Question re: upgrading SMS from R80.40 to R81.20.

[Joe_Kanaszka]

Good Afternoon everyone  - 

Quick questions regarding the upgrade process of my management servers from R80.40 to R81.20.

We have a two-node security gateway cluster running on a pair of 5100 appliances - both on R80.40 Take 173.

We have a separate SMS (backup log server) running as a VM on VMware and a separate SmartEvent appliance (primary log server) running on a Smart-1 205 appliance that we need to migrate to a new Smart-1 600-S appliance.

We are going to perform a Multi-Version Cluster Upgrade to allow us to test out the new version to make sure everything works.

Multi-Version Cluster Upgrade Procedure - Gateway Mode  

The first steps in this guide are to first upgrade the SMS - then upgrade any additional log/management servers.

So I plan on upgrading the virtual SMS first: 

• Take VMware snapshot
• Run upgrade
• Test

Then I plan on migrating the SmartEvent server to the new appliance following the below link:

Upgrading a Security Management Server or Log Server from R80.20 and higher with Advanced Upgrade  - although this is proving to be a pain in the arse so I may simply do a fresh install to R81.20.  Our config is not that complicated.

Questions because it's been a while.

1. Does upgrading the SMS automatically install policy that has been published?  
2. Do I need to install policy after the SMS upgrade to R81.20?  (not seeing this as a step)

I'm trying to see how risky this upgrade is of the SMS.

-Thanks guys!

Joe

[emmap · Accepted solution]

To answer the questions, no and no - but a policy install is good as a test.

[Joe_Kanaszka]

Cool. Thank you emmap!

Joe.