IOS Upgrade for WS-C4510R+E with dual Supervisor (WS-X45-SUP8-E)

Alan.A · ‎05-02-2021

Is the sequence below will work for single chassis of 4510R+E with dual supervisor ?

Copy the new rommon into the Active supervisor.
Copy the new rommon into the Secondary supervisor.
Verify the MD5 hash of the new rommon in the Active and Secondary supervisor
Copy the new IOS Image into the Active supervisor.
Copy the new IOS Image into the Secondary supervisor.
Verify the MD5 hash of the new IOS image in the Active and Secondary supervisor
Remove the existing boot variable string and configure the following boot system, in order as shown

boot system flash bootflash: NEW_ROMMON_FILENAME;

boot system flash bootflash:NEW_IOS_FILENAME.bin

boot system flash bootflash:CURRENT_IOS_FILENAME.bin

Make sure the config-registry is set correctly to 0x2102
wr mem and reboot the entire chassis by issuing “redundancy reload shelf”
after reboot delete the boot variable string for rommon and delete the rommon file in the flash.

Leo Laohoo · ‎05-02-2021

Looks good.

Alan.A · ‎05-02-2021

Hi Leo, If I follow the below procedure wherein ROMMON Upgrade first and then reload the entire chassis for the IOS upgrade it will have lesser downtime?

ROMMON UPGRADE

1. Copy the new rommon into the Active supervisor.
2. Copy the new rommon into the Secondary supervisor.
3. Verify the MD5 hash of the new rommon in the Active and Secondary supervisor
4. Remove the existing boot variable string and Configure the following boot system, in order as shown.
boot system flash bootflash: NEW_ROMMON_FILENAME
boot system flash bootflash:CURRENT_IOS_FILENAME.bin
5. Make sure the config-registry is set correctly to 0x2102
6. Issue the "reload" command, this will cause the active SUP1 to reboot and force a sup-switchover
note: before issue reload make sure that it is "Standby hot" and "Duplex"
7. When the SUP1 comeback check the ROMMON upgrade by issuing "show module", then wait for SSO to be "Standby hot"
8. Reload again to reboot SUP2, this will make the SUP1 to become the active again.
9. Once completed, both rommon are running the latest version.

IOS UPGRADE

1. Copy the new IOS Image into the Active supervisor.
2. Copy the new IOS Image into the Secondary supervisor.
3. Verify the MD5 hash of the new IOS image in the Active and Secondary supervisor
4. Remove the existing boot variable string and Configure the following boot system, in order as shown
boot system flash bootflash:NEW_IOS_FILENAME.bin
boot system flash bootflash:CURRENT_IOS_FILENAME.bin
5. Make sure the config-registry is set correctly to 0x2102
6. wr mem and reboot the entire chassis by issuing “redundancy reload shelf”

Reza Sharifi · ‎05-02-2021

Hi,

You may have to expand the binary image after the MD5 verification, and depending on the version you may not be able to do it without downtime.

I recommend doing this type of work in a maintenance window as we saw different issues with every chassis upgrade. Here is a sample:

#########################

### EXPAND BINARY IMAGE TO PACKAGES.CONF #######################################################################################
software expand file bootflash:new IOS
################################################################################################################################

### SET BOOTVAR ################################################################################################################
config t
no boot system
boot system flash bootflash:firmwareupgrade-151_1r_SG18.SPA
boot system flash bootflash:packages.conf
exit
write
!
################################################################################################################################

### VERIFY BOOTVAR #############################################################################################################
show bootvar
################################################################################################################################

### VERIFY CONFIG-REGISTER #####################################################################################################
show bootvar
show version
## If it isn’t 0x2102 go to global configuration mode and use the command
config t
config-register 0x2102
exit
write
!

### RELOAD #####################################################################################################################
redundancy reload shelf
################################################################################################################################

### PERFORM CHECKS #############################################################################################################
show module
show redundancy
show bootvar
show version

Alan.A · ‎05-02-2021

Hi Reza,

I will be doing all of my upgrades remotely via ssh in all of our 4500E chassis, If this is much safer I will follow this procedure(EXPAND BINARY IMAGE) for single chassis with single sups, single chassis dual sups and VSS with 4 Sups. Thank you.

********************************************************************
1. EXPAND BINARY IMAGE TO PACKAGES.CONF
software expand file bootflash:cat4500e-universalk9.SPA.03.11.03a.E.152-7.E3a.bin

2. SET BOOTVAR
config t
no boot system
boot system flash bootflash:firmwareupgrade-151_1r_SG18.SPA
boot system flash bootflash:packages.conf
exit
write

3. VERIFY BOOTVAR
show bootvar

4. VERIFY CONFIG-REGISTER
show bootvar
show version

5. If it isn’t 0x2102 go to global configuration mode and use the command
config t
config-register 0x2102
exit
write
6. RELOAD
redundancy reload shelf

7. PERFORM CHECKS
show module
show redundancy
show bootvar
show version
********************************************************************

Reza Sharifi · ‎05-02-2021

Hi Alan,

I will be doing all of my upgrades remotely via ssh in all of our 4500E chassis, If this is much safer I will follow this procedure(EXPAND BINARY IMAGE) for single chassis with single sups, single chassis dual sups and VSS with 4 Sups. Thank you.

I don't really recommend doing it using ssh, or if you are planning to do it via ssh, have someone at the site with console cable access in case something goes wrong. We upgraded 8 4510s all with 2 sup 8e and all with the same modules (8x 10/100/1000) in them and we saw a different issue with every box. The other thing I recommend is to do one switch to make sure your steps work as expected and if you encounter any issues before doing the rest. The nice thing is that you can do one reboot for both IOS and rommon upgrade.

HTH

Alan.A · ‎05-02-2021

I will try to test the procedure you provided in one of spare 4507R+E with single sup this week.

Leo Laohoo · ‎05-02-2021

ROMMON upgrade will always take time. It depends on what version but for a Catalyst 4k, it would take around 10 to 15 minutes.