Solved: IOS Upgrade for 4500X & 4948E

umer zubairi · ‎07-04-2017

Gents,

I've to upgrade the IOS of 4500X and 4948E switches but couldn't find the clear steps in Cisco's official documentations.

Versions selected to be used are:

(1) 4500X = 3.3.6E

(2) 4948E = 15.2.2E6

* Please note that I'd like to upgrade without ISSU as it sometimes causes issues on the catalyst series.

**Kindly, also let me know if the ROMMON is also required to be upgraded on both the nodes.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Leo Laohoo · ‎07-05-2017

Yes. Upgrade ROMmon to SG10 (or later).

The logic behind this is because in the future, someone will not have the "presence of mind" and will, most likely, neglect to read the Release Notes carefully. That person will attempt to upgrade the IOS and may not realize that the ROMmon needs to be upgraded beforehand. Doing the ROMmon sooner (rather than later) will save someone a certain degree of screaming.

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Leo Laohoo · ‎07-04-2017

Kindly, also let me know if the ROMMON is also required to be upgraded on both the nodes.

The Release Notes will specifically mention if ROMmon upgrade is required or not.

but couldn't find the clear steps in Cisco's official documentations.

Copy the IOS files into the appliances, change the boot string, save the config and then reload.

umer zubairi · ‎07-04-2017

Thanks for quick response Leo, I was actually thinking of you as I know you've good command on the Catalyst boxes.

It'd be great if you can share the CLI commands to be used for both 4500X and 4948E series switches. In Cisco documents it's given always for the ISSU option.

Iulian Vaideanu · ‎07-04-2017

I usually do this (let's assume I'm upgrading a 4500X from 03.04.07.SG to 03.04.08.SG):

- "sh run | i boot_system" would show me the currently configured boot image (if none, the first available would be used) - I'd get "boot system flash bootflash:/cat4500e-universalk9.SPA.03.04.07.SG.151-2.SG7.bin"

- "conf t", "no boot system flash bootflash:/cat4500e-universalk9.SPA.03.04.07.SG.151-2.SG7.bin", "boot system flash bootflash:/cat4500e-universalk9.SPA.03.04.07.SG.151-2.SG8.bin", "boot system flash bootflash:/cat4500e-universalk9.SPA.03.04.07.SG.151-2.SG7.bin" (I'm configuring the new image (which I've previously uploaded to bootflash: and md5-verified) as the preferred boot image, keeping the old one as a backup)

- ctlr-z, "wr mem"

- if everything's well for a while, deconfigure the boot system statement for the old image, and also delete the old image from bootflash: