topic Re: Upgrade Zone Director 1000 Firmware 8.2.0.1 build 8 to 9.3.4.0.21 without premium support in ZoneDirector

Upgrade Zone Director 1000 Firmware 8.2.0.1 build 8 to 9.3.4.0.21 without premium support

johan_harianto — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 08:07:16 GMT

Our company currently using Zone director 1000 with firmware version 8.2.0.1 build 8 with 25 AP Licenses build inside it and the premium support already ended a long time ago. It manages 20 Ruckus Zoneflex 7363.

The problem is the client sometimes still not connected to the nearest access point causing high ping and random timeout during the Video Call, and I found out about "bss-min rate" command, but it only available on 9.3.x

I already search and read all the release notes for each firmware and guide.
So the plan in my mind is
8.2.0.1 (current) => 9.1.2.0.8 => 9.3.4.0.15 => 9.3.4.0.21

My question is, is it possible to upgrade the firmware without the premium support?
Also, is there any risk the new firmware will brick the controller? If the controller bricked, is there a way to recover it?

Re: Upgrade Zone Director 1000 Firmware 8.2.0.1 build 8 to 9.3.4.0.21 without premium support

eizens_putnins — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 09:31:54 GMT

Hi,

ZD1000 is very old. I am not sure if support enforcement works same way as for newer ZDs, but probably yes. So I suppose you will be capable to upgrade to latest version which doesn't require support to upgrade, I think 9.3.4 must be ok. But you need images anyway.

About upgrade risks.

1. Never upgrade ZD in smart redundancy mode. Make they standalone and upgrade separately.

2. There is always some risk, same as with firmware upgrade for MB. But do it correct way, and usually it works. Most important -- don't lose power in the process.

3. There is recovery proceeding (to upload new firmware image to bricked by upgrade ZD), which usually helps.

4. In the worst case you probably can get very cheap replacement ZD1000 or Zd1100 from Ebay.

Re: Upgrade Zone Director 1000 Firmware 8.2.0.1 build 8 to 9.3.4.0.21 without premium support

mitchell_axtell — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 11:32:12 GMT

As 9.3.4.0.21 was a security fix at some point it was offered for free, but it may not be the case now. May be worth asking.

As for hops, the current -> 8.2.2.0.7 -> 9.1.2.0.8 -> 9.3.4.0.21 should work. The release notes for 9.1.2 show the below:

ZoneDirector cannot be directly upgraded to 9.1 from 8.2.1, 8.2.0, 8.1 or earlier versions (ID
16432).
Workaround: upgrade to 8.2.2 or 9.0 before upgrading to 9.1

Re: Upgrade Zone Director 1000 Firmware 8.2.0.1 build 8 to 9.3.4.0.21 without premium support

syamantakomer — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 19:16:36 GMT

Hi Johan,

You can upgrade the ZD1000 from current version to the desired version and no support contract is required.

To avoid upgrade failure, clear all the event and logs and then reboot the ZD, before the upgrade. This will clear some memory for smooth upgrade.

Please note that it is an old piece of hardware with very limited hardware power, so be patient and do not interrupt the upgrade. Reboot after the upgrade may take more time than expected.

Also make sure to create config backup in each upgrade step.

Re: Upgrade Zone Director 1000 Firmware 8.2.0.1 build 8 to 9.3.4.0.21 without premium support

johan_harianto — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 01:07:45 GMT

@mitchell_axtell thank you very much, I will check it for the steps on the release notes.

Re: Upgrade Zone Director 1000 Firmware 8.2.0.1 build 8 to 9.3.4.0.21 without premium support

johan_harianto — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 01:14:16 GMT

@syamantak_omer

thank you for the answer, I will clear the event log and reboot it.

So I plan to disconnect it from the current network and make it only zonedirector and my laptop, to be more save, I will do it with UPS.

Also, I have another question; the zonedirector needs an upgrade path to do it. How about our access point Ruckus 7363? Does it also need an upgrade path? I know that the zonedirector will upgrade the Ruckus 7363 firmware automatically if it is connected.

Do I need to connect the AP to the zonedirector after each step upgrade path?

Re: Upgrade Zone Director 1000 Firmware 8.2.0.1 build 8 to 9.3.4.0.21 without premium support

johan_harianto — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 01:29:03 GMT

@eizens_putnins

We only have one zonedirector, to be safer since we only have one zonedirector. I plan to upgrade it with stand-alone , just the zonedirector connected to my laptop.

