AMA - Software Upgrade on Catalyst 9000 Series Switches

[Brooke Hammer]

Ask Me Anything Event

Welcome to the Cisco Community Ask Me Anything conversation. Submit your questions from  Monday, November 4, 2024 through Friday, November 15, 2024. Our colleagues Rohit Chopra, Vaibhav Aggarwal, Anuraag Majumdar, Saquib Zeya, Akash Chatterjee, and Poojan Nandoria 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 9000 Switch Upgrades!

What is it?

The Cisco Catalyst 9000 family of switches are Cisco’s lead fixed, modular and compact enterprise access, aggregation and core switching platform. They are built to transform your network to handle a hybrid world where the workplace is anywhere, endpoints could be anything, and applications are hosted all over the place.

The Catalyst 9000 family, including the new Catalyst 9000X models, continue to shape the future with ongoing innovation that helps you reimagine connections, reinforce security, and redefine the experience for your hybrid workforce big and small.

• Install & Bundle Modes: Bundle mode is the traditional method of upgrading a Catalyst Switch. You boot a .bin file that contains everything you need to run the Cisco IOS. As per traditional Cisco IOS, you have a boot statement that points to the .bin file you want to load and that gets loaded at the time of boot. The Install mode is the newer and recommended mode to run. This breaks the .bin file up into smaller .pkg files that must be loaded into memory independently of each other, and allows you to boot faster and utilize memory better. The .bin file that you download from software.cisco.com has all the .pkg files you need inside. 

• ISSU Upgrade: In-Service Software Upgrade (ISSU) is a procedure to upgrade a Switch image to a later release while the network continues to forward packets. ISSU helps network administrators avoid a network outage in a critical environment (Ex - Hospital) while performing a software upgrade.

• Auto-Upgrade: Auto-Upgrade allows the Active supervisor to upgrade the Standby supervisor regardless of what image is loaded onto the standby (bundle/install/etc). However, you have to boot the standby into some valid image in order for the process to start. 

Official Resources:

Upgrading a Stack of Catalyst 9200 Switches in Install Mode

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ee87CLHPYKQ&list=PLfeWBHdC6yGsvdsMrGU8QTrzwUO69UqmH&index=2

Upgrading Catalyst 9600 Quad-Supervisor StackWise Virtual Setup with ISSU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRO8WFAtvwA&list=PLfeWBHdC6yGsvdsMrGU8QTrzwUO69UqmH&index=1

IOS Recommendation and Download for Catalyst 9K Platforms

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwxFJfP31RM&list=PLfeWBHdC6yGsvdsMrGU8QTrzwUO69UqmH&index=3

Upgrade a Standalone Catalyst 9300 switch in Install Mode

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtKVKAz7yoA&t=274s

Upgrade Cat9K with ISSU

https://youtube.com/watch?v=icE4d6knSS8

C9600 - Auto-Upgrade Procedure

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL25qh1PJrE&t=130s

Standalone Catalyst 9000 Switch: Convert from Bundle Mode to Install Mode

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH_jxo9XJ4A

Upgrade Guide for Catalyst 9000 Switches

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/switches/catalyst-9300-series-switches/216231-upgrade-guide-for-cisco-catalyst-9000-sw.html

Join us for this insightful Ask Me Anything session and gain valuable insights into the world of Cisco Catalyst 9000 series switches upgrades. Let's uncover the solutions to your challenges and explore the vast possibilities in this dynamic field.

Note: Please post your post as a comment below no later than November 15, 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

Rohit Chopra Senior Leader with Enterprise Networking TAC

Vaibhav Aggarwal People Leader with Enterprise Networking TAC

Anuraag Majumdar Technical Consulting Engineer

Saquib Zeya Technical Consulting Engineer

Akash Chatterjee Technical Consulting Engineer

Poojan Nandoria Technical Consulting Engineer

For more information, visit the Cisco Switching 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.

[akchatte]

In addition to the above, you can check the "Caveats" section of the specific Release Notes of the IOS to check for open/resolved bugs.

For example, if you want to know what bugs are fixed/affected in 17.9.3, you can check the below :

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/lan/catalyst9300/software/release/17-9/release_notes/ol-17-9-9300/caveats.html

[Nitesh Patel]

ok thanks.

[andyyu1]

I am considering using the Cisco Meraki Catalyst 9300L-48PF-4X. Is it possible to physically connect it with equipment from other manufacturers, such as the SG350, SG200 switches, UniFi UCK G2 Plus, and the UAP-AC-HD WiFi 5 AP?

