FMC upgrade strategy

[tiwang]

hi folks - with the amount of updates which suddenly causes me to upgrade FTD's urgently I would like to hear what other do for the Firepower Management Center. As this has to be at least on same lavel or higher it would make sense to be on 7.3.x currently with the FMC so that we quickly can deploy updates on the 7.2.x track which still is the recommended for the FTD's - what is other doing? I had urgently update our central firepower management center to keep ahead of the ftd's versions...

I cannot see any problems in being on 7.3.x on the FMC while still maintaining the FTD's on the 7.2.x track - or have I missed something (yes all the FTD's has to be on a version supported by the FMC but else?)

[balaji.bandi]

First i would check the compatible matrix  against hardware and virtual based on your environment.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/security/secure-firewall/compatibility/management-center-compatibility.html

yes FMC higher can manage FTD Lower version, so First need to Upgrade FMC, so suggest to read the release notes any caveats it effect your environment. same FTD version too 7.2.5 (this is stable seen working as expected my experience) - suggest to read release notes also of FTD from what version you upgrade to 7.2.5

Backup FMC out of the box, backup FTD config out of the before upgrading.

If this is HA you need to break the HA and Upgrade - check the Upgrade guide.

Some cases you may need to upgrade FXOS check the versions.