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graemeb
New Contributor II

Stuck at v7.0.17

I got FortiCare today so downloaded some firmware off the site following upgrade path then the UI offered to do upgrades in the console rather than manual.

 

Now it is at v7.0.17 and the upgrade path tool goes up until only 7.0.16 so I don't know how to move up to 7.6.

 

"

Firmware Management

 
 

Current FortiGate versionv7.0.17 build0682 (Mature)

Select Firmware

Latest
All Upgrades
All Downgrades
File Upload
The firmware is up to date."
 
This is from console.
 
Thank you.
2 Solutions
Toshi_Esumi

MvsF.png

7.6.1 is still Feature(".F") release version, which means new features are added. I would at least wait until Mature(".M") versions come out.

Toshi 

View solution in original post

Matt_B
Staff
Staff

It's not because v7.0.17 was new, upgrade from chronologically later (v7.0.17) releases to chronologically earlier (v7.2.10) releases is not supported. That's because those upgrade steps are not QA-tested. Upgrade v7.0.17->v7.2.10 or earlier should be considered similar in risk to downgrade or upgrade without following path, worst case is corruption or failure to boot.

If there are issues with unsupported upgrade often they are specific to the platform or configuration so unfortunately can't rely on it working once. If it's not urgent I would recommend to wait for v7.2.11.

 

Upgrade from v7.0.17->v7.2.10 might work, but it's not supported. If making that choice I would have no expectations and local serial console access in case booting from backup partition is necessary.

"Every behavior is both a bug and a feature until a design is specified."

View solution in original post

16 REPLIES 16
dingjerry_FTNT

Hi @graemeb ,

 

Of course, FortiOS 7.6.1 is a production release.

 

Please check this:

https://docs.fortinet.com/document/fortigate/7.6.1/administration-guide/173707/firmware-maturity-lev...

Regards,

Jerry
Toshi_Esumi

MvsF.png

7.6.1 is still Feature(".F") release version, which means new features are added. I would at least wait until Mature(".M") versions come out.

Toshi 

Matt_B
Staff
Staff

It's not because v7.0.17 was new, upgrade from chronologically later (v7.0.17) releases to chronologically earlier (v7.2.10) releases is not supported. That's because those upgrade steps are not QA-tested. Upgrade v7.0.17->v7.2.10 or earlier should be considered similar in risk to downgrade or upgrade without following path, worst case is corruption or failure to boot.

If there are issues with unsupported upgrade often they are specific to the platform or configuration so unfortunately can't rely on it working once. If it's not urgent I would recommend to wait for v7.2.11.

 

Upgrade from v7.0.17->v7.2.10 might work, but it's not supported. If making that choice I would have no expectations and local serial console access in case booting from backup partition is necessary.

"Every behavior is both a bug and a feature until a design is specified."
AEK

Thanks Matt. Very useful information that we can only find here.

AEK
AEK
Matt_B

Sometimes, useful info you can only find in one place is wrong! v7.2.11 was released yesterday and v7.0.17->v7.2.11->v7.4.7 is a supported upgrade path despite breaking the rule of thumb I just gave (v7.2.11 released 2025-02-12, v7.4.7 released 2025-01-21). I think that would match most customer expectations too, apologies for misstating it.

To get more granular with this, in FortiOS upgrade from the latest patch in earlier Minor Version to latest patch in the next Minor Version is usually QA-tested and supported even if the target firmware image was released chronologically earlier. However this is is not always true and is in fact one of the major reasons for providing upgrade path information. v7.0.17 has no recommended path to v7.2.10.

One thing that's almost always true though- there is a cut-off for how early you can go in the next firmware version via supported upgrade paths. For example, v7.0.16 -> v7.2.9 is a supported upgrade path for most platforms. v7.0.16->v7.2.8 and earlier is not.

"Every behavior is both a bug and a feature until a design is specified."
AEK

No worries Matt, correcting information is in itself useful information.

AEK
AEK
graemeb
New Contributor II

Thank you for this. Now all is good and on v7.4.7 build2731 (Mature)

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