Catalyst 3850-24XS-S initial configuration help

[insccisco]

Folks, couple concerns regarding this new switch we recently purchased...

-Do you upgrade the firmware here the same way as you do with the lower end catalyst switches?

-if we will only use this for a single network, in our case for iSCS traffic, can we skip the fact of creating VLANs?

thank you in advanced

bigcat

[seanvaid · Accepted solution]

For upgrading:

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/lan/catalyst3850/software/release/16-6/release_notes/ol-16-6-3850.html#pgfId-1110759

The vlanning depends on how your network will be set up. If this is essentially an isolated storage switch, then no, you can probably get away with a flat default vlan. 

[insccisco]

Hi Sean,

Thank you for the answer. I wanted to confirm this because, yes, the switch will be isolated completely.

So essentially what is done is just connect the devices to the ports and that is it, correct?.. without setting up any VLANs....

The switch only has an IP address configured on its Management port and that is all. The second thing we've done to the unit is to upgrade its firmware.

And the third and last, because we have 2 of them, we have connected both switches via their stack cables and the stack has successfully formed. This takes us to our next question, do we still not setup a VLAN an IP address for management? Or is it fine to only manage the stack via one of the switch's managements ports?

thank you in advance

bc

[Leo Laohoo · Accepted solution]

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@insccisco wrote:

-Do you upgrade the firmware here the same way as you do with the lower end catalyst switches?

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Not the same.  The 3650/3850/Sup8/Sup9 have a different process & commands to do a firmware update.  To make things more confusing, different versions have different commands.  The command to upgrade from 3.X is totally different to upgrading from 16.X. 

It is best to read the Release Notes for the full instructions.

[insccisco]

Thank you guys for the confirmation. I sort of suspected this and this is why I asked you guys... I read the release notes and this is a different ball game... it is NOT the same as upgrading a catalyst 2950!!