Switch IOS-XE upgrades in Catalyst Centre on mass

[alexhunter]

Hello,

We have over 1000 managed Cisco switches on our estate, we manage them all via Cisco Catalyst Centre. At the moment we are struggling to pin down an efficient and streamlined process of upgrading them all to the latest IOS-XE version. We are currently running version 2.3.3.7 and plan to upgrade to version 2.3.5.5 very soon, although we are not sure if the upgrade will improve our process or if there is anything we can do in the interim until we upgrade to 2.3.5.5. These switches are spread across roughly 500+ sites.

I just wondered what other users experiences are with something similar and if you had any suggestions or ideas that could help.

Thanks.

[Preston Chilcote]

Hi @alexhunter ,

I can't tell from your post if you are aware of the SWIM workflow which is extremely popular for doing exactly what you're after: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDrCIAR8Scg

[bigevilbeard]

hey @alexhunter i have done a number of times with asa and xe/xr the best way was via automation using Ansiblecisco.dna.dnacentermodule or Pythondnacentersdk to query DNA Center API for device inventory and IP addresses with DNA Center as the inventory source, gather device data via API, dynamically create an inventory (for Ansible), write tasks for copying images, verifying checksums, setting boot variables, and reloading devices, execute the playbook or script, handle errors, test in staging, implement a rollback plan, manage dependencies, verify success, leverage DNA Center features, and secure credentials.

Remember to adapt to your environment, test thoroughly, and monitor performance for continuous improvement.

Hope this helps 

[alexhunter]

Thanks for the suggestions @Preston Chilcote @bigevilbeard I'll take a look into these.