[anurmaju]

Hi @andyyu1, Thanks for your question. I believe the SG350 & SG200 are Cisco Business Series Switches. Nevertheless, you can definitely physically connect the 9300L-48PF-4X with other Cisco and 3rd party devices. However any interoperability situations such as link negotiation issues, might need to be looked at on a one-to-one basis. Please feel free to reach out to TAC if you have such issues, and we'll help to isolate.

[Krishnamoorti]

I have a stack of two C9200 switches. 

Can I upgrade the stand-by switch first then do a failover and upgrade the active switch ?

[sazeya]

Hi Krishnamoorti,

When upgrading a stack of two C9200 switches, you cannot upgrade the standby switch first and then perform a failover to upgrade the active switch. The upgrade process for a stack typically involves upgrading the entire stack at once. The switches in a stack operate as a single logical unit, and they must run the same software version to ensure seamless communication and operation. Upgrading only the standby switch would result in version mismatch, causing potential operational issues and instability.

Please find the procedure to upgrade a Catalyst 9200 switch in the link below.

Upgrading Catalyst 9200 switches:

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/switches/catalyst-9200-series-switches/222282-upgrading-catalyst-9200-switches.html

[Krishnamoorti]

Thanks for the explanation. 

[Blair C]

With the old command:

"request platform software package install switch all file flash:cat9k_iosxe.17.09.04a.SPA.bin"

We were able to perform the install, then later schedule a reboot, with the reboot command. So that we could reboot the switch to finish the install out of hours so as not to affect core hours for our users. This was an easy and simple process and didn't require manually messing around with files. This works great for 9300 switches as they can still use the old command. However cannot do this with 9400 switches as they require the new command.


With the new install command:

"install add file bootflash:cat9k_iosxe.17.09.04a.SPA.bin activate commit"

Once you go through the process, when it asks to reboot and you say "no", if you then try to schedule a reboot for later, once it reboots, it does not load with the new IOS. This would require us to manually install it ourselves out of hours and reboot there and then by entering "yes" so that it reload and updates. The only way to schedule a reboot later is to perform the solution in the post below:

Solved: Install add command for later reboot - Cisco Community

Which requires manually manipulating the packages.conf files.


Is there any easier way of running the "install add file <file> activate commit" command and being able to schedule a reboot later without manually changing the "packages.conf" files?

[anurmaju]

Hi @Blair C , I understand what you're trying to say. The "request platform ..." CLI has been deprecated and we suggest using the "install add file..." command in the future.

Coming back to your question, with the new command "install add file..", it asks for the Reload question after the file "ADD". If we select No to reload, then the file "ACTIVATE" and "COMMIT" doesn't happen. Hence, only the new IOS .pkg files get created in the flash, and a new .conf file gets created, but the "packages.conf" still points to the old IOS.

So, I'm afraid we need to perform the "install add file..." and the reload during the same window.

[chintanpandya4040]

As per Cisco documentation in the install mode upgrade it is mentioned to copy the IOS to the active switch. will it cause any issues if I copy the IOS to all the switches in the stack?

[Blair C]

The IOS needs to be copied to all switches in the stack. Otherwise when you run the install for the switch stack, it will error out showing it was unable to unpack from the switch which is missing the IOS file.

So before performing an upgrade, make sure the IOS file has been copied to each switch in the stack.

[pnandori]

Hello Blair,

Copying the IOS file to all the switches in the stack is compulsory if the upgrade is performed via bundle mode.

In install mode, the IOS file will be copied automatically from the Active Switch to all the remaining switches in the stack.

[pnandori]

In INSTALL Mode, you only need to copy the IOS to the Active Switch of the Stack. The first step when you start the INSTALL Mode upgrade is for the Switch to automatically copy the IOS to the Standby and the Member Switches. See below :

Switch# install add file flash:cat9k_iosxe.17.12.01.SPA.bin activate commit

install_add_activate_commit: START Wed Jul 24 10:15:02 PDT 2023

install_add: START Wed Jul 24 10:15:02 PDT 2023

install_add: Adding IMG

--- Starting initial file syncing ---

Copying flash:cat9k_iosxe.17.12.01.SPA.bin from Switch 1 to Switch 1 2

Info: Finished copying to the selected Switch

Finished initial file syncing

So, the INSTALL Mode takes care of copying the file to the remaining Switches.

However, if you have copied the .bin file to all the Switches in the Stack, then no need to worry. It's just that the above step in the upgrade process will be skipped by the Switch.

Note : The above is only applicable to INSTALL Mode upgrades.

[chintanpandya4040]

ok Got it!

[ayaz4kiit]

Is there any difference when Catalyst 9000 switches are running in Bundle mode versus Install mode?