Unable to update firmware through Cisco Business Dashboard

[austin-martinez]

I am running into an issue where attempting to update firmware for a switch through the Cisco Business Dashboard is failing. I have attempted to update the firmware through the job scheduler feature, and through the "Update Firmware" option from the device in the dashboard as well. Both tasks fail. Attached are screenshots from the failure. The current switch is a CBS350-24FP-4X V01 running on firmware version 3.3.0.16. From what I can tell, this is only one step behind current.

[Mark Fang]

This might be a known issue to occur only with firmware version 3.3.0.16.

As a workaround, please follow these steps:

1.Reload the device.
2.Retry the firmware upgrade.
3.When prompted, only select the firmware image file (image_cbs350_ros_3.4.0.17_release_cisco_signed.bin) and do not select the language file.

[austin-martinez]

Hello,

I attempted to schedule a Firmware update without the language pack. In the wizard, it allowed me to uncheck the boxes for the language pack and only have the firmware upgrade selected. When the firmware task began, it still attempted to upgrade the language pack regardless, and the firmware upgrade failed completely again. The errors and status are identical to the previous attempt.

[Mark Fang]

Thank you for the update.

The "Upgrade device firmware to latest" schedule profile always attempts to upgrade all image files, as it cannot predict which files are included in the latest firmware. 

I thought you can unselect the language files and click the upgrade button directly but if you need to schedule the upgrade outside of working hours, use the "Upgrade device firmware" schedule profile instead. This profile will allow you to upload and apply the firmware file directly. In the wizard dialog of "Upgrade Firmware to Latest" action that shows the file list, you can click the file name to download the firmware file.

Since previous attempt was unsuccessful, you will need to reboot your device first. This can also be done through a "Reboot device" schedule profile. Please ensure you leave enough time before the firmware upgrade task to allow the reboot to complete, with at least 10 minutes suggested.

[austin-martinez]

Hello,

If I use the scheduled action to update firmware by manually grabbing a file and uploading it, it seems to work. We would really want to have the option to "update firmware to latest" option, since one of the main reasons we want to use the Cisco Business Dashboard, is to be able to automate the updates and not have to still manually grab firmware files and upload it every time.

Thanks!

[Mark Fang]

I understand the importance of being able to automate firmware updates through the "Update Firmware to Latest" option in Cisco Business Dashboard. I wanted to inform you that this issue has been identified as a firmware-related problem specifically associated with version 3.3.0.16.

The good news is that this issue has been resolved in the subsequent firmware release, version 3.4.0.17.  Once you update your switch to version 3.4.0.17, future firmware updates should proceed smoothly using the "Update Firmware to Latest" option, without the need to manually upload firmware files.

[austin-martinez]

Hello,

In theory, if a switch is on a firmware version before 3.3.0.16, would the "Update firmware to latest" option work? Or is the feature essentially broken for any firmware that is not the current one?

Thanks!

[Mark Fang]

The conditions that trigger this problem are as follows:(all three conditions are met)

• The switch is running firmware version 3.3.0.16 or earlier.
• The latest firmware version includes language pack files (e.g., the current latest version 3.4.0.17 has language pack files).
• The switch is in direct managed mode or is being managed by an embedded Probe that resides in the same switch.

So, to answer your question, if the switch is on a firmware version before 3.3.0.16, it may still encounter this problem, depending on how the switch is managed by the Cisco Business Dashboard.

[austin-martinez]

Hello,

I am hoping for some clarification on your last two points. IS this stating that if a switch is running a CBD probe, that the CBD dashboard is unable to update the firmware with the "Update firmware to latest" schedule profile? Also, you mentioned that a trigger is a firmware version including language pack files, and that the latest version had them, so anytime a firmware decides to have language pack files, this process will also fail?

Thanks!

[Mark Fang]

Sorry for the confusion, to clarify, the issue will only occur if all three conditions are met

[austin-martinez]

Hello,

Thank you for that clarification. In your experience, are these roadblocks often encountered? I am trying to get a scope of the reliability of the "Update firmware to latest" function for our company. For some insight, most of the companies we support have at least one, sometimes two Cisco switches that run the embedded probe software. Our end goal is to have all, or nearly all switches update firmware automatically using the scheduled profile. Let me know if you have other questions that could help answer this.

Thanks!

[Mark Fang]

No, problems like these are rarely encountered.