Upgrading your software
You can upgrade or revert to a backup version of the software in the Administration > Maintenance: Software Upgrade page.
The bottom of the page displays the software version history of the SteelHead, which includes the version number and the software installation date.
To find allowed upgrades between RiOS versions and recommended upgrade paths, use the Software Upgrade tool on the Riverbed Support Site at. The tool includes all of the recommended intermediate RiOS versions.
You can upgrade software on the Cloud Accelerator and the SteelHead (Virtual Edition) appliance using this procedure. To upgrade the software on the AWS Cloud Accelerator, use the Cloud Portal. For details, see the Cloud Accelerator User Guide.
Verifying your software image
Before you install a software upgrade, you can verify the integrity and authenticity of the software image and ensure it is an unmodified and approved Riverbed image. The feature requires a public key in a certificate to verify the digital signature of the software image. The certificate is automatically installed on the SteelHead, but you can import an updated version, if needed.
You can download the public key for Riverbed images from Knowledge Base article
S33657.
During the verification process, the appliance compares the signature in the image with the Riverbed public certificate. If they match, the installation continues. If not, the system alerts you to a potential problem. As long as image signature verification is enabled, you cannot continue with an installation that cannot verify the image signature.
By default, image signature verification is on and should be disabled only when necessary. We recommend keeping the feature enabled at all times.
To enable software image verification
1. Choose Administration > Maintenance: Software Upgrade to display the Software Upgrade page.
2. Under Image Signature Verification, select Image Signature Verification.
If you clear the Image Signing Verification check box, you disable this feature and a warning message appears indicating images will not be verified.
3. Expand the Image Signing Certificate section and ensure the appliance has a valid certificate.
You can use the certificate that is installed by default or you can click the Import tab to replace an expired or revoked certificate. You can upload a PKCS-12, PEM, or DER format certificate or paste a PEM certificate. Click Import Image Signing Certificate to add the certificate to this appliance.
You can only use one certificate. The certificate information appears in the Details tab.
4. Click Apply.
5. Click Save to Disk to save your settings permanently.
Upgrading or reverting your software version
You can upgrade your software or revert to a backup version.
To upgrade the software
1. Download the software image from the Support site to your desktop.
Optionally, you can download a delta image directly from the Support site to the SteelHead. The downloaded image includes only the incremental changes. The smaller file size means a faster download and less load on the network. To download a delta image, skip to Step 2.
2. Choose Administration > Maintenance: Software Upgrade to display the Software Upgrade page.
3. Under Install Upgrade, complete the configuration as described in this table.
Control | Description |
From URL | Select this option and specify the URL. Use one of the following formats: http://host/path/to/file
https://host/path/to/file
ftp://user:password@host/path/to/file
scp://user:password@host/path/to/file |
From Support Site | Select this option and select the target release number from the drop-down list. The system uploads and installs the new image immediately after you click Install. To upload and install the image later, schedule another date or time before you click Install. |
From Local File | Select this option and specify the path, or click Browse to go to the local file directory. If you specify a file to upload in the Local File text box, the image is uploaded immediately; however, the image is installed and the system is rebooted at the time you specify. |
Schedule Upgrade for Later | Schedules the upgrade process. Specify the date and time to run the upgrade: yyyy/mm/dd, hh:mm:ss. |
Install | Click to install the software upgrade on your system, unless you schedule it for later. The software image can be quite large; uploading the image to the appliance and installing it can take a few minutes. Downloading a delta image directly from the Riverbed Support site is faster because the downloaded image includes only the incremental changes. As the upgrade progresses, status messages appear. After the installation is complete, the system reminds you to reboot the appliance to switch to the new version of the software. |
Cancel | Cancels your changes. |
4. Choose Administration > Maintenance: Reboot/Shutdown and click Reboot.
The appliance can take a few minutes to reboot. This behavior is normal because the software is configuring the recovery flash device. Do not press Ctrl+C, unplug, or otherwise shut down the system during this first boot. There is no indication displayed during the system boot that the recovery flash device is being configured.
After the reboot, the Dashboard, Software Upgrade, and Help pages of the Management Console display the RiOS version upgrade.
To revert the RiOS version
1. Choose Administration > Maintenance: Software Upgrade to display the Software Upgrade page.
2. Under Software Upgrade, complete the configuration as described in this table.
Control | Description |
Switch to Backup Version | Switches to the backup version on the next reboot. |
Cancel | Cancels the software version switch on the next reboot. |
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