Upgrade ClusterXL Security Gateway R80.40 to R81.20

[stuart2020]

Hello, I'm planning to upgrade our 15400 security gateway's from R80.40 take 173 to R81.20 Take 631. Our SMS has already been upgraded to R81.20. 

I'm undecided on which upgrade method to use between multi-version cluster and SMS central deployment. The CheckPoint upgrade guide recommends central deployment but wanted to check other Checkmates real world experiences and if central deployment is the best option?

Please let me know your thoughts. 

Many Thanks

[emmap]

Mechanically it's the same thing, doing it through SmartConsole automates the MVC upgrade for you.

[stuart2020]

Thank you for the response. Have customers experienced many issues with the automated CDT vs using the more manual traditional MVC method? 

[Nüüül]

Hi,

it kind of depends on your requirement to have control on what is going on. 

Personally I´d stick with the manual way. Upgrading one cluster member, run MVC (check if all custom configs are still there or have to be applied again) and THAN switch this node to active for a given time (like a week) to see if any problems occur (Like crashing daemons (pdp, confd others), sudden failovers and so on)

When you are confident enough, that all runs as intended, upgrade the second node.