Cisco IOS upgrade in depth

[whizkidraj]

Hello all,

Can anyone help me with IOS upgrade for Cisco switch and router.

1st case:- Upgrade IOS on switch.

What I should always have:-

I will have a laptop with the free tftp software on it.

I should have a straight-through ethernet cable, and free Putty software.

Scenario:- I reach the site and I have to upgrade a Cisco switch and a Cisco router (any model).

Let's upgrade the switch first.

I will insert one end of straight-through ethernet cable to laptop and 2nd end to switch.

So can anyone help me here with some image demonstrations to help me know which port of the switch I should connect the 2nd end of the ethernet cable to.

I am asking which port because if the switch is L2, then we would have to assign ip to vlan1, and this concept is related to SVI, right, and in SVI concept we insert the ethernet cable to the management port of the switch, right.

Please just guide me through further steps. I am not asking about the copy commands i.e backup or restore or upgrade commands, I am just asking about in-depth guide on how to connect the switch to my laptop so that I can transfer the files from tftp to switch and vice-versa.

If there's any video guide for this then that will be best, but I have searched the whole internet and no one provides such information from scratch or directly just do the commands on packet-tracer.

Also do post the same image/video tutorial for connecting laptop to router for ios upgrade (if you know any link).

Things like, how to know which interface I have connected the 2nd end of the ethernet cable to (for switch and router), and how to connect laptop to switch, and laptop to router.

Please just help me with that. Would really appreciate sincere help coz when I ask some people the same questions, they make jokes or just ignore that I am asking such a basic question, instead of helping me just once.

[Leo Laohoo]

Whao, whao, whao!
Back-up. Back all the way up!
What is the exact model of the router and switch?

[nlawrance · Accepted solution]

1)First download the IOS image from CISO site

2) copy that image to TFTP server folder and set the ip of the system in tftp server. IP should be the system ip. you can get it by 

IP config command through command prompt. 

3)create a vlan 

and give an ip address to that vlan interface

eg: interface  vlan 1

      ip address 192.168.2.2 255.255.255.0

      no shutdown

4)check ping is there between system and switch

you can connect cable to the Ethernet port of the system to switch interface assign . 

By default all switch port  will be in vlan 1 .if you are using vlan 1 no need of assigning interface to that vlan  .if you  created any vlan eg:(vlan 2 )you assign that vlan to a port.

eg: interface fastethernet 0/1

Switchport mode access 

switchport access vlan 2 

cables to connect

connect ethernet of pc to interface fastethernet0/1(eg). straight through is ok to connect.

Main point is you have to check if ping is there between your  tftp ip and vlan interface ip .

[whizkidraj · Accepted solution]

Spoiler

Thanks a lot, mate. I know most people find it silly to answer to such silly questions, but I don't have any physical device access so I want to be as sure when I get the chance to finally do this on a real equipment on my job and I do it with confidence and ease.

Thank you for answering to my silly question and taking out 5 to 10 precious minutes from your life to helping me with this basic work.

I have understood this now with confidence. Just one more doubt. Since we are giving vlan 1 the ip, this then becomes a concept related to SVI, right. In that, we connect the ethernet cable to management port of switch.

So for the IOS upgradation task, can I insert cable in any port or should I insert in the management port of the switch. And if I connect to the management port, will the management port be part of vlan 1 by default.

(Also, how to spot a management port in switch. What is it labeled as).

Thanks a lot again.

@nlawrance , @Leo Laohoo 

EDIT:- Alright, guys. I did this whole experiment in packet tracer i.e. add a laptop and switch and connect them via straight-through cable, and perform the ip configurations on laptop and the switch, and ping each other and it was a success. So I definitely know now how to do all this and practice all this directly in packet tracer itself to always keep the confidence as high.

I don't know how but suddenly something hit in my brain and I came up with this idea.

Thanks a lot again guys for your time on my silly post. It is job related and you might know that it's a task that we have to do a lot when we are new in this field so I wanted to know it all before the real world performance day.

[nlawrance · Accepted solution]

Please give the command

#show vlan

then you can see what all interface comes on that particular vlan number .Connect port to that any interface which you gave the ip address for that particular vlan number..I tried to give name mangent to vlan 1.but it didn't work . If u want to give management as name give any vlan number other than vlan 1,and assign that to any interface by command in the previous message. 

[nlawrance]

Thanks Whizkidraj, for your votes and marking as solution

 &

All THE BEST!!!!!

[whizkidraj]

Pleasure, my friend. And thanks to you again. :-) and @Leo Laohoo 

[Aijaz Rehman]

I will advise you to follow the below link for a step-by-step procedure on how to upgrade the iOS image for a Cisco SWITCH or ROUTER. Before proceeding with any configuration, make sure you have a copy of backup and  enough space on your switch/router to copy an image.

https://networklessons.com/cisco/ccna-routing-switching-icnd1-100-105/upgrade-cisco-ios-image