IOS Upgrades

stevenjwilliams83

Has anyone used NCM to upgrade IOS versions on multiple switches? How difficult is this? What if the current IOS versions out there are various versions? What if you have to remove the current IOS to copy the new IOS onto the flash due to space restrictions?

tattersfield

I had the same issue with a lot of Cisco devices.  What I ended up doing is writing a script for each Cisco device type, so if you have an older device I found erase flash worked better than format flash in instances where space is an issue.  Since you have various image versions you will most likely want to use TFTP instead of SCP until you have everything running with a version of SCP available.  In older Cisco devices which use database for VLAN configs instead of the startup config you will want to copy and replace the VLAN database back.  Depending on what you have your timeout commands set at in Orion you may need to have the system wait some time before moving to the next command.  I added "! waiting" to the script for this purpose.  I have an example below:

copy flash:/vlan.dat tftp:

${Orion Poller IP Address}

${SysName}_vlan.dat

!

copy flash:/config.text tftp:

${Orion Poller IP Address}

${SysName}_config.text

!

!

erase flash:

Y

! Waiting 1.00

! Waiting 1.25

! Waiting 1.50

! Waiting 1.75

! Waiting 2.00

! Waiting 2.25

! Waiting 2.50

! Waiting 2.75

! Waiting 3.00

! Waiting 3.25

! Waiting 3.50

! Waiting 3.75

! Waiting 4.00

! Waiting 4.25

! Waiting 4.50

! Waiting 4.75

! Waiting 5.00

! Waiting 5.25

! Waiting 5.50

! Waiting 5.75

! Waiting 6.00

! Waiting 6.25

! Waiting 6.50

! Waiting 6.75

! Waiting 7.00

! Waiting 7.25

! Waiting 7.50

! Waiting 7.75

! Waiting 8.00

! Waiting 8.25

! Waiting 8.50

! Waiting 8.75

! Waiting 9.00

! Waiting 9.25

! Waiting 9.50

! Waiting 9.75

! Waiting 10.00

! Waiting 10.25

! Waiting 10.50

! Waiting 10.75

! Waiting 11.00

! Waiting 11.25

! Waiting 11.50

! Waiting 11.75

! Waiting 12.00

! Waiting 12.25

! Waiting 12.50

! Waiting 12.75

! Waiting 13.00

! Waiting 13.25

! Waiting 13.50

! Waiting 13.75

! Waiting 14.00

! Waiting 14.25

! Waiting 14.50

! Waiting 14.75

! Waiting 15.00

! Waiting 15.25

! Waiting 15.50

! Waiting 15.75

! Waiting 16.00

! Waiting 16.25

! Waiting 16.50

! Waiting 16.75

! Waiting 17.00

! Waiting 17.25

! Waiting 17.50

! Waiting 17.75

! Waiting 18.00

! Waiting 18.25

! Waiting 18.50

! Waiting 18.75

! Waiting 19.00

! Waiting 19.25

! Waiting 19.50

! Waiting 19.75

! Waiting 20.00

!

!

copy running-config startup-config

startup-config

!

!

copy tftp: flash:

${Orion Poller IP Address}

${SysName}_vlan.dat

flash:/vlan.dat

!

copy tftp: flash:

${Orion Poller IP Address}

${Cisco Image File}

${Cisco Image File}

!

configure terminal

!

!

boot system flash:/${Cisco Image File}

boot config-file flash:/config.text

!

!

end

!

!

!

copy running-config startup-config

startup-config

!

exit

and then just reload when your ready.  I normally use the reload at command and set a specified time and date but you would need to make sure you have NTP correctly configured.

Hope this helps.