is OK to keep this version. If you have some GSMs in these stacks, better to revert back to a previous image until we publish a new updated version - this is highest priority and I'm sure we will deliver asap this month, in December.
Thank you LaurentMa for your transparency and for pulling this firmware from the downloads. While annoying it was the correct decision to pull it until you understand the problem and have a proper fix. Good luck on the engineering team finding and fixing the root cause!
I can confirm the stability issues since I usually do some "canary testing" with new firmware releases on a non-core stack ahead of planned maintenance windows. We've been bit by a crash yesterday on a pair of 2 stacked GSM4352P's running 12.0.15.4 likely related to your findings. (The firmware has been running since end of october on a pair of stacked GSM4352P, usually a good sign.)
Some observations for comparison:
- Both stack members had the stack master LED enabled
- Remote management was gone (no ping), but serial console was responsive on both members
- Devices connected to the stack master had a working connection, those connected to the standby master did not.
- Standby master was not willing to converge with the stack even after a reload of (just that) member
- Switching back to the backup firmware was not reacting form the working OS on unit 2 (serial console) I had to enable booting from the backup firmware from the boot loader. (No problems on the stack master)
- Booting both members back to the backup image fixed the issue and the stack readily converged again.
Just as a idea for improvements: If you pull a firmware version from the downloads section it would be helpful to add a note to the download section that it was retracted or deferred. I was only made aware of these issues after the crash has happened and then I saw that the latest downloads was back to 12.0.13.8 to only then stumbled upon this thread. :-)
We have had it on a 10G XSM only stack. It's a 4 x XSM4348S stack with ver 12.0.15.4. Random reboots/warm restarts of individuals in the stack. Can be 2 or more weeks apart. Other units in the stack will then reboot within 24 hrs and the whole stack becomes unresponsive and requires a full power cycle.
wr_ex Before the 1st issue reboot/stuck happened, what was your uptime of your m4300 24x24f ?
Less than 4 hrs the first time, and then approx 48 hrs the second time, then the final time 45 days.
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