Catalyst 3650 software upgrade, problem with USB drive

Dimitri Balkhoven · ‎04-08-2015

Hello community,

Just being curious if there are more people that ran into the same problem as I did, when upgrading Catalyst 3650 switches using the USB port in the front of the switch.

Recently I needed to upgrade a lot of 3650 switches of different types (WS-C3650-24PD-L/WS-C3650-24TS-L/WS-C3650- 48PD-L) and noticed that sometimes the USB drive I inserted was not working properly. It didn't matter if I added the USB stick when booting the switch or when it was already up and running. Using the same USB stick in another switch worked just fine.

The problem didn't occur with every switch, however a high number of the total amount of switches I needed to upgrade were showing this behaviour. Rebooting the switch (up to 3 times, while mostly 1 time was enough) solved the problem.

The command I used to upgrade the switches :

software install file usbflash0:cat3k_caa-universalk9.SPA.03.03.05.SE.150-1.EZ5.bin

The following errors were displayed while the USB stick was inserted or when the upgrade was running :

%IOSXE-3-PLATFORM: 1 process kernel: usb 1-1: device descriptor read/64, error -145

%IOSXE-3-PLATFORM: 1 process kernel: Buffer I/O error on device sdb1, logical block 92

%IOSXE-3-PLATFORM: 1 process kernel: hub 2-0:1.0: unable to enumerate USB device on port 1

I am aware that upgrading the switch directly from the USB drive isn't described in the manual, but as it works I suppose that is not the problem. To me it seems that the USB port/software isn't initialized/booted correctly as the problem disappears when rebooting the switch.

Ofcourse I did some searches on Googles, read the release notes of the IOS XE software, checked the Open Caveats, ran the Error Interpretor on Cisco.com and did a Bug Search. Unfortunately I can't find anything about this strange behaviour.

So if there is anybody out here that ran into the same problem(s) I would like to know, do you have an explanation or solution for this ?

As I was not able to find anything about this in the release notes or Open Caveats I am not sure if Cisco knows about this.

Thanks in advance and if you have any questions or need more info, just let me know.

Dimitri

Leo Laohoo · ‎04-08-2015

%IOSXE-3-PLATFORM: 1 process kernel: usb 1-1: device descriptor read/64, error -145
%IOSXE-3-PLATFORM: 1 process kernel: Buffer I/O error on device sdb1, logical block 92
%IOSXE-3-PLATFORM: 1 process kernel: hub 2-0:1.0: unable to enumerate USB device on port 1

The error message tells me the USB flash drive used is not to the standard Cisco recognize or supports.

If you want to use USB flash drive, I'd recommend you try SEVERAL different brands and see if they are recognized by the switch.

Dimitri Balkhoven · ‎04-09-2015

Hi Leo,

Thanks for your reply.

We have tried several USB sticks (different brands, sizes etc) and they all had this problem from time to time. The funny thing is that when you reboot the switch, and use the same USB stick, it works fine ?

So I don't think it has to do with the USB stick itself, but is related to the switch, however I cannot find any info about that.

Regards,

Dimitri