Risks When Upgrading from EXOS v12.5 to v16.1?

[Weda]

I have installed EXOS ver 16.1.3.6-patch1-9 in the free partition of device which has current firmware 12.5.4.5. I haven't rebooted yet.
My questions is,
1) Is there any possibility to crash the config file when rebooting ? Note: This conversation was created from a reply on: Upgrading to 16.x.x.x version?.

[Henrique]

Hi Weda,

If you face any issue after the upgrade and decide to downgrade from 16.x to earlier releases you should be aware of the following information in those 2 articles:

https://gtacknowledge.extremenetworks.com/articles/Solution/Cannot-log-into-EXOS-switch-after-downgr...

https://gtacknowledge.extremenetworks.com/articles/Solution/Tacacs-users-cannot-log-into-a-switch-af...

[Ariyakudi_Srini]

Hi Weda,

The way BGP configuration is handled is different in 12.X and the later major versions of EXOS.
So that is a consideration you have to look into.
I cannot think of any other major concerns.

[Tripathy__Priya]

• Upgrading from 12.5.x or 12.6.x to 15.X or 16.X should not require any intermediate SW upgrade as long as all the hardware supports the newer version of EXOS.
• However, upgrading from 12.3.x or below to 15.x and 16.X will require upgrading to 12.5.x or 12.6.x then finally to 15.x and then to 16.X later.

Please find below the article explaining this in details:

https://gtacknowledge.extremenetworks.com/articles/Q_A/Upgrade-from-12-X-to-15-X/

So as you are in 12.5 currently can always get into 16.X without any incremental upgrade procedure.

[Bharathiraja__S]

Hi Weda,

1)Take the backup of your current config before doing any upgrade.

https://gtacknowledge.extremenetworks.com/articles/How_To/Best-practices-during-the-upgrade-of-an-EX...

2) I guess it won't be a problem going directly from 12 to 16.

Thanks,
Suresh.B