Untangle NGFW v16.6

[Sky-Knight]

Anyone using NGFW be aware the next major release will include the OS upgrade from Debian 10 to Debian 11.

I recommend disabling automatic upgrades, I'm not expecting this to be a terribly harsh update... because Debian 10 to 11 is pretty easy. BUT... it is not only an OS upgrade, but also the first where Arista has really had control.

Let someone else be beta testers!

 

[sean]

When's it due out ?

 

[Sky-Knight]

Unknown, the above was all but leaked by an Untangle employee now working for Arista. I presume they're going to do the usual alpha / beta thing on the forums. But I can't know that, and given the changes being made to Untangle with the resources pouring in from Arista this isn't the same company anymore.

 

[Sky-Knight]

Confirming that Arista's Untangle is not changing the usual dev cycle.

v16.6 will be the version based on Debian 11.
It should be released "this quarter", as an alpha / beta.
It will be announced as an alpha on the forums as per usual.

So, now would be a great time to start punching into all your NGFW's and turning off automatic upgrades. I don't think it's likely we'll see a v16.5.4.

Full disclosure, Debian 10 to Debian 11 upgrades are STUPIDLY EASY and the safest OS upgrades ever. They aren't without risk of course, but I feel the risk of automatically leaping into this next OS might not warrant the time investment to deal with it.

Still, it'd be a great idea to ensure all current units are running v16.5.2, and you have configuration backups for all platforms as the v16.5.2 backup will restore on v16.6. Should a problem pop up.

This update does come with a new kernel, and it will inspire a reboot, and it will reorder your interfaces if your hardware is bonkers on that reboot. So I'd plan accordingly.

 

[Sky-Knight]

For those that didn't listen, v16.6 is rolling out and big shock... it broke a few things.

There are patches available here: https://forums.untangle.com/forum/ng-firewall/ng-firewall-general/395415-16-6-0-fixes-available

v16.6.1 should be out soon to resolve this junk properly so if you don't have a problem, don't manually patch.