Management Center upgrade/downgrade path best practice

Products

• Management Center
• Management Center - VA

Issue/Introduction

Upgrade or downgrade Management Center

Resolution

When upgrading or downgrading the version of Management Center, you must stay within 2 minor versions of what is currently running.

Examples:

- If on version 3.0.x and the version needed is 3.3.x, upgrade first to version 3.1.x or 3.2.x before going to the version 3.3.x.   

- If on version 2.4.x and the version needed is 3.2.x, upgrade first to version 3.0.x or 3.1.x before going to the version 3.2.x.

 

We do not recommend that downgrading Management Center as the latest version has necessary upgrades and fixes, but if needed, use the same 2-version system when downgrading.   Note that downgrades cannot be performed from Management Center 3.x to 2.x or 1.x.

 

The same principle applies when coming from any 1.x Management Center versions.  If you are running any MC 1.x  version, please refer to article "Upgrading Management Center version 1.x to one of the latest supported versions" 

Management Center 4.1.1.1 supports the following upgrade paths:
• 3.3.x to 4.1.1.1
• 3.2.x to 4.1.1.1

Please note other best practices when doing MC upgrade: 

- Create and offload your backup before and after each upgrade.   

- For Management Centers with failover setup, disable the failover on both (primary and secondary).  

 

More information can be found in Management Center (MC) documentation.  The Management Center documentation can also be accessed by clicking the help icon on your Management Center GUI ( located on top right corner) or by navigating Broadcom's Web and Network Security product group.

Additional Information

• Beginning with Management Center version 4.1.x , a single .bcsi  image  can be utilized across all supported platforms, such as AWS, GCP and others.    
• Downgrades from Management Center 4.1.x to 3.3.x and earlier are not supported.  The database structure in Management Center 4.1.1.1 has been updated, and cannot be reconstructed with earlier
  versions of Management Center.     
• To revert from Management Center 4.1.x to previous version, such as 3.3.x, it is necessary to reset the management center to factory settings and restore backup