New APIC OS upgrade via USB supported?

[vv0bbLeS]

Hello all,

I'm curious if anyone knows a way to upgrade a Cisco APIC via .iso on a USB drive, say if I got a new APIC in and I need to upgrade/downgrade its OS version before swapping it into the APIC cluster? Would be nice to be able to do this via USB and not have to run network cables to the new APIC. And unfortunately I'm not running 6.0 yet so the cluster can't auto-upgrade my new APIC to the proper version :- (

As I understand it, the APIC's will only recognize FAT or FAT32 file systems on a USB, and those file systems have an individual file size limit of 4GB. Since the APIC .iso file size is much larger than 4GB, I cannot use the FAT or FAT32 format on my USB. I've tried the exFAT file system also, but the APIC doesn't recognize it, even with an official Cisco-branded USB.

Does anyone know of a way to upgrade a Cisco APIC OS using a USB drive?

[a12288]

Recently, I replaced APIC M2 with M4, so I cabled CIMC to the new M4 and accomplished all the preps from there including APIC upgrade through CIMC. To me it's much convenient and reliable as I can perform almost all the works jobs remotely. If I used USB then I would have to be onsite and visited DC quite a few times. Just my 2 cents.

[vv0bbLeS]

@a12288 funny, that's the procedure I used as well :- )  I was just curious if it could also be done via USB, which could be useful in a Disaster scenario or other situations where network connectivity is slow or outright unavailable. Thanks!