Unable to update firmware on Cisco SX10

[mattharmonltd]

I have an unusual issue with a Cisco SX10 unit. We purchased this unit, along with several others, as part of a small deployment. The units have since been re-deployed elsewhere and we are now trying to upgrade the firmware to our company-approved CE 8.3.2. all the other units have taken this upgrade and work well, but this unit has been giving us issues. No matter what we try, we have been unable to update the firmware. The current version of firmware states it is 8.0.0 pre-alpha1, and looks like some kind of developer build. I suspect this may have been used to certify a previous version of firmware.

Is there A way that I can upgrade this firmware to our company-approved version?

[Patrick Sparkman]

Can you try and upgrade to the next version available, CE8.1.1?
If you're unable to upgrade to any CE version, you can try to downgrade to TC7.3.12 and then attempt to upgrade to CE8 software. If none of the above work, recommend you contact TAC as they might have a software version that you can upgrade to as an intermediate step, or replace the endpoint if it's not possible to be upgraded at all.

[mattharmonltd]

Unfortunately I can't download other versions, as these units are no longer under contract. Part of the re-deployment was to update these devices and deploy before the contract ended. As we plan to roll out new systems site-wide in the next 12-18 months, the decision was made to remove legacy hardware from support contracts.

[Dominique CARLIER]

upgrade SX10 CE 8.3.3 to CE 8.3.4 unable

[mattharmonltd]

Not sure what you are trying to say here.

I have been unable to find a solution to this issue, i believe what I need to do is a low-level restore, that will wipe the memory and install firmware from an uploaded file. I haven't yet found a way to do this

[Wayne DeNardi]

Is there a second copy of firmware (perhaps an older release) installed on to the system as well as the CE8 alpha?  Are you able to switch between the two using the "systemtools selectsw" command?

[mattharmonltd]

Apologies for my very late reply, this was put on the back burner while we worked on some other systems.

I have checked, and it looks like there is only 1 software version:

systemtool selectsw
image2   - TC8.0.0 PreAlpha1 ebc0761 2014/11/10-16:25:05    [ACTIVE] [SELECTED]

OK

Is it possible to add an additional version? I would have expected there to be a version for image1

[Wayne DeNardi]

When you do an upgrade, as part of the process, it will remove any previously installed image in the opposite partition from what it is using, then install the new one there, then swap between the two.

If there is no image1, then it appears that a previous upgrade process has removed the old image1, but didn't install a new one properly (due to an incorrect file, or some other error).

The only way to get an image1 back is to perform an upgrade again, in which case. the new and active software will be in the image1 position and the old alpha will be in the image2 slot.  A second upgrade once at the newer software will then overwrite the image2 slot with a current version too.

Note: the current and recommended software release for a SX10 as at the date of this post is CE9.5.0.

If the unit still refuses to update, I'd try a factory reset of it, then try to upgrade again.  If that still doesn't work, your best bet would be to log a call with TAC and get it replaced via an RMA process.