EX4500 Software Versions..

[zachary.giles@mssm.…]

What's everyone running on their EX4500's? Just got one and want to make sure I get the right software before I put it in production. 

It came with 10.3, but I see 10.4 is recommended. It has CEE, so maybe 11.1 is right. But then 11.4 is out..

I dont know. What's everyone running? Is upgrading to the latest the "Right Thing" (TM) to do?

Thanks,

-Zach

[rickmur]

When you log-in to the support portal you can see the JTAC recommended versions for all platforms, which redirects to the following KB article:

http://kb.juniper.net/InfoCenter/index?page=content&id=KB21476

There you'll find that at this moment the following release is best suitedfor the EX4500:

EX4500

JUNOS 10.4R5.5

Standard

03 Aug 2011

I always recommend to use a Long-Term-Support release, which is usually every 4th release of the year (10.4 and 11.4 are LTS releases).

BR,

Rick

[zachary.giles@mssm.…]

Thanks for replying. 

I didn't know the .4 releases were LTS. Good to know.

I looked at that article a few times already and saw the 10.4 recommendation, however, the documentation says that for a CEE switch, it begins supporting those features in 11.1. 

With the knowledge that the .4 releases are LTS, should I be looking to 11.4? or should I stay in 10.4?

Also, I was looking at a few issues that seem to have been solved in 11.4R2. However, 11.4R1.6 is the latest out. Where does one acquire 11.4R2?

-Zach

[rickmur]

11.4R2 is due for mid-February as I remember (might be a little later) where a lot of stuff should be fixed.

11.4 Is indeed another LTS release! So I should go for that if you need features that were introduced in a 11.x release, but only if you really require those features.

[zachary.giles@mssm.…]

Ah! I understand what's going on now. 

Well I do want features of 11.x, so I think I'll go ahead and use 11.4R1.6 and hopefully upgrade in a few months to the 11.4R2 and take a short downtime. 

Is that advisable? Is 11.4R1.6 pretty good, or no?

-Zach

[rickmur]

11.4 is a pretty good release! I'm running it in my lab at the moment and will be installing it at a customer quite soon (although R2 might be out then). Usually it's not recommended to install a R1 release, but 11.4 is a long-term-support release, so the focus is on making it as stable as possible of course

So upgrade to R2 as soon as it's out. In the meantime I would say it's safe to use 11.4

[zachary.giles@mssm.…]

Interesting. 11.4R1.6 ran well for me, except I was surprised to see that all my Dell branded SFP+ copper cables stopped working. I tried booting with them plugged in and also booting with them unplugged and plugged in later. They show up as a 1GB interface with the interface down. Replacing it with a Juniper brand SFP+ calbe worked.

I was surprised, as it works fine with 10.3 and 10.4

Thoughts on that?

[brentrjones]

I saw this in new 11.x code, I first got wind of it with our QFX switches.

Juniper is vendor-locking SFP modules to only work with Juniper modules on the QFX, and likely other switch lines as well (or it could just be a mistake on their part).

I see 3rd party optics failing on my test EX4500 running new 11 code, and all non-Juniper SFPs on my QFX's fail to work.

Welcome to Cisco  
 

[dfex]

I've been testing Cisco DAC cables on my EX4500s (11.4R1) and they seem to work just fine.

I have heard about the vendor-locking on the QFX too, but I don't know of any plans to do this on EX.