R81.20 Forward Compatibility

[love-cw]

There has been a trend that more advanced gateway versions have been supported by older SMS/MDS versions. For example, an R81.10 gateway supported on an R81 SMS/MDS. Will this happen on R81.20? Reason being I would like to first tiptoe into R81.20 without upgrading my MDS to the latest version. Central management is pretty complex compared to a gateway. Just want to be safe.

[the_rock]

Good question, hope someone can confirm. I know generally from what I recall, that never worked on regular SMS.

[love-cw]

I had R81.10 gateways on my R81 MDS.  I think you could run R80.40 gateways on a R80.30 MDS as well, but that is getting foggy.

[the_rock]

Maybe it works, but certainly not officially supported : - )

[Bob_Zimmerman]

It's definitely officially supported. You have to install a particular jumbo which comes out after the release of the new major version. For example, R80.40 (released on 2020-01-28) can be managed by these versions:

• R80.10 jumbo 272 (released 2020-03-22) or later
• R80.20 jumbo 149 (released 2020-04-01) or later
• R80.30 jumbo 166 (released 2020-03-11) or later
• R80.40 and later major versions

We'll probably see the jumbo to allow R81 and R81.10 to manage R81.20 in January or February.

[the_rock]

Not according to TAC. Yes, it does work, but I had been told at least 10 times this is something CP does not support, that mgmt server has to be at least same OR higher version than gateways (jumbo does not really matter). Now, if documentation states otherwise, thats different story, but in general, its what I mentioned.

[Bob_Zimmerman]

It's 100% supported. Has been for years. Started in R77, I think. Before that, the management absolutely had to be the highest major version in the environment.

[the_rock]

We will agree to disagree then : - )

[_Val_ · Accepted solution]

@Bob_Zimmerman is right, and you @the_rock are not. Look into sk113113, where forward compatibility is documented.

To answer the original question from @love-cw , both R81 and R81.10 management will be able to manage R81.20 GWs, it is in works, please refer to sk113113 where it will specified, when appropriate JHFs are available

[the_rock]

@_Val_ ...as I said to Chris, I admit when Im wrong, all good : - ). Im glad he pointed that sk out, as I was not aware of it. Thanks to you for one you gave too 🙏

Cheers!

Andy

[Chris_Atkinson]

FYI sk164652 documents such scenarios for select versions.

[the_rock]

Alright, fair enough brother. I was wrong, apologies to you @Bob_Zimmerman . It would not be first and it will not be last time Im wrong, haha.

Cheers,

Andy

[Chris_Atkinson]

No stress - As a general rule we all agree upgrade management first where possible!

[PhoneBoy]

Now that R81.20 has been released, you can expect forward compatibility for R81.20 gateways to be added to an upcoming JHF for R81 and R81.10 in the coming weeks.
Obviously, you will not be able to leverage some R81.20 specific functions without R81.20 management.