- Introduction
- Prerequisites
- Software upgrade via vManage WebUI:
- Upload the image to the Repository
- Copy and Install the Image
- Activate the new Image
- Set Default Version
- Software upgrade via device CLI
- Prechecks Before Edge Upgrade
- Copy the Image to the Device
- Install the New Software
- Activate the New Software
- Verification
Introduction
We are going to go over the steps to upgrade our head-end device running Cisco IOS XE SD-WAN (in controller mode). We will cover the procedure using vManage WebUI and also the device CLI
Prerequisites
- Download the software image from https://software.cisco.com
Software upgrade via vManage WebUI:
We will go over step-by-step procedures to upgrade the Cisco IOS XE SD-WAN image.
Upload the image to the Repository
- Upload the image to the vManage software repository. Go to WebUI > Maintenance > Software Repository > Software Images > Add New Software
- on the pop-up window select vManage and continue by browsing the image or Drag and Drop the file
- Once you have the image browsed, click upload, and do not refresh or move to another pane on the vManage. let the upload of the file to vManage finish
- Once the image is copied to vManage, we will be able to see it from the repository directly and use that to upgrade our head-end device
Copy and Install the Image
- Copy the image to the device and install it by going to vManage WebUI > Maintenance > Software Upgrade > WAN Edge
- Select the device by clicking the checkbox > Upgrade
- On the window, select the newly downloaded image from the drop-down
- Once you select the correct image, click upgrade
- This process will copy the image to the device and also install it
Activate the new Image
- Copy the image to the device and install it by going to vManage WebUI > Maintenance > Software Upgrade > WAN Edge
- Select the device by clicking the checkbox > click Activate
- In the pop-up window, select the version that we want to activate on the device and click Activate
- The process will take a few minutes while the device activates the reloads the device
Set Default Version
Once the device boots up with the required image, we need to set the default version. This is important, as if the device reloads for whatever reason, it will boot up with the default version. Below are the steps on how we set that
- Copy the image to the device and install it by going to vManage WebUI > Maintenance > Software Upgrade > WAN Edge
- Select the device by clicking the checkbox > Set Default Version
- In the pop-up window, select the version we want to set as the default version and click "Set Default"
Software upgrade via device CLI
We will go over step-by-step procedures to upgrade the Cisco IOS XE SD-WAN image using the device CLI.
Prechecks Before Edge Upgrade
Caution: If these prechecks are skipped, the Edge upgrade can fail due to insufficient disk space.1. Verify the current version is the only one listed under the "show sdwan software" command and also configured as the default version
show sdwan software
VERSION ACTIVE DEFAULT PREVIOUS CONFIRMED TIMESTAMP
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17.08.01.0.1526 true false false auto 2023-06-02T16:48:45-00:00
17.06.03.0.1 false true true user 2023-03-02T19:16:09-00:002. If the version is not set as default, set the current version as default using below command
request platform software sdwan software set-default 17.08.01.0.1526 install_set_default : START Mon Jul 10 14:12:57 UTC 2023 install_set_default: version 17.08.01.0.1526
[1] R0 set_default : Set default version successful 3. If more versions are listed, remove any versions not active with the command request software remove <version>. This increases the space available to proceed with the upgrade.
request platform software sdwan software remove 17.06.03.0.14. Verify that there is only version under the output of "show sdwan software"
show sdwan software
VERSION ACTIVE DEFAULT PREVIOUS CONFIRMED TIMESTAMP
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17.08.01.0.1526 true true false auto 2023-06-02T16:48:45-00:00
Copy the Image to the Device
We have two options to copy/transfer the image to the device bootflash
- Using USB Drive
- Using FTP/TFTP server
Option1:
- Copy the image downloaded from Cisco.com to USB.
- Attach the UDB drive to the device
- From device CLI, execute “copy usb0:<image_name> bootflash:”
C8000v# copy usb0: bootflash:
Source filename []? c8000v-universalk9.17.09.03a.SPA.bin
Destination filename [c8000v-universalk9.17.09.03a.SPA.bin]?
Option2:
- Copy the downloaded image from Cisco.com to FTP/TFTP
- Verify you have reachability to the FTP/TFTP server
- From device CLI, execute “copy ftp:<image_name> bootflash:” or “copy tftp:<image_name> bootflash:”
C8000v#copy tftp: bootflash:
Address or name of remote host []? 10.1.1.1
Source filename []? c8000v-universalk9.17.09.03a.SPA.bin
Destination filename [c8000v-universalk9.17.09.03a.SPA.bin]?
Accessing tftp://10.1.1.1/c8000v-universalk9.17.09.03a.SPA.bin...
- Once the image is copied to the device, verify the image exists on the device bootflash using “dir bootflash:*bin”
C8000v# dir bootflash:*bin
Directory of bootflash:/*bin
22 -rw- 807748616 May 25 2023 22:09:54 +00:00 c8000v-universalk9.17.09.03a.SPA.bin
- Verify md5 of the image on the bootflash with the md5 on cisco.com. You can get md5 of the image on the bootflash by running “verify /md5 bootflash:<image_name>”
C8000v#verify /md5 bootflash:c8000v-universalk9.17.09.03a.SPA.bin
.....................................................................................................Done!
verify /md5 (bootflash:cc8000v-universalk9.17.09.03a.SPA.bin) = f75078a2d87f320c116b638787192063
Install the New Software
In this step, we will install the newly downloaded software. This will expand the image and have an install base ready.
-
We can install the image using “request platform software sdwan software install bootflash:<image_name>”
C8000v#request platform software sdwan software install bootflash:c8000v-universalk9.17.09.03a.SPA.bin
-
Once the image is installed, we could verify the same using “show sdwan software”
c8000v#show sdwan software
VERSION ACTIVE DEFAULT PREVIOUS CONFIRMED TIMESTAMP
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17.08.01.0.1526 true true false - 2021-09-06T03:32:34-00:00
17.09.03.01.3 false false false - 2023-05-25T22:32:28-00:00
- This should show us the version details of the newly installed image
Activate the New Software
After the software image has been installed, the next step is to activate the device with the new image:
- The command to activate the image is “request platform software sdwan software activate <version>”. The version tag here is the version information we saw from the output of “show sdwan software”.
C8000v#request platform software sdwan software activate 17.09.03.01.3
- When we activate the new image, the device will go through a reload and comes up with the new image.
- Once the router boots up with a new image, we have 15 mins (default timer) to confirm that this is the intended upgrade. If we fail to do so, the device reloads and reverts to a default image. We can confirm the upgrade using “request platform software sdwan software upgrade-confirm”
C8000v# request platform software sdwan software upgrade-confirm
- Once we do upgrade-confirm, we can perform basic checks that are needed and set the default version on the device using “request platform software sdwan software set-default <version>”
C8000v# request platform software sdwan software set-default 17.09.03.01.3
Verification
- Once the upgrade is down, we could verify the device has been upgraded using “show version” on the device CLI.
- Using vManage GUI > Maintenance > Software Upgrade > Search for the device and check for the current version on the device.