My question is the Access Points 7363 need to be connected after each step upgrade path?

Re: Upgrade Zone Director 1000 Firmware 8.2.0.1 build 8 to 9.3.4.0.21 without premium support

eizens_putnins — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 13:37:04 GMT

You don't need upgrade path for APs, so you don't need to connect APs before completing ZD upgrade. When APs will be connected, it will upgrade to ZD firmware version immediately, it takes 5 - 15 min (usually 3-4 reboots) and during this time WiFi network will be affected.

Re: Upgrade Zone Director 1000 Firmware 8.2.0.1 build 8 to 9.3.4.0.21 without premium support

johan_harianto — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 05:57:08 GMT

@eizens_putnins

thank you for your answer. I appreciate that.

I will try that during off days, hope it will run smoothly.

Just to be safer, do you have any reference about recovery mode if the new firmware bricked the zonedirector?

I'm in Indonesia, so I can't easily order the zonedirector from ebay, and it will take a long time to here.

Re: Upgrade Zone Director 1000 Firmware 8.2.0.1 build 8 to 9.3.4.0.21 without premium support

eizens_putnins — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 14:12:24 GMT

There is manual for Zd1100, but as much as I know, it works same way for ZD1000: https://support.ruckuswireless.com/article_attachments/kA250000000PHgqCAG?attachment_index=0

Zone Director 1100 Rescue Mode
What happens when Mini Boot System can’t load Zone Director Images?
· Power Green – Status Off – Ethernet normal
· Only access on second “Ethernet” port
The system will respond to the static default IP with a Rescue page that allows users to format the USB drive and install a new image directly from the administration PC
1. Open ZoneDirector GUI using default IP 192.168.0.2 make sure PC connected to ZD is in the same subnet.
2. From below snapshot we have options “Perform FDISK” and “Perform Reboot”
3. First try rescuing the ZD using “Perform Reboot” option as this will preserve the configuration on ZD.
Click “Perform Reboot” after reboot it will redirect to the ZD login page, if this doesn’t work follow the below steps.

5. Install/upgrade firmware on ZD using “Perform Upgrade”.

Re: Upgrade Zone Director 1000 Firmware 8.2.0.1 build 8 to 9.3.4.0.21 without premium support

eizens_putnins — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 14:13:56 GMT

The only difference between ZD1000 and ZD1100 was RAM size - 2x bigger.

Re: Upgrade Zone Director 1000 Firmware 8.2.0.1 build 8 to 9.3.4.0.21 without premium support

eizens_putnins — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 14:19:17 GMT

In case all fails, you always can get remote management service. Ruckus Cloud doesn't support old ZF7363 APs, but where is need, there is also a supply - my company can provide remote WiFi management service for older Ruckus AP for yearly fee. To use that, you just need configure option 43 on your DHCP, or configure APs through ssh to connect to service (2 commands). Than you manage your WiFi network through WEB interfaces as usually.

Re: Upgrade Zone Director 1000 Firmware 8.2.0.1 build 8 to 9.3.4.0.21 without premium support

johan_harianto — Mon, 01 Feb 2021 01:51:19 GMT

@eizens_putnins

Thank you for the reference and the steps. It seems I can't open the document guide, but I got it from your explanation.

I just tried, the AP stand-alone mode can broadcast the SSID with VLAN on it.

In the worst-case scenario, I need to configure each AP manually, and the SSID won't be the same for the entire building, but as long it is still working, I don't mind, rather than got users complaint every day.

But out of the topic, through my research on standalone 7363, the 5Ghz network is sometimes detected by all my devices, but sometimes not. Maybe the compatibility issue.

Re: Upgrade Zone Director 1000 Firmware 8.2.0.1 build 8 to 9.3.4.0.21 without premium support

johan_harianto — Wed, 10 Feb 2021 04:24:14 GMT

I finally safely upgrade to 9.1.2.0 build 8
When connecting to Zonedirector CLI I found out the config already has bss-minrate and ofdm-only mode.

The problem is when I type exit, or end, it says "The operation doesn't execute successfully. Please try again."

What of causing this?

Re: Upgrade Zone Director 1000 Firmware 8.2.0.1 build 8 to 9.3.4.0.21 without premium support

syamantakomer — Wed, 10 Feb 2021 14:31:25 GMT

I hope WLAN you are trying to edit is already configured and you are typing the correct name.