Self Update Process

[jwood.mls]

Hi all,

Historically, even though I was briefly told once about the self-update process, We've always just called support and had them run OS/patch updates, which I understand is no longer included with support. My understanding is if I run into a problem, I can call support, but I should run updates myself. That is certainly intimidating, but seems like it should be fairly straightforward. I thought I'd ask a few questions of you all

1) Do you update with every patch, or just a quarterly, semi, or yearly schedule?
2) Is this video still a pretty accurate reference for the update process? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9u9z0pebATY
3) I have both a recommended patch update (I'm on 3.3.1.648 and need P156) but it also looks like I'm off on the recommended OS, as it should be 3.3.2.135. Should I even mess with the patch update, or would I be better off doing the OS update? Or on the flip side of things, if I'm new to doing this, should I start off with the patch update to get comfortable with things, then do the OS update at a later time?
4) I realize from previous experience with support that none of these updates should cause any downtime, but do you all typically do them outside regular hours?

I appreciate all of you as you've been great with suggestions in the past. Thank you so much.

[MammaGutt]

Hi all,

Historically, even though I was briefly told once about the self-update process, We've always just called support and had them run OS/patch updates, which I understand is no longer included with support. My understanding is if I run into a problem, I can call support, but I should run updates myself. That is certainly intimidating, but seems like it should be fairly straightforward. I thought I'd ask a few questions of you all

1) Do you update with every patch, or just a quarterly, semi, or yearly schedule?
2) Is this video still a pretty accurate reference for the update process? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9u9z0pebATY
3) I have both a recommended patch update (I'm on 3.3.1.648 and need P156) but it also looks like I'm off on the recommended OS, as it should be 3.3.2.135. Should I even mess with the patch update, or would I be better off doing the OS update? Or on the flip side of things, if I'm new to doing this, should I start off with the patch update to get comfortable with things, then do the OS update at a later time?
4) I realize from previous experience with support that none of these updates should cause any downtime, but do you all typically do them outside regular hours?

I appreciate all of you as you've been great with suggestions in the past. Thank you so much.

1) I read the release notes to understand if they are relevant for me. If I see a patch with File Persona (which I don't use) or a disk firmware patch for drives I don't have I don't install them unless I'm planning on installing other relevant patches as well.
2) Seems to lack the Update Tool that you install as well.
3) I tend to stay at "Default" version unless a new version includes features I need. According to SPOCK (see sticky thread) 3.3.1 MU5 is still default for 8k, 9k, and 20k.
4) I might be pessimistic, but for anything highly critical (single point of failure) I do all changes outside regular hours. For systems that I have replication/Peer Persistence I usually do a switchover and install patches/upgrades on standby systems. For non-replicated I do everything outside regular hours. It might fail once in a million but that one time you really wish you did the change when less people needed the system