Upgrade an FDM-Managed High Availability pair

Updated: July 14, 2026

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Learn how to upgrade an FDM-managed high availability pair in Security Cloud Control Firewall Management using Cisco or custom repository images, and monitor upgrade progress while maintaining HA operations.

Upgrade your HA pair without disrupting traffic; the standby device continues to handle traffic detection while the secondary device is upgraded.

When you upgrade an HA pair, Security Cloud Control Firewall Management executes an eligibility check and copies or identifies the image location before starting the upgrade. The secondary device in a high availability pair upgrades first, even if it is currently the active device; if the secondary device is the Security Cloud Control Firewall Management active device, the paired devices automatically switch roles for the upgrade process. Once the secondary devices successfully upgrade, the devices switch roles, then the new standby device upgrades. When the upgrade completes, the devices are automatically configured so the primary device is active and the secondary device is standby.

We do not recommend deploying to the HA pair during the upgrade process.

Before You Begin

Deploy all pending changes to the active device before upgrading.
Ensure there are no tasks running during the upgrade.
Both devices in the HA pair are healthy.
Confirm you are ready to upgrade; you cannot rollback to a previous version in Security Cloud Control Firewall Management.

Upgrade an FDM-Managed HA Pair with Images from Security Cloud Control's Repository

Use the following procedure to upgrade an FDM-managed HA pair using a software image that is stored in Security Cloud Control's repository:

Procedure

	1.	In the left pane, click Security Devices.
	2.	Click the Devices tab to locate your device.
	3.	Click the FTD tab.
	4.	Select the HA pair you want to upgrade.
	5.	In the Device Actions pane, click Upgrade.
	6.	In step 1, click Use Security Cloud Control Image Repository to select the software image you want to upgrade to, and click Continue. You are only presented with choices that are compatible with the device you can upgrade.
	7.	In step 2, confirm your choices and decide whether you only want to download the images to your device or copy the images, install them, and reboot the device.
	8.	Click Perform Upgrade when you are ready. From the Security Devices page, devices that are upgrading have a "Upgrade in Progress" configuration status. Warning If you decide to cancel the upgrade while it is in progress, click Abort Upgrade from the Upgrade page. If you cancel the upgrade after it has started, Security Cloud Control does not deploy or poll changes from the device and the device does not roll back to the previous configuration. This may cause the device to enter an unhealthy state. If you experience any issues during the upgrade process, contact Cisco TAC.
	9.	Alternatively, if you want Security Cloud Control to perform the upgrade later, select the Schedule Upgrade check box. Click the field to select a date and time in the future. When you are done, click the Schedule Upgrade button.
	10.	Look at the notifications tab for the progress of the bulk upgrade action. If you want more information about how the actions in the bulk upgrade job succeeded or failed, click the blue Review link and you will be directed to the Jobs page .
	11.	Upgrade the system databases. You must do this step in FDM. See "Updating System Databases" in Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Configuration Guide for Firepower Device Manager, Version 6.4 in for more information.

Upgrade an FDM-Managed HA Pair with Images from your own Repository

Use the following procedure to upgrade an FDM-managed HA pair using a URL protocol to locate a software image:

Procedure

	1.	In the left pane, click Security Devices.
	2.	Click the Devices tab to locate your device.
	3.	Click the FTD tab.
	4.	Select the HA pair you want to upgrade.
	5.	In the Device Actions pane, click Upgrade.
	6.	In step 1, click Specify Image URL to select the software image you want to upgrade to, and click Continue. You are only presented with choices that are compatible with the device you can upgrade.
	7.	In step 2, confirm your choices and decide whether you only want to download the images to your device or copy the images, install them, and reboot the device.
	8.	Click Perform Upgrade when you are ready. From the Security Devices page, devices that are upgrading have a "Upgrade in Progress" configuration status. Warning If you decide to cancel the upgrade while it is in progress, click Abort Upgrade from the Upgrade page. If you cancel the upgrade after it has started, Security Cloud Control does not deploy or poll changes from the device and the device does not roll back to the previous configuration. This may cause the device to enter an unhealthy state. If you experience any issues during the upgrade process, contact Cisco TAC.
	9.	Alternatively, if you want Security Cloud Control to perform the upgrade later, select the Schedule Upgrade check box. Click the field to select a date and time in the future. When you are done, click the Schedule Upgrade button.
	10.	Look at the notifications tab for the progress of the bulk upgrade action. If you want more information about how the actions in the bulk upgrade job succeeded or failed, click the blue Review link and you will be directed to the Jobs page .
	11.	Upgrade the system databases. You must do this step in Firewall Device Manager. See "Updating System Databases" in Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Configuration Guide for Firepower Device Manager, Version 6.4 for more information.

Monitor the Upgrade Process

You can view the progress of your single device by selecting that device on the Security Devices page and clicking the upgrade button. Security Cloud Control takes you to the Device Upgrade page for that device.

During the upgrade, the system suspends HA while updating system libraries, which includes an automatic deployment, and may not be in a healthy state for the entirety of the upgrade process. This is expected. The device is available for SSH connections during the last part of this process, so if you log in shortly after applying an upgrade, you might see HA in suspended status. If the system experiences issues during the upgrade process and the HA pair appears to be suspended, manually resume HA from the Firewall Device Manager console of the active device.

Note

If the upgrade fails at any point, Security Cloud Control displays a message. Security Cloud Control does not automatically restart the upgrade process.

Warning

Upgrading devices that have self-signed certificates may experience issues; see New Certificate Detected for more information.

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