tips on A/P upgrade from 8.0(5) to 8.2(5)

[rogelioalvez]

Hello team:

I was asked to upgrade a 5550 A/P cluster from 8.0(5) to 8.2(5). Unfortunatelly I do not have a spare cluster to practice, so I am asking for advice

According to the documentation, I may not skip a minor release upgrade, but zero downtime is not a customer target.

So here there are my questions:

1. ¿Can I just go from 8.0 to 8.2?

2. If (1) is OK, then I imagine that the procedure should be the following:

     2.0 Load new ASA image and compatible new ASDM image on both devices´ flash.

     2.1 Execute the "boot system ... " config command on the active unit (with the name of the new image on it).

     2.2 Execute "wr mem"

     2.3 Reload the standby unit to boot the new image by entering the following command on the active unit:     

     active# failover reload-standby

    and then keep on executing the rest of the (theoretical zero downtime) upgrade .

¿Could anyone please advice whether I am on the right track? 

Any hints will be greatly appreciated

Rogelio Alvez

Argentina

[mvsheik123 · Accepted solution]

Hi Rogelio,

Sometime last year, I did the similar upgrade (can't remember exact versions but without minor release upgrade). Eventhough, this is not Cisco recomended method of upgrade, it worked for me :).

After issuing 2.3, when the unit start to relod, I issued the 'reload' commend on primary. So that caused 'brief' outage. When both units came online- all good.

hth

MS

[rogelioalvez]

Thanks a lot for the input on this matter!

Best regards, Rogelio

[a.matahen · Accepted solution]

Hello Regelio,

Answering your questions:

1. Yes! You can go from 8.0 to 8.2 directly, software version 8.1 is only available for 5580 platforms.

2. Correct! this should be the right way to do it! a zero downtime can be achieved.

Good Luck!

AMatahen

[rogelioalvez]

Thank you very much for your answer! I will go that way then.

Best regards, Rogelio