Weird Update Notice Changelog Listings

[feleven]

I've been using FreeNAS for the past couple years and as the system development continues, received update notices containing detailed (although duplicated) change log entries. Although most of the changes didn't directly affect me as far as I knew, I appreciated the level of detail in the notifications, and generally updated immediately.

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For the past few updates (starting with 9.10.1 and up through the -U1 -U4 series leading to 9.10.2, and now for 9.10.2-U1), I've been getting update notifications like this recent email:

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For the past few updates starting with 9.10.2 and now for 9.10.2-U1 I've been getting update notifications like this recent email:
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Code:

A new update is available for the FreeNAS-9.10-STABLE train.

Version: FreeNAS-9.10.2-U1
Changelog:
None

That's not exactly an inducement to update. Is this some kind of mis-configuration in my system (I've done nothing I'm aware of between detailed listings and these), or did the notification changelogs change in format?

I've been having big problems with my Plex jail failing to restart after the past few FreeNAS updates (different problem featuring the dreaded JSON error), so updating my system these days needs to be for a good reason. The above notification is a bit short on rationale to move me to action.

So - are my notifications just being truncated somewhere before I see them (the above is emailed to me by my server following automated update checks), or are the changes no longer being appended to the notification upstream?

 

[dlavigne]

This happens occasionally and, from what I've heard, occurs when there's a connectivity issue to the update server. An example is at https://bugs.freenas.org/issues/19835.

If you can ping the update server listed in this screen: http://doc.freenas.org/9.10/system.html#update-options-fig, please open a new bug (that references #19835) so the devs can pin down the cause.

 

[joeschmuck]

If your system is working fine then I'd not update it without reading the change log. You can go to the Latest Downloads (link at top of each forum page) and read the Change Log to see what did change before moving forward.

 

[feleven]

I don't generally update when I get these abbreviated update notifications, partly because I have no way of knowing if they're actually an update or just an update process glitch. The other reason is if you don't know what changed, you can't assess the risks or benefits of updating. That said, I typically updated when the change log was detailed, as the changes listed rarely affected my application of FreeNAS, and I don't like my system to become too outdated, partly out of concern for potential security issues. But I agree - you always have to weigh the risks of an update against the potential benefits, and look at them in the context of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

I hadn't seen that bug report, but it appears to be exactly what I'm seeing. Not sure how my initial search missed it - apologies to the forum.

I can browse to the update address http://update.ixsystems.com/FreeNAS, and I can ping the server IP in a formal manner:

Code:

iMac:~ xxx$ ping update.ixsystems.com
PING update.freenas.anycastcdn.net (216.66.43.103): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 216.66.43.103: icmp_seq=0 ttl=58 time=64.001 ms
64 bytes from 216.66.43.103: icmp_seq=1 ttl=58 time=63.284 ms
64 bytes from 216.66.43.103: icmp_seq=2 ttl=58 time=63.010 ms
64 bytes from 216.66.43.103: icmp_seq=3 ttl=58 time=62.701 ms
64 bytes from 216.66.43.103: icmp_seq=4 ttl=58 time=63.253 ms
64 bytes from 216.66.43.103: icmp_seq=5 ttl=58 time=63.939 ms
64 bytes from 216.66.43.103: icmp_seq=6 ttl=58 time=63.646 ms
--- update.freenas.anycastcdn.net ping statistics ---
7 packets transmitted, 7 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 62.701/63.405/64.001/0.445 ms

The http address above is the same address shown in my System -> Update -> Update Server text field, so at least it appears my FreeNAS update process is attempting to access the updates properly. I'll submit a ticket against that previous bug report as you suggest.

[ Edit: FWIW - ticket entered as #20485 ]

Thanks!
Rod