MARS upgradation

mohsin.khan · ‎07-29-2008

Hi, can anyone help me to upgrade v4.2 to v 5.3? Is it true that i need to upgrade it 1 version by 1, e.g. from 4.2 to 4.3 to 4.4 and so on...?

Also, what would be the better way to do this, i.e. CD based or from URL/network server?

Please share your experience/best practices, don't refer to any docs, as the available docs don't comparisions/options available.. thnx

mohsin.khan · ‎07-30-2008

Just saw on cisco that CLI is the recommmended mode.

It would be more helpful if someone could illustrate the differences (and consequences) between normal upgrade and the re-imaging..

Also, why 5.3.x is supported on only limited hardwares?

Farrukh Haroon · ‎07-30-2008

I would like to point a very important point here. Version 4.x is meant for generation 1 boxes and Version 5.x is meant only for generation 2 MARS appliances (the one manufactured after Cisco's acuiqsition with more reliable components).

So there is nothing like a 4.3.x to 5.3.x upgrade unless you got a newer box. Keep that in mind :)

Regards

Farrukh

hoffa2000 · ‎08-01-2008

Remember folks that Cisco claims MARS release 6, due in a few weeks, will be the same for both GEN1 and GEN2 with the same features for both generations.

Unless a specific minimum version is needed for upgrade you might want to wait for 6 and save the extra trouble. I myself is eagerly waiting to get my hands on the upgrade.

/Fredrik

mhellman · ‎08-01-2008

FWIW, we just had a TAC engineer tell us September.

mhellman · ‎07-30-2008

"Is it true that i need to upgrade it 1 version by 1, e.g. from 4.2 to 4.3 to 4.4 and so on...? "

yes. re-imaging is only an option if you can tolerate losing data or its a new appliance.

"Also, what would be the better way to do this, i.e. CD based or from URL/network server? "

Either way is fine. The first thing the network upgrade does is copy it locally. You mention the CLI in a followup post, definitely use the CLI versus the GUI. The GUI provides you with no status messages, the CLI does.

"Please share your experience/best practices, don't refer to any docs, as the available docs don't comparisions/options available.. thnx

"

There are two different situations. If you have a new box or don't care about the data on it, re-image. It doesn't make sense to apply all those incremental upgrades. I have gone through the incremental upgrade route with 2 different SEM's now, I can tell you that at the end of the day...IME the re-imaged box won't look exactly like the upgraded box. With Netforensics we had missing indexes, records, different database configurations, etc. I suspect the same with MARS, but as an appliance can't readily verify.

pmccubbin · ‎07-30-2008

Matthew,

Your answer is spot-on!

Thanks for the reminder that an upgraded box won't look like the one you re-image. I also didn't realize that during the network upgrade the image was copied locally first.

A "5" from here in NYC.

Cheers!

Paul