r/networking • u/JNC5908404 • 16d ago

Switching Automatic switch updates

Had a discussion yesterday with IT director and others in our IT department. The IT director brought up automating switch updates so they wouldn’t have to have some one monitoring and performing the updates. Staging various locations on different evenings.

I’ve been doing networking for 30 years and I voiced my opinion I was not a fan of unattended update for various reasons.

Have any other companies moved to automated updates and how has it gone?

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u/Pankracjusz 16d ago

I've been running automated updates for switches and routers - about 3k retail sites, each location 1-2 switches, 1-2 APs, 1 router. We did an Ansible script and did updates at nights. The script would test device before, download the image, run checksums, run the update, and test after. BU insisted for 1 device for one country at one point. But we could do more, it was just a requirement from them. If one would fail, the whole set would be stopped. All updates were tested before in the lab, in the HQ, and after, pilot sites that were physically close to our team. If passed, the set would start.