# The Firmware Update

I flashed a switch at 10 PM to fix a minor bug,
and spent the next four hours with a console cable and a shrug.

The release notes were reassuring, three lines long and clear.
A memory leak in the SNMP daemon, fixed this year.

I did not read the section that was headed "Known Behavior."
I did not read it because I had already read the savior,

the summary at the top, which said the change was very small,
and small is the most dangerous word in any release at all.

The update reset the port configuration to the factory state.
Not all of it. Just the VLAN tags, which sealed my fate.

The switch came back up healthy. Every light was green and sound.
And every packet went to the wrong network all around.

Now here is the concession and it is one I feel:
"never update firmware" is advice with real appeal

and it is how you end up with a fleet nobody can patch,
running code with public advisories that nobody will catch.

Deferring is a decision with a cost that grows each year,
and the people who defer forever never write that down as clear.

Update. But update one, and watch it, and have the console near,
and never do the last one in the fleet the same career.

What gets you is not the switch. You will fix the switch tonight.
It is the config you will save afterward, believing it is right,

which now contains the factory defaults you never meant to keep,
overwriting the last good copy while you go to sleep.