Cisco Catalyst 1000 Stack Firmware Upgrade Template (2-4 Members)

Question

Hello THWACK Community,

We have successfully tested firmware upgrades on standalone Cisco Catalyst 1000 switches using the C1000.xml firmware upgrade template available on THWACK.

However, while testing Cisco Catalyst 1000 stacks, we discovered that the firmware image is copied only to the active stack member. Since each stack member has its own local flash filesystem (flash1:, flash2:, flash3:, flash4:), the image must be present on every member before a reload is performed.

We also observed that firmware consistency across all stack members is critical for successful stack operation after a reboot, according cisco C1000 technology.

Our main questions are:

* Has anyone successfully implemented an NCM Firmware Upgrade Template for Cisco Catalyst 1000 stacks with 2, 3, or 4 members?
* How do you distribute the firmware image to all stack member flash filesystems?
* How do you perform MD5 verification on each stack member before the reload?
* Are you using separate templates for different stack sizes, or is there a more dynamic approach available?

Since Catalyst 1000 does not support the install workflow used on platforms such as Catalyst 9300/9500, firmware upgrades rely on traditional image copy and boot variable methods, making image distribution to all stack members particularly important.

Any examples, templates, best practices, or lessons learned would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your help.

SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted Advanced Enterprise Scale: 2025.2.1

Feature Request Reference: CUST-129877

PJC · Answer

Thanks for sharing your test results. What you’re seeing is consistent with the current C1000 template behavior: flash: addresses the active member, so the image is not automatically copied to or verified on flash1: through flash4:.

I’d use the community Cisco Catalyst 1000.xml template only as a starting point. For a stack, you’ll need a custom NCM script or template with explicit commands for each present member to copy the image, verify the file and MD5, then set the boot variable and reload according to Cisco’s procedure. NCM does not currently provide a supported, dynamic template that discovers 2-, 3-, or 4-member Catalyst 1000 stacks, so test any customization on a non-production stack first.

The NCM firmware upgrade template guide covers the standard macros and workflow, but not this stack-specific scenario.