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Switch Management and IOS Deployment

Otaku78
Level 1
Level 1

Hi all I have a question in regards to scripting IOS deployments. My organisation is currently at the 50+ device mark for total switches and routers but quickly growing. Until now I've been deploying IOS updates manually but I'm now looking to automate this to save myself the time spent on maintenance.

 

Should I look into purchasing management software to manage all the devices or should I simply use scripting to automate the task of IOS deployment? I kind of feel like we're not big enough to justify the purchase of management software and on the other hand I'm not sure scripts will automate me enough for the tasks I need to do such as check for interface errors and monitor alerts etc.

If anyone could please throw me some options to consider that would be much appreciated!

1 Accepted Solution

Accepted Solutions

Leo Laohoo
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame

@Otaku78 wrote:

I'm just looking to manage my time better will all my other duties and being a one man show. 


In my experience, pushing the IOS across 50+ switches takes about<30 minutes.  It takes another 5 minutes to schedule a reboot.  I

How OS Upgrade on Catalyst Switches 2900, 3500 and 3700 - Easy as Pi

 

View solution in original post

6 Replies 6

balaji.bandi
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame

Prime infrastructure will help you to do this one.

 

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Leo Laohoo
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame
1. "50+" routers and switches ain't large. It is very, very small.
2. Automating IOS upgrades is one big mistake. Reason: There is a lot at stake in making sure the right switch model gets the right switch IOS.
I regularly do software upgrade to about 1K routers and switches. I never use any "automation" and I've never seen a router or switch boot in ROMmon because of a failed IOS upgrade.

Thanks for the advice Leo that sounds like a huge overhead to do that for over a thousand devices. Agreed doing it manually mitigates any upgrade issues and I'm happy to hear what I'm currently doing isn't unreasonable.

I'm aware my organisation is tiny when it comes to infrastructure but I'm just looking to manage my time better will all my other duties and being a one man show. What would you suggest in terms of management for monitoring alarms/errors etc? Do you think deploying an SNMP manager would cover it?

haha, in my company also have ~3000 cisco IOS device but i've never upgrade automatic. Just upgrade many one by one, but i think automatic upgrade also good idea

Leo Laohoo
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame

@Otaku78 wrote:

I'm just looking to manage my time better will all my other duties and being a one man show. 


In my experience, pushing the IOS across 50+ switches takes about<30 minutes.  It takes another 5 minutes to schedule a reboot.  I

How OS Upgrade on Catalyst Switches 2900, 3500 and 3700 - Easy as Pi

 

This was the info I needed thank you! I now see what you mean. I've been manually copying over .bin files and not taking advantage of the .tar files using the archive command and syntax.

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