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Platform and Infrastructure

  • Improvements to infrastructure and optimization of the software architecture for Junos OS (SRX300, SRX320, SRX340, SRX345, SRX380)—We've improved the infrastructure and continued our work in optimizing the software architecture further for these devices so that they align with the other SRX Series Firewalls. These improvements impact system infrastructure and booting, system snapshot and recovery, and software installation, upgrade, and downgrade procedures.

    System infrastructure and booting:

    • Because upgrading or downgrading now restructures the file system, you may lose the log files and configuration. Therefore, save the configuration and important log files before you upgrade or downgrade.

    • The system is now divided between two volumes, the /junos volume and the /oam volume. The /junos volume is the main drive and contains all the software and files needed for the day-to-day running of the device, including configuration information and logs. The /junos volume also contains non-recovery snapshots, which are new with Junos OS Release 24.4R1. You cannot use the non-recovery snapshots to recover a failed system. The /oam volume contains the recovery snapshot, which provides the ability to boot from the /oam volume when a failure occurs.

    • The boot partition now has read-write permissions.

    • The software no longer supports the Network File System (NFS) mount shell mode command.

    System snapshot and recovery:

    • This release includes changes to the request system snapshot and request system reboot commands and adds a new request system recover command.

    • We have deprecated the request system autorecovery command. Instead, use the request system snapshot command.

    • We have deprecated the request system software delete-backup command. Instead, use the request system snapshot delete snapshot-name command.

    • See KB 85650 for information on how to recover the device when the device does not boot properly.

    Software installation, upgrade, and downgrade:

    • In Junos OS Release 24.4R1, there are several installation packages instead of one. These packages include one for each installation method:

      Table 1: New Package Prefixes

      Installation Method

      Package prefix

      CLI

      junos-install-srxsme-mips-64*

      Network install with tftp using the loader

      junos-install-media-net-srxsme-mips-64*

      Install from the USB driver

      junos-install-media-usb-srxsme-mips-64*

      The firmware is delivered in a separate package, and the prefix for that package is jfirmware-srxsme-mips-64*.

    • For Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) or USB installation, you must first upgrade the U-Boot software to version 3.15 or later before upgrading to Junos OS Release 24.4R1. You must also upgrade the loader to a build from the year 2023 or later. During the boot process, the loader reveals the build date. For example, this loader was built on May 23, 2023:

      Once you install Junos OS Release 23.4R2-S3 or Release 24.2R2, the Junos OS image contains the latest boot loader binaries in these paths: /boot/uboot and /boot/veloader. You can upgrade the U-Boot software and veloader software as follows:

      • From the CLI prompt, enter the start shell command.

      • From the shell prompt, update the U-Boot software with the bootupgrade -u /boot/uboot command.

      • From the shell prompt, update the veloader with the bootupgrade -l /boot/veloader -x command.

      • Reboot the device. Once the device is back up, you can use a USB drive or TFTP to upgrade to Junos OS Release 24.4R1.

    • Before upgrading to Junos OS Release 24.4R1, you must first upgrade to either Release 23.4R2-S3 or to Release 24.2R2. To upgrade to either of these releases, use either of the following commands depending on the device type:

      • request system software add package-name partition no-copy no-validate reboot for the SRX300, SRX320, SRX340, and SRX345 firewalls.

      • request system software add package-name no-copy no-validate reboot for the SRX380 firewall.

      To upgrade from either of these releases to Release 24.4R1, you must use the request system software add package-name no-copy no-validate reboot command. To downgrade from Junos OS Release 24.4R1, you must first downgrade to either Junos OS Release 23.4R2-S3 or to Release 24.2R2 before downgrading to any other release. To downgrade the software, you must use the request system software add package-name no-validate command.

      If you have chassis clusters, you cannot use the In-Band Cluster Upgrade (ICU) method for this particular upgrade or downgrade. Because of the infrastructure changes, you cannot use the ICU method to upgrade from or downgrade to either Junos OS Release 23.4R2-S3 or to Release 24.2R2. You can use either the procedure outlined in KB 85650 or the minimal downtime procedure documented in KB17947 (Minimal_Downtime_Upgrade_Branch_Mid PDF file). Once you have upgraded to Junos OS Release 24.4R1, you can use the ICU method to upgrade to any later releases or downgrade from one of those later releases to Junos OS Release 24.4R1 or later.

    • Because of the disk re-partitioning that occurs when you upgrade to or downgrade from Junos OS Release 24.4R1, you must be mindful of the following:

      • You cannot use the request system rollback command to roll back from Junos OS Release 24.4R1 to either Junos OS Release 23.4R2-S3 or to Release 24.2R2. Instead, you must treat the rollback as a downgrade, and use the request system software add package-name no-validate reboot command.

      • When upgrading to or downgrading from Junos OS Release 24.4R1 on your device using TFTP or USB to install the software, after the device reboots, it comes up in Amnesiac state. Therefore, before you install, make sure you have saved the configuration file so that you can more easily reconfigure the device from the console port.

    [See Recovering Junos OS on a Device Running Junos OS with Upgraded FreeBSD, How to Recover Junos OS with Upgraded FreeBSD, Autorecovery of Configuration, Licenses, and Disk Information on SRX Series Firewalls, Installing Software on SRX Series Firewalls, Junos OS Installation Package Names, request system reboot (Junos OS with Upgraded FreeBSD), request system snapshot (Junos OS with Upgraded FreeBSD), show system snapshot (Junos OS with Upgraded FreeBSD), and request system recover.]