Best practices for upgrading AIMesh master & nodes?

[cremes]

I had a hell of a time recovering my routers when upgrading from 384.13 to 384.15. I have an 86U and a 68U (aimesh node). I won’t recount all the steps I had to take to get AIMesh working again but suffice it to say at least one chicken was sacrificed.

I recovered to 384.14_2. And being a masochist, I figured I should get upgraded back to 384.15.

What I’d like to know is what are the magic steps/ingredients for properly upgrading an AIMesh network?

Do you upgrade the node first, reboot it, let it reconnect, and then upgrade the master? Or do you do the reverse?

I have ethernet backhaul setup between node and master, so I’m not concerned with radio strength. However, if the sync and upgrade process require physical proximity (i.e. ethernet backhaul is ignored for this situation) then that would be useful information to have.

Thank you for any advice you can offer.

 

[L&LD]

You may want to see the excellent notes @OzarkEdge has for setting up AiMesh.

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/o...-supported-products.44375/page-14#post-381537

 

[OzarkEdge]

What I’d like to know is what are the magic steps/ingredients for properly upgrading an AIMesh network?

Do you upgrade the node first, reboot it, let it reconnect, and then upgrade the master? Or do you do the reverse?

Given that the introduction of AiMesh has been development in progress, I've defaulted to usually starting over. From my notes:

Use webUI to upgrade firmware: Check/Upgrade all nodes or Upload node(s), then router; remove node(s) to reset automatically; Restore w/Initialize router to reset; configure router from scratch; add node(s) and disable WPS. Power OFF/ON router and test WAN security and ISP speeds.

OE

 

[cremes]

I did use @OzarkEdge's post to walk through the reset process. Honestly, it didn't work for me. Essentially, what *did work* was a nuclear reset, and then do a Quick Setup on the node to set it as an AIMesh node (no reboot!) in order to get the Master to recognize it and add it to the mesh. I futzed around with a bunch of different rmerlin releases too starting with .13 and settling on the .14_2 as my final.

I think I'll probably wait for .16 to be released before I mess around again. Like a lot of you, I am work-from-home for the foreseeable future and need my connectivity to be rock solid; now is not the time to play with it.

Thanks for the guidance, I appreciate it.