fpSense Plus Fresh Install Each Release?
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Over the years of running pfSense CE I have never been able to do an Upgrade through the Web Interface. It always fails to reboot afterward. So I have been doing a Backup Configuration, then New Install from USB stick, and then Restore Configuration.
My question is: will I still be able to do this with pfSense Plus Home Edition?
This maybe a silly question, but I understand there is a one-time use token for upgrading from CE to Plus Home, and concerned that also means "Upgrade Only" through the Web Interface (no more fresh installs with each release) - or that I'll have to re-apply for a token with each new release so I can do a fresh install.
Thanks!
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@leishen That's a strange symptom.
Per https://forum.netgate.com/topic/169905/when-pfsense-ce-reaches-netgate-tac-end-of-support-will-a-pfsense-iso-be-available-to-download/10 there isn't a downloadable ISO of Plus for third party hardware, at least currently.
Netgate support will give out firmware/Plus for its hardware, as always.
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@steveits : Ah, Ok. I read that post, which says that with 3rd party hardware, I can upgrade CE to Plus, but there is currently no ISO image to install Plus on it - just their own appliances.
I think I'd better wait to switch over just in case I'm still not able to perform upgrades and need to do fresh installs.
Thanks! -
@steveits So are you saying that as it stands now there is no way to reinstall when using our own hardware (in the vent of a disk failure etc) when we have migrated over to PFSense Plus?
That seems quite a disadvantage or am I missing something here. -
@leishen said in fpSense Plus Fresh Install Each Release?:
Upgrade through the Web Interface. It always fails to reboot afterward
On one specific device? Over the years I have upgraded lots of installs - always through the gui.. Both hardware and VMs - have never seen such an issue.
I have had an upgrade fail - not sayings been completely flawless, but very rare - and then when went to upgrade that device next time it worked just fine, etc. If you have never been able to get a gui upgrade to work (on this one device?) something for sure not right..
If they do not provide images for users of 3rd party hardware that want to run +, and you want to do a clean install I would think you would have to install the CE and then upgrade it to +..
Maybe that will change after a couple of version cycles? Going to be some growing pains I would think as they flush out all the possible variations of moving from CE to + could bring about..
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@justinhow It sounds like there's not a direct install but one can install CE and upgrade to Plus as before. For the home/lab free license it doesn't matter. For a paid license presumably Netgate sales/support will have a way to reactivate it...
Right now there's not yet a huge reason to go to Plus at least for our one router on CE not Netgate hardware. If we did, we'd probably replace that old hardware with a Netgate box anyway and not worry about ongoing fees.
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@steveits said in fpSense Plus Fresh Install Each Release?:
If we did, we'd probably replace that old hardware with a Netgate box anyway and not worry about ongoing fees.
I would think that is the end goal of allowing + to be honest.
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@johnpoz said in fpSense Plus Fresh Install Each Release?:
think that is the end goal of allowing +
Probably, but in general I'm OK with that. For a small router the crossover point with the 2100 hardware price is only a few years. For a large router the economics change but eventually one has to buy hardware anyway.
For our specific use case, as an IT company we get a lot of replaced PCs to recycle so we can just plug in a second NIC. m0n0wall ran quite a while off a DVD with no HD and just a floppy. :) After a couple ancient PC failures several years back I grew annoyed and replaced one with a 3100 we had in stock (we're a Partner) but the remaining one has survived quite a while. That one is just for our office so easy enough for us to replace as we usually have one or two on hand.
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@johnpoz said in fpSense Plus Fresh Install Each Release?:
@leishen said in fpSense Plus Fresh Install Each Release?:
Upgrade through the Web Interface. It always fails to reboot afterward
On one specific device? Over the years I have upgraded lots of installs - always through the gui.. Both hardware and VMs - have never seen such an issue.
Yes, its a 4 port J1900 CPU router that I bought back in 2016. It runs the amd64 release of pfSense, but every time I try to upgrade through the UI, it download, reboots and dies on failing to find 32bit version of some dll. It's like it tries to downgrade it to a 32bit device and fails. So after beating my head against it a half-dozen times, and posting it in these forums. I just give up and do a fresh install every time.
P.S. Haha, just noticed there is no 32bit version anymore, so perhaps an upgrade will work now!
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@leishen said in fpSense Plus Fresh Install Each Release?:
just noticed there is no 32bit version anymore
There hasn't been a 32bit version is like 3.5 years.. Ever since 2.3 was eol.. Back fall of 2018.. Been like 16 versions released since then, when you count upgrades.. Like 2.4 to 2.4.1, and then 2.4.2, then 2.4.2p1 etc..
Well maybe more like 10, if you don't count any of the 2.4 releases before 2.3 was officially eol..
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@johnpoz said in fpSense Plus Fresh Install Each Release?:
@leishen said in fpSense Plus Fresh Install Each Release?:
just noticed there is no 32bit version anymore
There hasn't been a 32bit version is like 3.5 years.. Ever since 2.3 was eol.. Back fall of 2018.. Been like 16 versions released since then, when you count upgrades.. Like 2.4 to 2.4.1, and then 2.4.2, then 2.4.2p1 etc..
Well maybe more like 10, if you don't count any of the 2.4 releases before 2.3 was officially eol..
I'll probably just do another fresh install this time anyway so I can get the new ZFS file system applied. Maybe next year I'll try to do a UI upgrade -
FWIW I just did a couple of fresh installs going from 2.5.2 to 2.6.0 to pfsense+ 22.01. After registering and using the token once in 2.6.0 to get authorized for pfsense+ I cleaned install again after borking the install.
I did not need to re-register the device as Netgate remembers the registration and updating to 22.01 was permitted.
Hope it helps!
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@micma_ That's how it should work - unless you do something to your system that changes the NDI.
