What's most stable lastest release?

[Rsullivan_]

Has anyone had any major issues with 6.4?

[ChristopherHowar]

Any major issues with software would result in that software being removed from the support site. In almost all circumstances the advice from Juniper will be the same, install the latest available software from the support site. In your case 6.4R2.

For your information, Juniper can also assist you with an advanced service option where an engineer will work closely with you to understand your requirements and provide a detailed software upgrade recommendation.

I hope this helps.

[JamMan_]

It seems people have a different view as to what Major is. When our SA4000 kept hanging up it apparently wasn't considered Major. The 300 help tickets I got when moving users to version 6.4 because of component installation problems wasn't considered Major either. Well, it may not be Major to Juniper, but certainly the Adminstrators who have to deal with these bugs do consider it Major. I've found that you always take a great risk updating IVE as there appears to be a real lack of QA going on at Juniper.

[DeaconZ_]

@JamMan wrote:

It seems people have a different view as to what Major is. When our SA4000 kept hanging up it apparently wasn't considered Major. The 300 help tickets I got when moving users to version 6.4 because of component installation problems wasn't considered Major either. Well, it may not be Major to Juniper, but certainly the Adminstrators who have to deal with these bugs do consider it Major. I've found that you always take a great risk updating IVE as there appears to be a real lack of QA going on at Juniper.

---

Yeah, I learned that the hard way once upon a time. Now, push the Installer Service for the new OS out via GPO or something like Altiris or SMS and let it cook for about a month or so before upgrading. Minimizes the problems.

[ChristopherHowar]

Speaking candidly, I believe with all highly complex software you can expect bugs. The QA process at Juniper is extremely thorough, but realistically - no highly complex software can be expected to be 100% bug free, a software company that says their software is 100% stable are being na•ve or dishonest. That said, any risk can be mitigated with adequate lab testing and a well thought-out implementation plan. Juniper can assist you with this and any other point of your network development life-cycle.

[stine_]

Juniper has updated their support site. When you click on the Support tab and select NetScreen SSLVPN and click OPEN, a frame pops up that lists the recommeded release for each of the hardware types.

[spacyfreak_]

So 6.5 is not recommended for anyone (except beta-testers who have time and no users...).

For my 4500 cluster 6.3 should be best, but as it will come to IE8 and Windows7 Movements, i want to be prepared as good as i can so i go for 6.4R3.

Will intensively test it before i let 1000 Users on it.

If its not stable, i will go for 6.3 latest version.

[Rsullivan_]

Update:

I'm currently using 6.4R2 (build 14343). We are running a cluster of 4500's. This is a new install and I started out with this build and have not had any issues. Although I'm new to these boxes and maybe just have not seen or aware of the known issues. I have been able to get everything working as intended and we're very happy so far. Not sure if this thread sparked Juniper to add that pop-up window. If so, it's great to know they are paying attention to us.

[joekim1113_]

instead of guessing, you can check with JTAC as of 10/2/2009

JTAC recommends that customers use the following IVE OS versions on their Juniper SA devices. These IVE OS versions are considered to be the most mature.

Exceptions to this include:

1. JTAC has specifically recommended a version of IVE OS Software to a customer that is different from what is listed.
2. Specific features are needed that are only available in another version of IVE OS Software. In this case please be sure to download the latest maintenance release

JTAC Recommended IVE OS Versions Platform Recommended OS SA6500, SA4500, SA2500, SA6000, SA6000 SP, SA4000,
SA2000, SA6000FIPS, SA4000FIPS and SA700 6.3Rx**

SA6500FIPS and SA4500 FIPS 6.4Rx**

SA5000, SA3000, SA1000, SA5000FIPS and SA3000FIPS 6.0Rx**

x**=Most recent maintenance release in that branch that is available for download from the underlying SSL VPN(IVE) OS Software Download page

Message Edited by joekim1113 on 10-06-2009 08:49 AM

[spacyfreak_]

Well, sometimes it seems that support (no matter which vendor) is also guessing.

So i am primarily interested to get information from all possible sources - especially independent network admins who use a release in real life with real users for real money can give good hints which problems can occur in which release.

So if support says "oh, we recommend you to use IVE Release XY", and 5 admins in different forums say "..well, we have good or bad expirience with release XY", you can come "closer" to truth.

So the Juniper speach says:

"If you use platform SA4500, use IVE 6.3R5. If you want to be prepared for Internet Explorer 8, go for IVE6.4R3 - but you "may" have some stability problems"

So - i will test 6.4R3, and if it does not rock, i go for 6.3.