topic Re: Cortex XDR Pro - Agent Upgrade - Information when which Agent version will be installed where in Cortex XDR Discussions

Cortex XDR Pro - Agent Upgrade - Information when which Agent version will be installed where

RFeyertag — Fri, 24 Nov 2023 18:51:17 GMT

Hello dear community,

to install new agents can be risky. So there is a great delay setting. But I do not know which version will be installed when and on which agent. Because there is also no published date etc. of a version.

Yes you can exclude and include a agent from upgrade. Yes there are last ... coloumns. But I need it for future upgrades.

If you know a solution, let me know.

Otherwise feel free to send this link to your support for a feature request.

Rob

Re: Cortex XDR Pro - Agent Upgrade - Information when which Agent version will be installed where

jtalton — Mon, 27 Nov 2023 22:04:44 GMT

Hi RFeyertag,

We recommend enabling automatic version updates on low impact systems (desktop/laptops) and enable automatic version on the longer standing release and minor updates for non-critical servers. However, many customers implement the n-1 strategy, either is configurable in the Agent Settings Profile (step 15)

Select the Automatic Upgrade Scope:

Latest agent release
One release before the latest one
Only maintenance release
Only maintenance release in a specific version

If you choose One release before the latest one, Cortex XDR upgrades the agent to the previous release before the latest, including maintenance releases.

FYI The release schedule for Cortex XDR Agent (Agent Software Updates) feature releases is approximately three times a year; maintenance release every 6-8 weeks.

Cortex XDR Agent Critical Environment Versions are designed for sensitive and highly regulated environments and do not contain all updates and content existing in the standard version. Only critical and high severity bug fixes are applied to CE versions. Therefore, it is recommended to restrict the use of these versions to the required minimum. An example where CE version could be used is domain controllers.

Agent release frequency for CE Agents

18-24 months for new CE versions (versus 3-4 months for new Standard versions)

You may reference the End-of-Life Summary - Palo Alto Networks as well to stay abreast on agent version EOL dates.

If you found this answer helpful please select Accept as Solution.

Thank you!

Re: Cortex XDR Pro - Agent Upgrade - Information when which Agent version will be installed where

RFeyertag — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 21:49:45 GMT

Sorry this isn't very helpful for me. I know the mecanism and we have set all fully automatic upgrades (except terminal server --> non function available).

But there are still issues with upgrades like you cross a pulled back upgrade and should get a hotfixed on. I would like to handle this by myself which upgrade will be installed. Imagine we could have stop the automatic rollout to Version 1.0 and decided to rollout bugfixed Version 1.1. This is a huge mess and lets me think about to expand the delay days to 14 because there are and were issues with the agent versions.

Rob