topic Re: Appliance BIOS Updates? in Firewall and Security Management

Appliance BIOS Updates?

Timothy_Hall — Wed, 09 Oct 2019 22:14:29 GMT

Has anyone ever been required to update the BIOS of their Check Point appliances for any reason? If so could you share the circumstances that made it necessary? I've never needed to perform a BIOS update that I can remember. More info:

sk120915: Check Point Appliances BIOS Firmware versions map

sk128712: Upgrading the BIOS using BIOS Upgrade Tool

Re: Appliance BIOS Updates?

G_W_Albrecht — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 09:23:00 GMT

I only remember 1 or 2 times CP had to do a BIOS Update during RAS - so, this is a rather rare thing 😀

Re: Appliance BIOS Updates?

PhoneBoy — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 17:20:58 GMT

In 20+ years at Nokia/Check Point, we put out BIOS updates maybe a few times max.
Don’t recall the exact reasons we’ve had to do so.

Re: Appliance BIOS Updates?

HeikoAnkenbrand — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 18:08:09 GMT

Hi @Timothy_Hall

I had only one BIOS update in 20+ years. I think it was a 12000 appliance. This was done via TAC Case from Check Point self in a remote session.

PS:

Only Check Point knows the BIOS password:-)

Re: Appliance BIOS Updates?

Daniel_Kavan — Sat, 05 Jun 2021 12:42:03 GMT

Hey All,

I have a 5200 on R1.4, but the latest is R1.7. There is no place I can find to download R1.7. But it sounds like its not necessary.

Re: Appliance BIOS Updates?

genisis__ — Sun, 06 Jun 2021 09:56:12 GMT

Interesting question Tim! I actually raised a TAC case about getting BIOS updates and procedure on how to do this. I got the below response from TAC:

"Thank you for your patience with us. Much appreciated.
We verified with Development team and as confirm that BIOS upgrade is not possible at the moment.
You can raise RFE(Request for Enhancement) with referring below article."

In my option a vendor would release an update if they felt there was a compelling reason to do so ie. add support, fix bugs, fix vulnerabilities, and if they do indeed release an updates it would make sense that clients with support contracts should be entitled to upgrade (if they so choose) using a procedure provided by the vendor.