Using Cisco Prime as a SCP, SFTP, FTP, TFTP server from Router/Switch CLI

[kapslock]

Greetings fellow Cisco colleagues!

I am not so familiar with Cisco Prime, however I want to take use of the image deployment that Cisco Prime has. 

1. I am trying to downgrade C9200-48P from version 17.x.x to 16.12.4 - however Prime won't distribute the image because it says "not recommended version" - can I force the distribution somehow anyways? As 16.12.4 is the current recommended. I believe Prime just checks for version numbers instead of checking Cisco Suggested image on software.cisco.com 

2. ROMMON images. How do I distribute a ROMMON upgrade image? I uploaded the ROMMON file to Prime, however when trying to distribute it, it does not show up?

3. Can I initiate FTP, TFTP from network devices towards Cisco Prime to solve question 1+2? Instead of Prime doing the initiation, to the network devices, a switch/router could initiate a copy.
For example:
#switch copy ftp://<prime_ip_addr>/ROMMON_FILE.PKG  flash:

Im running Prime 3.6

[marce1000 · Accepted solution]

 1) If there isn't any force-distribution flag , not possible and or in that case you have to do the downgrade-thing manually 

 2) Not possible : https://community.cisco.com/t5/network-management/how-do-i-upgrade-rommon-using-prime-infrastructure-3-1/td-p/3708361

 3) Not possible , in fact that would defy the  'total purpose' of Prime

 M.

[kapslock]

Thank you marce1000, for your valuable input.

Regarding to my third question, I mean, yes it would defy the purpose of Prime, but it seems that Prime is missing vital components to be a center of software mangement. Without the possibility to distribute a given software, because Prime just compares which version has the highest number, it really limits its use then. What if I have a bug and need to downgrade? It's not possible. I should be able to distribute any given image, and do the activation/unpacking manually then. Also being able to distribute ROMMON images would be nice, even if I have to do the activation/installation manually. Regarding network devices possibility of initiation towards Prime, has a great use case for me in this instance, I would not need to install a separate server, which just serves as a SCP, SFTP, FTP, TFTP server, why not have Prime doing it all?

Anyways, thank you for the input

[daquinla]

With respect to #3, you can use Prime as a general tftp server.  You can copy whatever file you want to distribute to Prime - the easiest way is to tftp the file to Prime. Then you can have the switches copy from Prime via tftp.  When doing this, the files will live on Prime in the /localdisk/tftp folder.  

HTH.

DQ

[kapslock]

Hi Daquinla,

What is the full path I need to specify to download this rommon image as an example from a router/switch.

copy ftp://user:pw@prime_ip/x/y/z/asr1000-rommon.169_4r_SPA.pkg bootflash: