I missed the last several updates apparently.

Is it okay to upgrade from 1.17 to 2.7 directly?

EXACTLY which switch? Most likely the answer is no. At least for some of the switches, the 2.x firmware goes with newer hardware and is not compatible. For example, I have two RB260GS switches. One is the "classic" RB260GS and the other is the newer CSS106-5G-1S. They look the same until you read the fine print on the label. The classic switch takes 1.x firmware and the new one takes 2.x firmware.