IOS upgrade - pair of WS-C6509-E

[varlotbolt]

Hi all,
I got a pair of WS-C6509-E's and its time to upgrade their ios.

They have been up for 5 years, so i have some concerns if they will boot up after reboot - i would like to ask your opinion if any known bugs, or something i need to have my mind on before i reload them, and most of all, which stable version do you recommend ?

Both members are identical and running s72033-adventerprisek9-mz.122-33.SXI2a.bin.

Mod Ports Card Type                                                    Model             
--- ----- --------------------------------------                       ------------------
  1   16  CEF720 16 port 10GE                                WS-X6716-10GE     
  2    4  CEF720 4 port 10-Gigabit Ethernet             WS-X6704-10GE     
  3   48  CEF720 48 port 10/100/1000mb Ethernet  WS-X6748-GE-TX    
  5    2  Supervisor Engine 720 (Active)                    WS-SUP720-3B      
  6   48  CEF720 48 port 1000mb SFP                     WS-X6748-SFP      
  7   48  CEF720 48 port 1000mb SFP                     WS-X6748-SFP      
  9   48  CEF720 48 port 1000mb SFP                     WS-X6748-SFP      

   Hw        Fw                       Sw           
------ ------------ ------------ -------
  1.0   12.2(18r)S1       12.2(33)SXI2 
  2.2   12.2(14r)S5       12.2(33)SXI2 
  2.3   12.2(14r)S5       12.2(33)SXI2 
  4.5   8.1(3)                 12.2(33)SXI2 
  2.3   12.2(18r)S1       12.2(33)SXI2 
  1.5   12.2(14r)S5       12.2(33)SXI2 
  1.5 and 12.2(14r)S5  12.2(33)SXI2  --> other member has Hw 1.10 

Mod  Sub-Module                  Model                                       Hw     
---- --------------------------- ------------------ ----------- ------- -------
  1  Distributed Forwarding Card        WS-F6700-DFC3C      1.3   
  2  Centralized Forwarding Card       WS-F6700-CFC           2.0   
  3  Centralized Forwarding Card       WS-F6700-CFC           2.0   
  5  Policy Feature Card 3                  WS-F6K-PFC3B           2.2   
  5  MSFC3 Daughterboard                WS-SUP720                 2.4   
  6  Centralized Forwarding Card       WS-F6700-CFC           4.1   
  7  Centralized Forwarding Card       WS-F6700-CFC           2.0   
  9  Centralized Forwarding Card       WS-F6700-CFC           2.0   

Thank you very much.

[Leo Laohoo]

Read the Release Notes of the IOS you plan to go.  This will list what hardware/line cards are supported.  It will also help determine if there are any prerequisite (like ROMmon upgrade) before jumping to the version you're planning to go.

[varlotbolt]

Thank you Leo, anyone can help more please?

[Iulian Vaideanu]

If they were my switches I'd keep a spare SUP720 at hand, upgrade all SUP/MSFC/line-card ROMMONs and go for the Cisco-suggested 15.1.2-SY10, all in one reload - many people may not recommend it, but I've never had any problems doing this...  I can't comment on 15.1.2-SY10 stability though (we've only been using it on one 6500, for only three or four weeks).

One thing that can happen with old SUPs (happened to us with SUP720 and SUP32) is depleted on-board Li-ion batteries, which makes them loose their config and boot into ROMMON.

Another thing that can happen with SUP720 is this (happened to us with RSP720):

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/field-notices/637/fn63743.html