Applicable Models:

Bugs fixed since 12.0.7.9:

  1. mDNS protocol packets are not flooded in the VLAN when Apple Bonjour protocol is enabled
  2. Stack port packet counter was miscalculated that resuls in displaying excessive packet drop
  3. Add BitRate info to 'show inteface counter' output
  4. There is PoE error message shows up in the message log with non-PoE models
  5. No PSU status reported on the GUI or by using SNMP after upgrade to M4300 12.0.7.9

Known Limitation in 12.0.7 (same as in 12.0.7.8):

  1. When a 40G port on APM402XL is expanded into 4 10G ports, these 10G ports cannot be configured as stacking port due to hardware limitation
  2. The 40G port can be expanded into four 10G ports via new ‘hardware profile portmode’ command, but this command will not retain across stack failover from stack master to standby unit.
  3. User could pre-configure a APM402XL before the module is inserted the slot. And most of port configuration can be applied except the port expander command, ‘hardware profile portmode’ will fail. 
  4. The port LED on APM402XL module is not blinking when there is line activity and the 40G port is operating in four 10G ports mode. (HW limit)
  5. Stacking port mode does not survive hot plug-out and plug-in. One or more ports of an APM can be configured in Stacking mode. Once reloaded with this APM inserted, those ports would still operate in stacking mode. However, during run time, if the same APM is plugged out and plugged back in, the configured stack ports will be restored back to Ethernet mode. User would need to reconfigure them manually for stacking mode after hot insertion. 
  6. Hot plug-in of any APM module won’t work if M4300-96X is booted without any APM pre-installed and with factory default settings. Install at least one APM module before booting up the switch.
  7. When APM402XL is operating in four 10G port mode, and connects these 10G ports are connected with a DAC fan-out cable, the link #1 of DAC fan-out cable will show up as port 3 in switch’s configuration and physical link #3 will show up as port 1 inside the switch’s configuration. This will be fixed in the upcoming maintenance release.
  8. M4300-96X copper port doesn’t link up at 2.5Gbps when it is connected to WAC740’s 2.5G port, it works only at 1Gbps. This will be fixed in the upcoming maintenance release.
     

Upgrade procedure

  1. Save the current configuration data. Normally the firmware will preserve the original configuration in the switch, however, just in case something went wrong during the upgrade, you may want to save a copy of current running configuration. To do so, go to ‘Maintenance->Upload’ page, and select Text Configuration option and click Apply button to save the configuration file.
  2. Using the Download Link below, download and extract the new firmware to a convenient place such as your desktop.

    Download Link: http://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/M4300/GSM_XSM4300_V12.0.7.10.zip
     
  3. M4300 switch support dual image which means it has two firmware images calls ‘image1’ and ‘image2’. Before upgrading either one with the new firmware, check which image is active. You can check it using either web UI or CLI. In the following web example, the active image is image1 and backup image is image2. That means if the switch rebooted, it will use image1. Therefore if you upgrade image1, then upon reboot, the new firmware will be used.
    image

    To check the same with CLI, issue the following command:

    show bootvar

    The output will show which image is used for next reboot. It is best practice to upgrade the one not being used for next reboot (“Next Active Image”).

  4. There are two ways to download the new firmware from PC to the switch. One is using TFTP which requires a TFTP server be installed on the PC where the firmware is stored from step #2. The second method is to use web browser which requires of no TFTP server. If you preferred to use TFTP method, or you’re using telnet session to perform firmware upgrade, continue to step #6.
  5. To use web method, go to the following web GUI page, and select the location of the new firmware via browse button, then click Apply button to start firmware upgrade. The upgrade will take about 2 minutes. Do not power cycle the switch before the process is complete. Assume image2 is backup image.
    image

    After the Apply button is clicked, the file transfer will start, and followed by writing the new image to the Flash memory. Do not power cycle or reboot the switch until the process is complete and the success message shows up as below.

    image

    After the successful message, proceed to step #9 to restart the switch.

  6. Start a TFTP server on the PC where the new images are stored. If you do not have a TFTP server, you may want to try the following public domain TFTP servers
    PumpKIN - http://kin.klever.net/pumpkin/
  7. You can use either web interface or CLI interface to perform upgrade using TFTP. To use web interface, select “File Upgrade’ page under Upgrade tab, and follow the screen instruction to complete the firmware upgrade. To use CLI, either telnet into the switch or use console port and follow these steps below.
  8. On the switch console, type the following command on the console or telnet session window:

    copy tftp://<tftp server IP address><image name> image1 or image2

    “<tftp server IP address>” is the IP address where the TFTP server is running. The “<image name>” is the new firmware to upgrade to, and make sure the file is stored in the TFTP root directory. Select either to upgrade the image1 or image2.

    The switch will ask to confirm with input data displayed. Hit enter if all parameters look correct.The file transfer process should take about two minutes, then the new firmware will be checked for possible corruption, if all checked out, it will report firmware successfully upgraded.

  9. At this point if you just reboot the switch, since the switch is not using the one you upgraded, then reboot will still using the old firmware. Follow the step below to change it to the new version.
  10. To use GUI to change the backup image to active, go to web page ‘Maintenance->File Management -> Dual Image Configuration’ page.
    image

    Assume image2 is the one upgraded. Select image2 on every unit in the stack (if you’re using a stack), and select ‘True’ in ‘Next Active Image’. Click ‘Apply’ button to make the change. If the new image is downloaded to the active image directly, please skip this step.

    To use CLI to change the image to be used in the next reboot, type the following command:

    boot system <image1 or image2>

    And issue the following command to reboot:

    reload

  11. To use GUI to restart the switch, go to web page ‘Maintenance->Reset’ page, Device Reboot table.image

    Make sure that “All” is selected in ‘Reboot Unit No’ drop down menu box. If it is shown with some other value like ‘1’, then only unit 1 in the stack will be rebooted, and this may result in stack failure after the stack is rebooted. You may select ‘Save prior to reboot’ option if you feel there are changes that may not have being saved. Click ‘APPLY’ button to start the reboot process.

  12. After the switch is restarted, type the following CLI command to verify the version is correct.

    a. # show hardware

    Or go to GUI System main page to confirm the switch firmware is the one downloaded.

  13. Verify the switch running configuration by issuing “show running-config” command. The output should match the configuration file saved on step #1. If there are not, please call Netgear customer support on discrepancy, or submit a trouble ticket from ‘my.netgear.com’. And manually reapply the missing configuration commands back to the switch.
  14. You can now make additional configuration change for another other application need. And be sure to use “save” command to save the configuration after you’re done.