Solved Any pfSense users? Are upgrades smooth?
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Site has a box running pfSense for their main router.
It has an update pending.
I have not actively used pfSense for 7 years. It has generally always worked, but again, that was 7+ years ago.
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So the final answer for this question is, yes. Upgrades are normally smooth.
But the 2.5 branch has some issues , so hold off.
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@jaredbusch usually upgrades are smooth. On occasion I had to drop to shell and do upgrade there because web interface seemed stuck.
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Are upgrades smooth? Normally. Take a backup just in case.
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Major version upgrades can cause issues. So 2.4.x to 2.5.x have to be looked at first.
Minor version upgrades are usually problem free.
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@pete-s said in Any pfSense users? Are upgrades smooth?:
Major version upgrades can cause issues. So 2.4.x to 2.5.x have to be looked at first.
Minor version upgrades are usually problem free.
Problem with the major upgrades is usually related to a new FreeBSD version and if you have installed any extra packages. And sometimes to deprecated functionality.
I wouldn't upgrade without doing the homework first.
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@pete-s said in Any pfSense users? Are upgrades smooth?:
@pete-s said in Any pfSense users? Are upgrades smooth?:
Major version upgrades can cause issues. So 2.4.x to 2.5.x have to be looked at first.
Minor version upgrades are usually problem free.
Problem with the major upgrades is usually related to a new FreeBSD version and if you have installed any extra packages. And sometimes to deprecated functionality.
I wouldn't upgrade without doing the homework first.
so if .4 to .5 is a major update I will put that off until next week. too many other things going right now.
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I think it was one of those Lawrence Systems YouTube videos when mentioned about making sure to upgrading pfsense before the package
@jaredbusch said in Any pfSense users? Are upgrades smooth?:
@pete-s said in Any pfSense users? Are upgrades smooth?:
@pete-s said in Any pfSense users? Are upgrades smooth?:
Major version upgrades can cause issues. So 2.4.x to 2.5.x have to be looked at first.
Minor version upgrades are usually problem free.
Problem with the major upgrades is usually related to a new FreeBSD version and if you have installed any extra packages. And sometimes to deprecated functionality.
I wouldn't upgrade without doing the homework first.
so if .4 to .5 is a major update I will put that off until next week. too many other things going right now.
Lawrence mentioned in the video about the update process for pfSense 2.4.5
Youtube Video -
Still have not upgraded this system.
Need to shut it down and make an image of the damned thing.
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@jaredbusch said in Any pfSense users? Are upgrades smooth?:
Still have not upgraded this system.
Need to shut it down and make an image of the damned thing.
It should be enough to take a backup. It's an xml file that has all the settings. With the backup and the ISO-file for the version installed, you can restore the system to exactly the same state.
Look under Diagnostics > Backup & Restore.
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https://archive.org/download/pfSense-CE-2.4.5-RELEASE-p1-amd64/pfSense-CE-2.4.5-RELEASE-p1-amd64.iso
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@pete-s said in Any pfSense users? Are upgrades smooth?:
It should be enough to take a backup. It's an xml file that has all the settings.
Yes, I have that. I prefer a disk image also for critical gear running software I am not intimately familiar with.
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I just did an upgrade from 2.4.5 to 2.5.1 few minutes ago, it was flawless. As far as disaster recovery, if it hits the fan, just install from scratch and restore backup from xml file. It really is no different that rebuilding docker containers for example.
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@marcinozga said in Any pfSense users? Are upgrades smooth?:
I just did an upgrade from 2.4.5 to 2.5.1 few minutes ago, it was flawless. As far as disaster recovery, if it hits the fan, just install from scratch and restore backup from xml file. It really is no different that rebuilding docker containers for example.
If I was a regular user of pfSense, and familiar with all of the intricacies of its upgrades, I would almost certainly be confident doing that.
But I will not put a customer out of service for hours because I did not take a simple precaution.
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@jaredbusch said in Any pfSense users? Are upgrades smooth?:
If I was a regular user of pfSense, and familiar with all of the intricacies of its upgrades, I would almost certainly be confident doing that.
But I will not put a customer out of service for hours because I did not take a simple precaution.Did you pick up this customer knowing they were using pfsense or did you deploy pfsense for this customer?
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@dustinb3403 said in Any pfSense users? Are upgrades smooth?:
did you deploy pfsense for this customer?
No
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@jaredbusch said in Any pfSense users? Are upgrades smooth?:
@dustinb3403 said in Any pfSense users? Are upgrades smooth?:
did you deploy pfsense for this customer?
No
Is this the customer who's IT person passed away?
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@dashrender Yes.
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@jaredbusch said in Any pfSense users? Are upgrades smooth?:
Site has a box running pfSense for their main router.
It has an update pending.
I have not actively used pfSense for 7 years. It has generally always worked, but again, that was 7+ years ago.
Why don't you do some reading or ask at the pfSense forum?
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@dave247 said in Any pfSense users? Are upgrades smooth?:
Why don't you do some reading or ask at the pfSense forum?
Obvious troll is obvious. But I will answer anyway.
- I have done some reading.
- No, I will not ask a bunch of tinkerers about a business essential question.
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@jaredbusch said in Any pfSense users? Are upgrades smooth?:
@dave247 said in Any pfSense users? Are upgrades smooth?:
Why don't you do some reading or ask at the pfSense forum?
Obvious troll is obvious. But I will answer anyway.
- No, I will not ask a bunch of tinkerers about a business essential question.
LOL ok. The forum is on netgate's website and the platform is open source so you're going to probably get a mix of knowledgeable people as well as "tinkerers" no matter where you ask. You just have to weed out the responses but I'm sure that's a better place to start than this forum...
