ESA/SMA upgrade to AsyncOS 14.x and Field Notice: FN - 72230

[Henk Fictorie - Ulrich]

In AsyncOS version 14.x and newer you need a bigger nextroot partition. Our ESA's and SMA virtual machines are quite old and have a small nextroot partition of only 400MB. The Field Notice 72230 applies and in this field notice and in How to Apply the Workaround for Cisco vESA/vSMA Failing Upgrade Due to Small Partition Size - Cisco the solution is described as to build a new ESA/SMA and migrate the configuration and data to the new machine.

In this situation the old ESA/SMA are still running and the new ESA/SMA machines need new ip addresses. The old machines are removed as the last step. This complicates the process with adding too much additional work.

Is it possible to just follow the process described in https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/security/email-security-appliance/214131-how-to-load-or-migrate-esa-configuration.html for "How to Load or Migrate ESA Configuration on a Replacement ESA

[Ken Stieers · Accepted solution]

Yes. Any valid way to replace an ESA will work.