m4300 firmware upgrade without killing entire network?

[DAatSWN]

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Managed-Switches/m4300-firmware-upgrade-without-killing-entire-netw...
Since I am about to update (12.0.13.8 -> 12.0.17.7) several stacks with 8 modules and the use of LACP I am very interested in a result on this topic. So what is best practice?

[DaneA]

@DAatSWN,

It would be best that you do the firmware upgrade in a ladderized manner.  From v12.0.13.8 upgrade it to v12.0.15.7.  Then from v12.0.15.7, upgrade it to v12.0.17.6 and so on until you reached the latest firmware which is v12.0.17.7.  

Also, it would be best to perform the upgrade the firmware during non-production hours.

Regards,

DaneA

NETGEAR Community Team

[DAatSWN]

It is very interesting that nothing of this update path is mentioned in the release notes. But yes, we will implement this path like this. However, there is still the question discussed in this [https://community.netgear.com/t5/Managed-Switches/m4300-firmware-upgrade-without-killing-entire-netw...] article, how and when the individual modules should be updated or restarted?

In the end, we are happy if there are no defective modules that have to be replaced by netgear.

[RACERX403]

Like OP, I am interested in that last detail as well.

In our test the upgrade was rolled back every time on the tested modules after five minutes.. We did not know there was a specific path of version upgrades to be followed but now we do. Thanks!

So just to clarify the process.:

Following the upgrade path and instructions according to the 2021 post [https://community.netgear.com/t5/Managed-Switches/m4300-firmware-upgrade-without-killing-entire-netw... ], should each individual module be upgraded from v12.0.13.8 to v12.0.15.7 and individually restarted until the entire stack is running v12.0.15.7.  Then once the entire stack is at v12.0.15.7 repeat the exact same steps one module at a time until the entire stack is then running  v12.0.17.6. And, then again one more time to get the entire stack to v12.0.17.7?

It will take a while to complete this for all our gear but we will do it. Thanks for your time.