PLATFORM-1-CRASHED 2960S

[ksbolton1]

Hello, I've just had a switch show some peculiar behavior. The day began with the management SVI being seen as "lost" by the netflow collector which led us to believe the switch was down however users were working as expected with full network connectivity. We were just unable to access the switch via the SVI's IP address.

Upon accessing the switch locally, show logging resulted in what's seen below: (I've also attached the image in case the insertion below is too small)

After a reload, the SVI was reachable once again. I'm searching the Internet for the source of this but I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction. Why did this happen? 

[Leo Laohoo]

IOS version 12.2(46)SE is very, very old and this is version "0".  

I wouldn't bother diagnosing the cause of the crash but rather think about upgrading the IOS instead.

[ksbolton1]

Hello Leo! You assisted me with an IOS upgrade question some time ago (https://supportforums.cisco.com/discussion/13190231/best-practice-upgrading-ios).

I was in the process of going through the procurement of the correct IOS image for upgrade when I realized a little inconsistency between the features of my current 12.2 images and the proposed 15.0.2 image (highlighted in this question https://supportforums.cisco.com/discussion/13193136/ios-image-comparison-query). 

The image I had found seemed to lack important features so I had taken a step back to do further reading so I could better understand the IOS images. Now my switches have literally started to crash so they're forcing my hand. Could you help me to understand how I can find a 15 image for the 2960S platform that won't be short of features such as DHCP Snooping, Rapid PVST, etc?

[Leo Laohoo]

Compare the IOS using the Cisco Feature Navigator.

Normally, whatever features are found in 12.X can be found in 15.X (and more).

[ksbolton1]

Ah, yes. I did use the Feature Navigator and its results showed me that there were fairly important features unique to the the older 12.X image which I found very strange. I'll attach a snip of the .XLSX file I exported from Feature Navigator.

[Leo Laohoo]

You assisted me with an IOS upgrade question some time ago

In my presentation, I made special mention about the time it takes to do a micro-code upgrade (between 40 to 45 minutes) when upgrading to 15.X (and later). 

Were you able to witness this?

[ksbolton1]

No I hadn't, I had downloaded the presentation and read it a couple times. I may have missed this. I'll correct that mistake tonight.

[Leo Laohoo]

I had downloaded the presentation and read it a couple times.

It's not in the PPT but in the video.  

When upgrading from 12.2(58)SE (and older) to 15.X, during the reboot, the appliance will take (approximately) 40 to 45 minutes while the micro-code gets upgraded.  This is just a one-off.  Once the micro-code upgrade is complete the next succeeding reload will take the usual time of (between four to seven minutes).