If you’re facing the SonicWall end of life (EOL) for your current network security setup, you want to be as proactive as possible. Considering you’ve already gone through an initial setup before, upgrading is the next objective.
SonicWall has gone through generations of firewall solutions, many providing years of support for businesses all over the world. However, it’s also normal for every model to meet its end of life. You always want to try to work ahead of that EOL date so you don’t encounter any disruptions with your network security.
For the most part, SonicWall makes it pretty easy to make the transition to an upgrade. This article highlights how you should prepare your network firewall security for a seamless upgrade.
Simplifying the End of Life Policy
While specific parameters in an EOL policy can vary from one manufacturer to the next, SonicWall has made it relatively simple. However, it’s important not to get the terminology mixed up with the end of support (EOS), for example. There are several lifecycle stages firewall tech goes through, whether it’s the NSa series or something like a SonicWall TZ270 upgrade.
This can happen over the course of several years, giving you more than enough time to prepare for a transition. Nevertheless, understanding the terminology below is important for a stress-free transition to newer SonicWall firewalls:
- Last Day Order (LDO): The beginning stages of the EOL process, acting as your initial heads up with dates provided for different stages
- Active Retirement Mode (ARM): This is when the manufacturing and active sale of the firewall comes to a halt, but support contracts are still available
- One-Year Support LDO: This is the very last day that you can purchase a support contract for one year
- Limited Retirement Mode (LRM): At this point, your firewall isn’t getting any new firmware updates and is only eligible for crucial bug fixes and security patches for three years after ARM.
- End of Support (EOS): This is the point where tech support becomes unavailable, from firmware updates to hardware replacements. Security subscriptions may continue to be functional but won’t come with any support.
- End of Life (EOL): Once the hardware has reached this date, it’s entirely decommissioned and unusable.
It’s important to periodically take note of these dates along the lifecycle of your network firewall solutions. You can expect it to vary here and there, and it’s always best to never make assumptions so the EOL doesn’t catch you by surprise.
Steps to Prepare for a Smooth Transition
To ensure your network security and monitoring setup aren’t left vulnerable, you want to prepare before making the leap to new tech. Between your own due diligence and the information SonicWall provides, you can always be ready to take the next step.
1. Inventory Network Infrastructure
You can either manually take stock of the equipment you have on hand or quickly identify it with the help of SonicWall’s Product Lifecycle tool on their website. This is how you know exactly what you’re working with and what to compare it to in regard to upgrading.
2. Review Potential Upgrades
Source the specs and cost of SonicWall firewall solutions and which piece of hardware would be a step up from what you’re currently working with. This considers multiple factors, including your long-term network demands, cost, and hindsight regarding your security requirements.
3. Backup Existing Network Settings
Make sure you don’t lose sight of the current settings and overall infrastructure of your network security. It’s smart to expect and prepare for some kind of downtime throughout the transition, and you want to guarantee you don’t lose anything vital in the process.
You can surely become a lot more meticulous with this, but it all comes down to handling it with due diligence. Upgrading your firewall solutions and network infrastructure shouldn’t be taken lightly, but it can feel effortless with the right approach.
Final Thoughts
Every firewall solution will eventually face its EOL, but you should be quite a few steps ahead by the time it comes around. Not only for the sake of your network security but also to mitigate downtime as much as possible.
Upgrading your hardware doesn’t need to be extremely tasking, but it is important to be prepared. If you ever need any assistance navigating your firewall’s EOL, come talk with us to see how we can make the upgrade as easy as possible.
