Updating IOS on 2 Nexus 9508 modular in VPC

[Electronic20]

Hi Community,

There are 2 Nexus 13UR modulars, model 9508 configured in VPC.

The IOS upgrade from 9.3(5) to 10.3(5) needs to be performed.

What would be the correct procedure for upgrading the IOS of said Nexus?

It is observed that 2 jumps will have to be made, is it advisable to do it in a single window?

Is it true that before installing the new IOS, I must shut down the physical ports of the portchannel, vpc keepalive and vpc peer-link, and when the new IOS loads, reactivate it again? Is it necessary to perform this procedure?

regard

Electronic20

[balaji.bandi]

Firstly nexus uses NEXUS OS (not IOS)

The IOS upgrade from 9.3(5) to 10.3(5) needs to be performed.

To reach target version you need to use the path :

recommended path: 9.3(5) → 9.3(14) → 10.2(8)M → 10.3(5)M 

https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/dcn/tools/nexus-9k3k-issu-matrix/index.html

What would be the correct procedure for upgrading the IOS of said Nexus?

Always read the release notes and check any caveats and config which effect your upgrade.

Is it true that before installing the new IOS, I must shut down the physical ports of the portchannel, vpc keepalive and vpc peer-link, and when the new IOS loads, reactivate it again? Is it necessary to perform this procedure?

Not sure how your network connected, as long as both are in vPC and end connected devices are dual homed and you are ok for the Upgrade, if any orphan ports then that will be downtime.

there no point to build vPC if you looking to break the vPC and upgrade, that is not intent of the design personally.

Some guide lines :

1. each upgrade take the configuration backup out of the box.

2. give enough time for the upgrade steps

3. always capture the logs in case if you hit issue can be review the logs.

[Electronic20]

HI @balaji.bandi 

Let me explain better, I had seen a procedure on 2 Nexus 7K in VPC, where Nexus1 (main) turned off the ports like portochannel, the ports related to keepalive, vpc the ports related to the vpc peer-link, then updated the IOS, once the IOS was loaded after the reboot, it raised all the ports again, and then did the same procedure for Nexus2 (backup).

That's why I had that doubt,

In my case there are 2 Nexus 9508 in VPC.

You will have a window of the whole day, where, first Nexus1 will turn off, clean its modular cards, power supplies, Nexus fan, then it will turn on and then the same with Nexus2

Nexus1 will be rebooted again for the IOS upgrade of the first hop, and the same will be done with Nexus2.

Finally, Nexus1 will be rebooted for the second-hop IOS upgrade, and the same will be done with Nexus2.

If you notice, there will be several 3 reboots for each Nexus in a single day. Is that recommended? Or is it normal to work that way?

regards

Electronic20

[balaji.bandi]

If you got a big downtime, you can what ever way you like since Services are down, Once all come back online you going to test all working expected.

I am more focusing on where there is no downtime provided (may be less) ... Sure i will give each upgrade lead time to stable before i go another upgrade, not constantly that will cause major issue, i know its big upgrade, since you missed upgrades between the versions. (so that is only option you have).

As long as all device are dual homed you should be ok here to upgrade.