Catalyst 9200L stack Upgrade

[lightda]

Hi community,

I'm going to upgrade my customer's stacking switch, here's the info:
Switch members: 7
Switch version: 17.03.04b
Switch upgrading version: 17.09.05
Switch software mode: Bundle (Install mode is not under consideration)

I wonder what could I do to fix if this stack upgrade failed went into rommon.
Here's my solutions, please correct me if I'm wrong:

1. Disassemble stacking - Tried to upgrade one by one and assemble them back together.
2. Boot via USB - I've create a lab to verify it, it works fine, but only when there's one switch no multiple.

Is there any known solution to do this?

[balaji.bandi]

If we understand correctly, each stack has seven switches, and you would like to upgrade them using bundle mode.

Why only bundle mode? Cisco suggests that moving forward, all should be installed in the mode for each pkg management.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/lan/catalyst9200/software/release/17-9/release_notes/ol-17-9-9200/upgrading_the_switch_software.html

Install mode automatically upgrades the microcode, which is a good advantage here; however, some time may be required for the microcode to upgrade.

What was the error when you upgraded the bundle? Have you copied the image to all devices, changed the boot variable, written to it, and reloaded it? Does that work?

[lightda]

I suggests to my customer before but there's less timing for upgrade & bring the device back to work.

Why I'm asking this is because in my last upgrading situation with my co-worker, we've got only two 9300 switch in stack, it's in Bundle mode and my co-worker trying to upgrade it to Install mode.
He has only copied into one switch, but forgot to copy into the second one, and when he reboot the device, both of the switch went down into rommon.
This is my biggest worrying point, because I've got only about two hours to upgrade Four stacking switches, and these switches is FAB switch, so I would not like to take this risk on it.

[Leo Laohoo]

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@lightda wrote:
He has only copied into one switch, but forgot to copy into the second one, and when he reboot the device

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Copy the BIN file to the second member of the switch?  Nah, that's Bundle Mode.

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@lightda wrote:
both of the switch went down into rommon.

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The firmware could be corrupt, the boot variable string is incorrect,etc.  Many ways to FUBAR a firmware upgrade using Bundle Mode. 

Yesterday, I was given an hour's notice to upgrade 7 x stacks of 3850 & 9300 in Install Mode.  I was able to get all the stack members ready for the reload in 35 minutes.  And when the Change was approved, all I did was issue the "reload" command.  

[DanielP211 · Accepted solution]

You can use either bundle or install mode. I prefer install mode because the boot process is quicker.

So for your use case:
1. Copy the image to the stack, then copy inside the stack to all devices.

2. Check all devices if they have the image, to do this check with the command show bootflash-1: / sh bootflash-2: ... bootflash-7:
3. Change the boot command

4.  Check the show bootvar

5. Reload

If your devices go into rommon (it won't if you've done everything correctly). Insert the USB with the image and do the following:
1. inside te rommon dir to check if the device can access its bootflash

2. If it can access its flash type: boot bootflash:/cat9k_iosxeXXX.bin
3. If it cannot access the bootflash type: boot usbflash0:/cat9k_iosxeXXX.bin


BR

[DanielP211]

* To copy between devices inside the stack do:
copy bootflash-1:catXXXX.bin bootflash-2:

BR

[balaji.bandi]

I always suggest to use right commands to upgrade Bundle to Install mode

As i suggested install mode is good for future upgrade, follow always official document.