Before You Begin Software Upgrades on J Series Services Routers

Before you begin software upgrade on J series devices, make sure that

You have a Juniper Networks Web account and a valid support contract. You must have an account to download software upgrades.
To obtain an account, complete the registration form at the Juniper Networks website: https://www.juniper.net/registration/Register.jsp
You have backed up your primary boot device onto a secondary storage device.
Creating a backup has the following advantages:
- The device can boot from backup and comeback online in case of failure or corruption of primary boot device in event of power failure during an upgrade.
- Your active configuration files and log files are retained.
- The device can recover from a known, stable environment in case of an unsuccessful upgrade.

You can use either the J-Web interface or the CLI to back up the primary boot device on the secondary storage device.

Table 133 lists the secondary storage devices available in an J series device for back-up .

Table 133: Secondary Storage Devices for Backup

Storage Device	Available on Services Gateways	Minimum Storage Required
External Compact Flash Card	J2320 and J2350	512 MB

Note the following points:

During a successful upgrade, the upgrade package completely reinstalls the existing software. It retains configuration files, log files, and similar information from the previous version.
After a successful upgrade, remember to back up the new current configuration to the secondary device.
For instructions about how to backup your system using the J-Web Interface, see Configuring a Boot Device for Backup for J Series Services Routers (J-Web Procedure).
For instructions about how to backup your system using the CLI, see Configuring a Boot Device for Backup for J Series Services Routers (CLI Procedure).