Blink - install Management Server with 1 step - is now available!

[Tsahi_Etziony]

I am happy to announce three exciting Blink improvements:

1. Blink for management. As of today, Blink images are available also for Security Management Servers. You can now reimage a Security Management Server to a new version including the latest Jumbo in a matter of minutes. The new images are available for download from the Blink SK.
2. Blink in First Time Wizard – On every GAIA machine! When you run FTW on a GAIA appliance, or even a VM or Open Server, one of the options is to “Install a version from Check Point Cloud”. Now you can install a Blink image by simply choosing it from the list
3. Blink in CPUSE. CPUSE can now install Blink images. On the CPUSE WebUI page, there is a new section of available packages – “Blink Clean Install”. Choosing a Blink image and installing it will reimage the machine. This is not an upgrade, but a simple way to reimage.

[Vladimir]

Tsahi,

I am really happy about the expanded blink capabilities, but I do not see the Open Server option for the Management in the lineup.

Could it be installed from Smart-1 option or are we still waiting on a new release for this capability?

Thank you,

Vladimir

[Tsahi_Etziony]

If you are asking about clean installation on open server (bare metal), then this is not available. Blink can only run on top of GAIA. If you have an open server running GAIA and you wish to reimage it, you can use the available Blink images. 

[Vladimir]

I was actually thinking about Open Servers in VMs.

But the idea is clear. Got to have OS in place to use it.

[AlekseiShelepov]

Can we use Blink to do a reimage of an appliance from SPLAT to Gaia?

It was not really obvious for me from the SK that Blink can be run only on top of Gaia, as you said in a commentary here. I wanted to try Blink for something like a remote installation of Gaia on an appliance without a LOM interface.

But now when I think about it, it is because of the differences in Snapshot creation mechanism on Gaia and SPLAT, right?

[_Val_]

The SK Blink - Gaia Fast Deployment  states that the tool is only supported for Gaia

[AlekseiShelepov]

Well, I understood it as you can only use Blink to install new Gaia R77.30 or Gaia R80.10 images. It doesn't state specifically from which versions you can run Blink.

So, we can run Blink tool only on Gaia R77.30 or R80.10 (no Gaia R76 or R77.10 for example) to install new R77.30 or R80.10 image with Jumbo Hotfix and completed First Time Configuration Wizard, is that correct?

[_Val_]

Yes, this is what the SK says

[Tsahi_Etziony]

The sk doesn't state the source GAIA version because it can be any GAIA version...

And regarding the SPLAT question - if this is SPLAT with LVM, we might have a solution based on blink. Not an official solution  but something we can let you try. Please contact Check Point support if you are interested.

[Network_Securi1]

Hello,

For a RMA, I use Blink to re-image a Smart-1 5150 from R80.10 (default image) to R80.20 using the management image. It worked, but I didn't find how to enable multi-domain mode. I did the first time wizard via web ui, but no option. I tried to run mds_restore but it didn't work (not MDS env).

So does it support MDS?

Thanks!

Greg