IOS upgrade on 4510

[jcroft]

I am currently running 12.2 (53) and am looking to move up to the 15+ train. Are there any pre-reqs prior to the upgrade that any one is aware of?Unfortunately I have no "lab environment" to test it in. I have production switches with minimal impact to the campus and if done late night I could have it restored back before open of business the following morning. My FW is up to the latest version and I have found nothing in the release notes specifically stating that there would require any stepped upgrades up to v15 and higher. Thanks for any feed back,

[acampbell]

Hi,

Read the release notes.

Make sure your in board memory (flash & DRAM) meets the minmum requirements
for the new v15 IOS.

Copy the the existing IOS off the switch to your tftp server
in case you need to replace the hardware (worst case).

Save a copy of the running config on to your laptop/pc
or NMS workstation.

Copy your new IOS to the flash.

Change boot statement.

Copy run start

Reload out of hours in maintainance window.

Monitor, check and test.

Regards,
Alex.
Please rate useful posts.

[Leo Laohoo]

I agree with Alex.  Here's what I would do.

1.  Read the Release Notes of the version you want.  Understand the OPEN caveats so you will be able to determine if these are of any relevance to your network.

2.  Verify that your chassis is capable of supporting the IOS.  Things to look out for is the DRAM and Flash sizes.  Also look at the line cards to see if the IOS you are going to still support all of your line cards.

3.  When you download the IOS to your TFTP server (and before uploading the file to your switch), verify the MD5 hash and make sure the values are a match.

4.  Ok, so you have a 4500, so this means that you can store the IOS file into the bootflash and the external flash storage.

5.  If there's room in the bootflash for both the new and old IOS, DO NOT delete the old one.  Change the boot variable statement (and make sure it's correct) so that when reboot occurs, the new IOS is rebooted.  But also add a second statement so that IF (and only IF) the new IOS fails to boot, the second (and old) gets read by the appliance.

6.  Talk to all the stakeholders.  Let them know what you are doing, when you are doing this, and how long willl it take (estimate 20 minutes) and what will happen if you have to fall back to the old IOS (see #5).

7.  Read the Release Notes.

[jcroft]

Thanks for the replies. I totally understand the upgrade procedure as I have done it may times. I just haven't made a version jump like this before and I know in some previous instances upgrading 2 or 3 version levels you had to install incremental version upgrades before jumping the the latest. I can't find any indication that this is the case and my firmware is at the latest and greatest so I'll try it on a  minimal impacted switch and see how it goes.

[glen.grant]

It should tell you in the V 15 notes release of any dependencies about upgrading the IOS or rommon. 

[jcroft]

I've read them and found nothing requiring incremental upgrades. I just like to throw it out on the forums because sometimes we end users find some of Cisco's "undocumented" features and they are slow to publish them sometimes.

[vincehgov]

I hear that.  Im running cat4500-entservicesk9-mz.150-2.SG4.bin right now on a 4510R without any issues.  I think I upgraded from 12.2(55).. I'm not sure.

Vince