R80.XX Jumbo Hotfix Accumulator - Did You Know?

[Yifat_Chen]

Hi Everyone,

My name is @Yifat_Chen   and I’m part of  the Release Operation group managed by @MeravAlon 

Our group is responsible for Check Point major releases (e.g R80.20), minor releases (e.g R80.30) and Jumbo Hotfix Accumulator releases for  R80.20, R80.30, R80.40, R81 & R81.10 trains.

Following several recent conversations and questions from customers, I would like to provide some general  information regarding the Jumbo Hotfix (JHF) Accumulator:

1. Jumbo Hotfix Accumulator is an accumulation of stability and quality fixes resolving issues in different products. For more information, see sk98028.
2. Check Point  recommends that you install the latest GA Jumbo take on a regular basis.
3. A new Jumbo take is usually released every 1-2 months. For a complete list of fixes in each Jumbo take, please refer to the following SKs: R80.20 JHF SK , R80.20 SmartConsole SK , R80.30 JHF SK , R80.30 SmartConsole SK  , R80.40 JHF SK ,R80.40 SmartConsole SK  , R81 JHF SK , R81 SmartConsole SK , R81.10 JHF SK  , R81.10 SmartConsole SK
4. Every new Jumbo take has 2 phases:
1. 1^st -  Released as “Ongoing” - The main purpose of the “Ongoing” take is early adoption.
2. 2^nd – Published as “GA” - Recommended as a General Availability take.

5. After 3-4 weeks, an “Ongoing” take is moved to GA status. If there is a problem with an “Ongoing” take, a new one will be released.

1. A new JHF on the Management Server can be installed regardless of the Gateway server. There’s no requirement to align the Management and Gateway to use the same JHF take. (Note - All Management machines should have the same JHF take.)
2. SmartConsole Jumbo HF is also released every 1-2 months. Note – there is no dependency between SmartConsole and Jumbo takes. Different takes of Jumbo can be used with each SmartConsole take. However – some features/fixes require an upgrade of both Jumbo and SmartConsole.

8. Installing a JHF is not an upgrade process ! The installation of a JHF is simple  and doesn’t perform any changes in the Management Database. JHF  only replaces specific binaries with new fixes, However - a reboot may require after JHF installation 
9. More Information about Management JHF can be found under  MGMT JHF- Did You Know?

I’m tagging also:

@Tsahi_Etziony  – R&D director of Product operation

@MeravAlon  - Release Operation Group manager

@MatanYanay  - Post Release Team Leader

Please don’t hesitate to contact us for any further questions regarding the Jumbo releases.

Regards,

Yifat Chen 

[Arne_Boettger]

Thanks for your post. even though "There’s no requirement to align the Management and Gateway to use the same JHF take. (Note - All Management machines should have the same JHF take.)", we once had great problems after installing a JHF on our R77.30 VSX Gateways, because the management  (MDS) did not correctly talk to the gateways any more.

The problems were especially regarding a vsx_util reconfigure, and were solved by installing the HFA on the MDS, too.

[Yifat_Chen]

Hi @Arne_Boettger 

Thanks for your comment.

Indeed in R77.30 there is a recommendation in the SK to align the Management and Gateway to use the same JHF take.  

The problem that you described can happen if specific fix that was added in the Jumbo, impact both MGMT and GW side. 

I am i am not familiar with such fixes and/or enhancements that required the same take on R80.x Jumbo takes.

I will also  highlight that this post refers to R80.X Jumbos only.

Thanks 

Yifat

[SimonTab13]

Yifat,

Is the an offical CheckPoint release roadmap, that details Major release dates and also includes all hotfix revision numbers and release dates ?

e.g.

R80.10 - 1st April 2018

R80.10 - Hotfix 123 On-Going - 31st April 2018

R80.10 - Hotfix 123 Final - 21st May 2018

etc. etc. through to current R80.30 and it's hotfixes 

Simon 

[Don_Paterson]

Hi Yifat,

Thanks for the info in this post.

Where does the name Jumbo come from or why was the name Jumbo chosen, if you know and can share please?

It is just out of curiosity.

I remember when the name started to be used some time ago and just adopted and started to use the naming convention but I don't know why the name was chosen, and can make assumptions..

Thanks,

Don

[Yifat_Chen]

HI @Don_Paterson 

Jumbo is the name we've used from the very beginning and we named this accumulation of hotfixes this way because usually each Jumbo Take is very large.

Thanks 

Yifat. 

[Don_Paterson]

Thank you 🙂

[G_W_Albrecht]

It all started when CP compiled HFs (Hotfixes) for resolving bugs. These HFs were also collected in HFAs (Hotfix accumulators), e.g. R70 had HFA 10 - HFA 50. Jumbos now are very big HFAs that started with R77.30.