Upgrading UTM-1 Devices from R65 to R75

As CheckPoint are pulling support for NGX R65, we're doing a load of upgrades from R65 to at least R70. Usually, I'm going beyond this to R71 or R75 depending on how the customer feels about it. This article describes the usual process that I go through.

The upgrade process that I've found best is as follows.

Firstly, produce a backup. (Er - obviously.)
R65 needs to be upgraded to R70 then R71 and finally R75.

This takes some time because for each stage the system creates an image (a snapshot - but not in a VMware sense!) of the entire filesystem. On underpowered UTM-1 appliances, I've seen this take 15-20 minutes. Then the upgrade itself starts. Again, 15-30 minutes is not uncommon per appliance. A useful tip is to change the "Safe Upgrade" timer from 15 minutes to, say, 45 minutes or longer. This means that the upgrade will not die half way through and revert to a previous image just because it took too long!

Files you're going to need to get hold of as listed below. These may only be available to you if you have a suitable support contract.