topic Re: ZoneDirector 1200 Firmware Upgrade in ZoneDirector

ZoneDirector 1200 Firmware Upgrade

kuk_support — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 09:06:05 GMT

Hi all,

I have a big project coming up next week to upgrade firmware of 2 x ZD1200 in Smart Redundancy mode, our current firmware is 9.10.2.0 build 29.

Please could someone advise the upgrade path to the latest version, as I'm struggling to find our current build in newer versions.

We are going to be using a mix of R500 and R510 internal APs and T310 external APs.

Also, I tried to upgrade the firmware on the Active device last night but it just looked like it froze when trying to upload the .img firmware file, I was trying to use firmware version 9.12.0.0.336 - maybe this was wrong which is why it didn't work? But I tried to search for the issue, and tried different browsers (Firefox, Edge, IE, Chrome) but they all did the same thing, gave no upload progress and did nothing for about 30-40 minutes.

Thanks for any advise!

Re: ZoneDirector 1200 Firmware Upgrade

paul_cremor — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 09:30:52 GMT

Assuming you want to get to the recommended firmware of 10.2.1.0.183 you need to follow this path. I usually stick to the recommended version if possible rather than the later ones unless there is a specific requirement to do so.

9.10.2.0.29 --> 9.13.3.0.164 --> 10.1.2.0.210 --> 10.2.1.0.183

Re: ZoneDirector 1200 Firmware Upgrade

kuk_support — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 09:36:38 GMT

@paul_cremor Many thanks for the quick reply Paul! I'll get them firmware versions and follow that path.

Any ideas on the fact that the firmware won't upload to the ZD?

Thanks,

Re: ZoneDirector 1200 Firmware Upgrade

prakash_shanmug — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 09:49:09 GMT

the last stable version for zd1200 is 10.2.1.0 build 183 and i given the upgradation path also.

indoor Outdoor AP
C110 T300
E510 T300e
H320 T301n
H510 T301s
R310 T310c
R320 T310d
R500 T310n
R510 T310s
R600 T610
R610 T610s
R700 T710
R710 T710s
R720

above mentioned the model only support this firmware version

9.10.2.0.29-->9.13.3.0.22-->10.0.0.0.1424-->10.2.1.0.183

Re: ZoneDirector 1200 Firmware Upgrade

DarrelRhodes — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 09:54:37 GMT

Hi Kuk,

Due to the limited RAM available on the ZD1xxx series devices, I always found it beneficial to reboot the controller prior to a firmware update, as this clears logs and stats, etc. and frees up RAM for the upgrade process.

As your R500 are the oldest AP model you have, they are the limiting factor in terms of upgrading. However, checking the release notes, you can jump directly to the last version of the ZD 9.x code-train: 9.13.3.0.164

N.B. The R500 AP is still supported in the latest version of the 10.x ZD code train (10.4), however you will need to carefully check the release notes for the necessary upgrade path to this version.

Also ensure you take a ZD backup prior to upgrading incase you need to roll-back the update.

Finally; when performing a redundant pair update, the ZD software has a built-in mechanism to upgrade the pair with minimal client impact, you don't need to upgrade them individually.

Hope that helps,

 Darrel.

Re: ZoneDirector 1200 Firmware Upgrade

kuk_support — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 10:02:36 GMT

@darrel_rhodes Hi Darrel, many thanks for the information!

I'll try doing a reboot of the devices and see if any different. We just purchased the new R510 to replace about 30 of our old APs as they were EoL and not supported on the newer firmware. Obviously, we left the R500s in place as they still are supported.

I have a backup of current setup already, just the issue of the .img file not being uploaded.

Thanks,

Re: ZoneDirector 1200 Firmware Upgrade

prakash_shanmug — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 10:08:12 GMT

Hi Kuk,

please share the screenshot.

Re: ZoneDirector 1200 Firmware Upgrade

kuk_support — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 11:46:40 GMT

I've restarted both ZoneDirectors and trying the upload again but still seems to be stuck here, I'm trying to upload in Chrome.

The image I'm uploading you can see at the bottom.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Re: ZoneDirector 1200 Firmware Upgrade

paul_cremor — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 12:28:17 GMT

Could you try an older vesion of firefox, i often use v.33 here:-

https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/33.0/win32/en-GB/

Worth a try.

Re: ZoneDirector 1200 Firmware Upgrade

kuk_support — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 13:06:25 GMT

Okay, so I found a solution!

@paul_cremor thanks for the tip, however didn't want to start messing around with different browser versions just yet.

What I did to get it to work was to login to a server, to cut out my VPN connection and get onto the same subnet as the controllers, and also to put the firmware .img file locally onto the server to avoid UNC network path for the upload.

After doing this, it now gives me the prompt to backup and do the update!

Thanks all for help

Re: ZoneDirector 1200 Firmware Upgrade

syamantakomer — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 12:19:26 GMT

Hi @kuk_support ,

It is strongly recommended to do upgrade locally.

Over the VPN, due to encapsulation/encryption overheads, some times file transfer may not happen completely from the remote machine to ZD and due to that firmware upgrade fails.

Re: ZoneDirector 1200 Firmware Upgrade

kuk_support — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 12:28:27 GMT

Hello @syamantak_omer - Thank you for the information.

I was connected to the ZD primary controller, and trying to upload the firmware file from the same network as the controller.

So, my VPN connection was only being used to connect to the controller not actually send the firmware file from my local machine.

Thanks,

Re: ZoneDirector 1200 Firmware Upgrade

syamantakomer — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 12:34:21 GMT

As long as source system of the upgrade file and ZD can reach each other without much data fragmentation, upgrade should be successful.

I usually suggest customers to login into any RDP server or any machine which is local to ZD or vSZ/SZ network, run the upgrade from that machine. This makes communication between browser to controller local and no additional overheads/network hopes.

Re: ZoneDirector 1200 Firmware Upgrade

eizens_putnins — Sat, 05 Dec 2020 10:25:02 GMT

When you open upgrade window on ZD, transfer happens through your PC, it means -- over VPN connection. And it may not work. It's always better to do this locally, as local LAN and VPN over Internet have very different reliability, and file can be easy corrupted over Internet.

So it was actually good that upgrade attempt failed - otherwise, if you would be able to write corrupted image into ZD, most probably next step would be RMA.