AMA: Cisco Catalyst Center Software Image Management (SWIM)

[Brooke Hammer]

Ask Me Anything Event

Welcome to the Cisco Community Ask Me Anything conversation. Submit your questions from  Friday, June 21, 2024 through Friday, July 12, 2024. Our colleagues Saurabh Khillare, and Absar UI Farooq will be waiting to assist you and resolve any questions that have not been clarified, or answer any new questions that you may have. We are waiting for you!

More about this event:

Join us for an Ask Me Anything (AMA) event where you can dive deep into Cisco Catalyst Center Software Image Management (SWIM)!

What is it?• Cisco Catalyst Center inventory offers various automation capabilities. One of them is Software Image upgrades using Software Image Management (SWIM).
• Using SWIM users can upgrade, downgrade or SMU patch their network devices managed on Catalyst Center inventory. In matter of few clicks we can perform image upgrades on upto 100 devices in a go.
• We can distribute the golden image on device flash during production hours too and schedule activation at non business hours or in maintenance window.

Get Expert Advice!
• This AMA session is your chance to get expert insights on this powerful feature.
• Whether you're a seasoned network pro or just starting out, feel free to ask any questions you have about SWIM, image repository or Cisco Catalyst Center in general.

Official Resources:

• SWIM Documentation

• Youtube: SWIM

Note: Please post your post as a comment below no later than July 12, 2024.

Post your question below by clicking "Reply"

(Answers will be processed depending on the availability of the experts)
Don't forget to thank the expert by giving it a helpful vote!

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Our experts

Saurabh Khillare Technical Consulting Engineer

Absar Ul Farooq Technical Consulting Engineer

For more information, visit the Cisco Catalyst Center discussion forums . If you have questions or are experiencing technical problems with any of the Cisco products, post your question, request information or use the Cisco Community before opening a case with the TAC.

[auifaroo]

Legacy Cat2k devices have a limitation that requires the use of .TAR files for upgrading stack switches. You can manually import a .TAR file to DNAC and tag it as the golden image for a 2960 stack upgrade.

For other Catalyst devices, .bin images are supported.

[omsalem]

Hello Team, 
One of my customers doubts SWIM in C9800. The CatC doesn't show all the available software lists for the C9800 WLC in the image repository, although it shows everything for the switches.
They're integrating the CatC with Cisco.com for automatic sync. Still, only the recommended/installed version is showing in the repository, not the other published versions, and we don't want to download and import manually. 

[SaurabhKhillare]

When Catalyst center syncs the software images automatically from software central, it lists only the latest and suggested images on image repository. This applies for all network devices in its inventory. You would see Suggested, Latest to download or image running on device marked to be imported. Addition to these, you would also see the images which were downloaded or imported to image repository in the past. 

If you wish to upgrade a device to a non latest or suggested release, you would have to manually download and import to Image repository. 

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/cloud-systems-management/network-automation-and-management/dna-center/2-3-5/user_guide/b_cisco_dna_center_ug_2_3_5/b_cisco_dna_center_ug_2_3_5_chapter_0100.html#task_irz_ckj_mbb

[qianzha3]

Hi, team

For a device upgrade which uses SWIM in DNAC,
do we have some method to stop the progressing version up of SWIM ？

PS Because my customer found the SWIM upgrade is stuck in progress.
I did SWIM upgrade test, but can't find any button to stop it as long as it starts.

https://cdetsng.cisco.com/summary/#/defect/CSCwj69234

It says restart Restart RMQ can solve the stuck in Progress.

Could you help me to check above method can be a way to stop the upgrade progress of SWIM in DNAC?

except this, do we have other method to stop the upgrade progress of SWIM in DNAC?

thanks

[auifaroo]

Hi Qian,

We do not recommend restarting the service at this time. Currently, there is no option to stop the ongoing SWIM process. It will either succeed or fail, and in the event of a failure, it will provide the reason for it.

[jn.campbell]

How does SWIM handle daisy chained switches? ex: Core --> Distribution --> switch 1 --> switch 2

[SaurabhKhillare]

Hello,

Catalyst Center does not detect the chain. If you choose all 4 switches mentioned above and initiate SWIM upgrades, it is going to perform task on all 4 of them individually without considering the chain. 

[jn.campbell]

Is there a timeout on retries for activation? If I have a chain, Core --> Distribution --> switch 1 --> switch 2, and if DNAC upgrades the Core, the distribution, switch 1 and 2 will be unavailable until the Core is complete. How long will DNAC keep trying to activate the distribution, switch 1 and switch 2?

[tuniyal]

Team,
One of our partners has a client with a Catalyst center in a US data center managing sites globally. They're facing issues using the SWIM feature to upgrade switches in India, where image distribution takes over an hour, causing timeouts and errors. Both the partner and client need a solution to this problem. What recommendations can we offer to address this effectively?

[SaurabhKhillare]

Hello,

To overcome these kind of situations where geographical latency is causing issues in SWIM distribution, catalyst center offers a feature to add an external image distribution server. You can add this under System > Settings > Image distribution servers. Once added, under network settings, in network tab, add this image distribution server on the site where you would like it to be used. 

Since your CatC is in USA and distribution to India is failing due to latency, you can add an external image distribution server in India and add it in network settings for the sites which are going to use this server. Or you could deploy a server equidistant for all your locations and use this server Globally in network settings. 

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/cloud-systems-management/network-automation-and-management/dna-center/2-3-5/user_guide/b_cisco_dna_center_ug_2_3_5/b_cisco_dna_center_ug_2_3_5_chapter_0100.html#Cisco_Task_in_List_GUI.dita_7eba866d-99a2-4a7c-a509... 

[Nayabkhan]

Hello Experts,

I have a query related to SMU patch activation.

If we push SMU patches via SWIM please confirm if all the installed SMU patches will be activated or only latest patches will be activated.

As currently after upgradation I can see only latest patch is activated and rest are inactive.

[SaurabhKhillare]

Hello Nayab,

There are no limitations as such where only one patch SMU can be active at a time. Catalyst Center would Distribute and activate each SMU tagged as golden image on to the device. From the image, i can see that only 1 SMU was committed and 2 are still inactive. This could be an issue with Activation of the SMU on switch where the SWIM task either failed or had issues with it. 

To have a look into this incident, please raise a TAC case with CatC team and engineers will assist you in isolating the problem with its resolution. 

[aniket09]

Hello,

If I use TFTP server to push images to device flash, will it be possible to leverage swim feature of CatC to only initiate the upgrade of these devices?

[SaurabhKhillare]

Hello,

Yes, you would be able to trigger the upgrade via Catalyst center without doing distribution task. However, you would need to download the transferred image on CatC image repository and mark it as golden. Make sure it is the same image version on CatC. When you try to initiate SWIM upgrade, it will show distribution completed on the device and prompts for activation. 

[tjanarda]

Hello Team,

   is it possible to Pre-download the Image for APs before upgrading the WLC via DNAC?

Thanks in advance.!