Updating IOS XE and ROMMON on Catalyst 4510R in VSS Quad Sup Engine

[Devinder Sharma]

Hi @Leo Laohoo and other experts,

https://community.cisco.com/t5/switching/updating-ios-xe-and-rommon-on-catalyst-4503e-in-vss-mode/td-p/4101073

I read this post relevant for a dual sup scenario. I am looking for some directions on a set up of two 4510R chassis in a quad sup 9E that has been running 3.6.3E software. This should have been upgraded to 3.8 or later to really support this configuration. So it has chassis 1 sup slot 3 active and all other three in rommon and if chassis 1 were to fail (like power related issues), then chassis 2 will not become active and manual intervention is needed to boot from rommon.

After a UPS issues, the chassis 2 Sup engine in slot 3 corrupted its image as well and line cards went down. I need to update IOS to recommended 3.8.10 or better and thus also upgrade first the boot loader to newer version as well. Since there are 4 sup engines involved, it could take a while, so I will probably request for two separate maintenance windows. One to do the boot loader upgrade and then second for the IOS image upgrade.

In this situation, for chassis 2, can I use usb stick to boot from the new bootloader (like SG12) so that it will then install boot loader into both sup blades and then follow the same process into chassis 1 with active sup in it? I am not sure if management port in the non loaded Sup engines can be used to tftp the images into.

It will be great if you can revise your step by step procedure for dual sup to quad sup configurations for benefit of many others who might be in such situations.

Thanks so much

[Leo Laohoo]

Before we go anywhere, post the complete output to the command "sh boot".

[Devinder Sharma]

Thanks Leo for looking into this. Here is the requested output.

CORE-SW#sh bootvar

BOOT variable = bootflash:cat4500es8-universalk9.SPA.03.06.03.E.152-2.E3.bin,12;

CONFIG_FILE variable does not exist

BOOTLDR variable does not exist

Configuration register is 0x2102

Standby BOOT variable = bootflash:cat4500es8-universalk9.SPA.03.06.03.E.152-2.E3.bin,12;

Standby CONFIG_FILE variable does not exist

Standby BOOTLDR variable does not exist

Standby Configuration register is 0x2102

Thanks

[Leo Laohoo]

Hmmmm ... Can I see the output to the following commands: 

1. dir
2. dir slavebootflash:

[Devinder Sharma]

Thanks again Leo for your help. I will ask customer to get me this information and post it as soon as I get it.

I have done updates on traditional VSS with one sup in each chassis and in that case, I can tftp the image into bootflash and slavebootflash and then reload the shelf to cause both to boot at same time and all works then. But this one is really a non-functional quad sup setup (dont know why Cisco pushed to sell at that time to this customer in 2016 when software was not really ready for a long time after that). When they had this issue, I then looked into and advised them that this is unsupported configuration unless we upgrade the IOS. So currently with 3 sups in rommon if we reboot (and then one in second chassis manually booted to make the VSS work), there is no easy way to transfer the image (into the two sups that are in rommon, unless I can detect a generic SD card under rommon, which I might, using dev keyword to find out and then boot thru a new boot loader and later from SD card, copy new image from SD card into bootflash).

One of the sup blade in chassis 2 (slot 3) does not show any image available to boot from.

[Devinder Sharma]

Hi Leo,

Here is the show outputs requested by you:

CORE-SW#dir

Directory of bootflash:/

8114  drwx        4096  May 29 2015 23:11:39 -04:00  virtual-instance

8115  drwx        4096  May 29 2015 23:11:39 -04:00  vman_fdb

8116  drwx        4096  May 29 2015 23:11:39 -04:00  virtual-instance-stby-sync

8118  -rw-        8801  Jul 28 2015 10:47:07 -04:00  startup-config.converted_vs-20150728-144707

40561  drwx        4096  Jul 27 2015 08:30:36 -04:00  onep

8120  -rw-        8802  Jul 28 2015 04:24:42 -04:00  startup-config.converted_vs-20150728-082442

8121  -rw-        8802  Jul 28 2015 04:33:36 -04:00  startup-config.saved_vs-20150728-083336

8122  -rw-        8939  Jul 28 2015 07:28:07 -04:00  startup-config.converted_vs-20150728-112807

8123  -rw-       14707  Jul 28 2015 08:53:39 -04:00  startup-config.saved_vs-20150728-125339

8124  -rw-       10121  Jul 28 2015 09:12:20 -04:00  startup-config.converted_vs-20150728-131220

8125  -rw-        8801  Jul 28 2015 10:54:28 -04:00  startup-config.saved_vs-20150728-145428

8126  -rw-   199321572  Sep 20 2015 00:04:15 -04:00  cat4500es8-universalk9.SPA.03.06.03.E.152-2.E3.bin

1700155392 bytes total (1497845760 bytes free)

CORE-SW#dir slavebootflash:

Directory of slavebootflash:/

56786  drwx        4096  May 30 2015 00:42:53 -04:00  virtual-instance

56787  drwx        4096  May 30 2015 00:42:53 -04:00  vman_fdb

56788  drwx        4096  May 30 2015 00:42:53 -04:00  virtual-instance-stby-sync

56790  drwx        4096  May 30 2015 00:43:32 -04:00  onep

56792  -rw-   199321572  Sep 20 2015 03:17:49 -04:00  cat4500es8-universalk9.SPA.03.06.03.E.152-2.E3.bin

56793  -rw-   199144208  Jul 27 2015 09:00:41 -04:00  cat4500es8-universalk9.SPA.03.06.02.E.152-2.E2.bin

56794  -rw-        8792  Jul 28 2015 05:04:49 -04:00  startup-config.converted_vs-20150728-090449

56795  -rw-       10057  Jul 28 2015 10:16:13 -04:00  startup-config.converted_vs-20150728-141613

1700155392 bytes total (1298567168 bytes free)

[Leo Laohoo]

Not sure why the Secondary boot into ROMMON.  

I do not see anything wrong with the firmware file -- The file size look the same so this eliminates corrupt files.  
The boot variable string is 0x2102 and points to the correct file.  

No way to determine until someone has connected a console cable to the Secondary and reboot the line card.  

[Devinder Sharma]

Well the reason secondary (or in fact all other three) boot into rommon is as clearly documented in Cisco that this is how Quad Sup configuration will work in 3.4 or 3.6. All I am trying to find is some advice and confirmation from your wider experience is some answers to my questions on how best to move the boot loader and IOS image into these cards while they are in rommon. Should I use USB stick or SD Card, if they get detected under rommon, and then burn these images into.

[Leo Laohoo]

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@Devinder Sharma wrote:

Should I use USB stick or SD Card, if they get detected under rommon, and then burn these images into.

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USB or SD will work if you can find one that is compatible.  

[Devinder Sharma]

And yes and that too if USB or Sd card will in fact be detected while in rommon. I will see when I can get to site to test this. I will come back to this in few weeks. Thanks for your help and support on this.