Cisco 3650 upgrade failed in stack

[oscar.garcia88]

Hi,

I just want to upgrade a Catalyst 3650 from Cisco IOS XE Release 3.7.02E to Cisco IOS XE Gibraltar 16.12.05B but it shows an error like this % Operation timed out waiting for switch 2 to respond. Operation aborted.

Please help me to figure this out. Thanks in advance.

[Kasun Bandara]

try rebooting the switch 2.

https://community.cisco.com/t5/switching/3850-stack-member-unresponsive-the-software-clean-commmand/td-p/3988210

[oscar.garcia88]

Thanks I will take a look into it. Best regards!

[oscar.garcia88]

It shows %Failed to determine free memory on switch 2, operation aborted.

Does it mean that there is no available memory or I have to reload the switch 2 anyway?

[Leo Laohoo]

IMPORTANT: 

1. Are you really sure you want to upgrade from a very stable version (3.7.X) to a version/train that is highly unstable (16.12.X)?
2. If you still see the need to go to 16.12.X, read THIS first.

Post the complete output to the following commands: 

1. sh version
2. dir flash:

[oscar.garcia88]

Hi, that's because I faced this bug CSCuz57493, I encountered a high CPU utilization in one or more cores and the WA is to go to a higher version in the case I saw the 16.12.x is the recommended version. What do you think?

[Leo Laohoo]

Please share the reason(s) the need to upgrade to 16.12.X?

[oscar.garcia88]

Because of the high CPU utilization in all the switch stack, I noticed that I was faced a bug that hit this version. The WA is to upgrade to a newer version.

[oscar.garcia88]

Do you recommed to upgrade to older version than 16.12.x ? For example 03.07.05?

[Leo Laohoo]

---

@oscar.garcia88 wrote:

Do you recommed to upgrade to older version than 16.12.x ? For example 03.07.05?

---

Emphatically, yes.  Anything 3.X.X is light years better than 16.12.X.  

If you are seeing high CPU/memory with 3.X.X then it is worth troubleshooting at this level.  16.12.X is worst than 3.X.X where CPU hogs and memory leak is an "normal" thing and just about anything can trigger any one of the two (or both).  

Another option is to upgrade to the latest 16.3.X, 16.6.X or 16.9.X.  

[oscar.garcia88]

Thanks for your support. Do you have the steps to upgrade to 16.9.x??

[Leo Laohoo]

Cisco 3850: IOS-XE/Firmware Upgrade (Install Mode)

[oscar.garcia88]

Thanks!

I tried to upgrade but when I reloaded the switch 2 , it showed an output of insufficient space. I applied the software clean, but the image was deleted from the flash, so that I copied it again to the flash. Do you remmend to use software clean again in case of?

Whats de diference between software clean and software clean verbose?

Regards.

[Leo Laohoo]

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@oscar.garcia88 wrote:

Do you remmend to use software clean again in case of?

---

If I do not recommend then why would I bother putting that step into my document?  

I put it there because it is "non-negotiable".  IOS-XE behaves very different with plain IOS.   

In classic IOS, I can do the following in one line of command: 

• Unpack the IOS correctly 
• Unpack only the BIN file
• Delete the previous IOS
• Perform a file verification check to make sure the BIN file is not corrupt
• Change the boot variable string to point to the new IOS
• Reboot, if required, after the file(s) have been successfully unpacked. 
• And many more.

In IOS-XE, each of those dot items (above) are individual commands.  

Starting from 17.7.X, the list of commands will grow with the introduction of new and un-documented commands.