Should I upgrade 2.5 to 2.7?
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Good day all, hope this message finds you well.
General question about upgrading.
Currently we are running Version 2.5.2-Release (amd64)
built on Fri Jul 02 15:33:00 EDT 2021
FreeBSD 12.2-STABLEVersion 2.7.0 is available.
Questions:
- Is a update necessary?
- What can go wrong when updating?
- What would you recommend to do before updating?
- Will a rollback with old backup work when update to new Version has been performed?
Many thanks in advance for any advise.
Best, Tim -
Well, the underlying FreeBSD version in 2.7.x pfSense is FreeBSD-14.0-CURRENT. The FreeBSD version you have in 2.5.2 pfSense is 12.2-STABLE. A comparison to an operating system such as Windows would mean you are still running Windows 7 or 8 while most everyone else is running Windows 11.
There are known security vulnerabilities in older versions of any software. That's why probably 75% of software updates happen -- to fix security issues identified after the original release.
The correct answer is you should always maintain the most up-to-date version of software on your computing hardware-- and most especially on your firewall because it is the lynchpin of network security.
Pretty much every security intrusion into a business network that has made the news involves the perpetrators exploiting an unpatched software vulnerability (translate that as the company was running an old and not updated version of some critical piece of software). You don't want to be "that guy" if your business is infiltrated by malware that got in because of unpatched vulnerabilities.
To test updating, you can create an identical configuration in a lab and run the upgrade there. For commercial enterprises, I would consider the existence of a small test lab critical. The more critical your network is to your business operation, the more critical it is that you have a lab duplicating key parts and pieces of your production network where you can test updates (so you can then deploy them into production with high confidence things will go well). I don't mean a total duplication, but maybe have an identical firewall and one variation of your main Ethernet switches. That way you can test upgrades to the firewall and firmware updates to switches.
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Is there any particular reason you're still running 2.5.2? Something that was broken in 2.6 perhaps?
Are you doing anything particularly exotic? Custom packages/config?
Generally, you should update.
Steve
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@stephenw10 said in Should I upgrade 2.5 to 2.7?:
Is there any particular reason you're still running 2.5.2? Something that was broken in 2.6 perhaps?
Are you doing anything particularly exotic? Custom packages/config?
Generally, you should update.
Steve
Thanks for your reply Steve.
The only reason is; the responsible IT guy who was working for this company didnt care about the infrastructure. I am the new IT guy and getting everything up to date, that simple ;-) -
@VerticalTechnik said in Should I upgrade 2.5 to 2.7?:
I am the new IT guy and getting everything up to date,
Don't delay, upgrade now for the company's sake...
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@NollipfSense said in Should I upgrade 2.5 to 2.7?:
@VerticalTechnik said in Should I upgrade 2.5 to 2.7?:
I am the new IT guy and getting everything up to date,
Don't delay, upgrade now for the company's sake...
But what can go wrong when updating?
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@VerticalTechnik said in Should I upgrade 2.5 to 2.7?:
But what can go wrong when updating?
Since you're worried about that, be sure to backup your configuration, install a clean version 2.7.2 then, restore configuration from backup.
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Yup, backup your config and download the 2.7.2 installer in advance. If something does go wrong during the upgrade you can always just reinstall.
For bonus points you can put the backup config file onto the installer flash drive and it will be used during the install for a faster/easier process:
https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/backup/restore-during-install.html#restore-configuration-from-usb-during-install -
@stephenw10 said in Should I upgrade 2.5 to 2.7?:
https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/backup/restore-during-install.html#restore-configuration-from-usb-during-install
Cool feature, indeed!
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@VerticalTechnik said in Should I upgrade 2.5 to 2.7?:
But what can go wrong when updating?
release notes:
https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/releases/and:
https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/install/upgrade-guide.html
https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/install/upgrade-guide-versions.html
