3650 Switch Upgrade Query

[BHconsultants88]

Hi guys

New to the switching world, just had a quick query about upgrading IOS on a Cisco 3650. Ideally I'm looking to put together a script in Solarwinds to do it remotely as there are a number of devices that need upgrading and I'm looking at ways at being more time effective.

Has anyone tried this before, if so, could you give me any pointers as to what I should put in the Solarwinds script?

Thanks in advance.

[Marvin Rhoads]

3850 upgrades are multi-step. First we install the software and then we reload the switch (or switch stack).

I generally put the image on an ftp server and use the following to first stage and install the software all in one command:

software install file ftp://user:pass@<ftp server IP>/<image name  - .bin file> on-reboot

After completion of above a simple reload command will suffice to complete the upgrade:

reload

[BHconsultants88]

Thanks for the quick reply, will give this a go.

[Leo Laohoo]

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@BHconsultants88 wrote:

Ideally I'm looking to put together a script in Solarwinds to do it remotely as there are a number of devices that need upgrading and I'm looking at ways at being more time effective.

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Exactly, "how many" switches or stacks are we talking about here? 

Automating an IOS upgrade, particularly 3650/3850, is a pretty bad idea. 

I regularly upgrade switches, about 600-900, and I never use automated scripts.  I want to be there to catch the error messages if an upgrade fails.  Automated script doesn't care what the end result is.  The command is to do a bundle mode or install mode.  That's it.  Whether or not the process was successful is difficult to determine until the switch or stack fails to boot up.  

Do realize that I push the IOS to the switches during business hours and schedule the reboot at 6 am in the morning.  So far, this process has been successful and I haven't "lost" any.  

[BHconsultants88]

Thanks for your input, I'll be looking at upgrading around 40 per week for the next 6 weeks. I'll take the approach you've described but was just curious whether I could save time using scripts (despite the hazards you've mentioned)