Scribd
Upload
64 views10 pages

Cisco MDS Upgrade

Uploaded by

Shailesh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
64 views10 pages

Cisco MDS Upgrade

Uploaded by

Shailesh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 10

Skip to content

DavidRing.ie
Search for...Search
Home

 Dell EMC
o VxRail
o VxBlock
o Storage
o RecoverPoint
o Avamar

 VMware
o VMware Cloud Foundation
o vSAN
o vRealize Suite
o vSphere
o VVD

 About

Cisco MDS – Upgrading Firmware


UNCATEGORIZED
Cisco MDS – Upgrading Firmware
MDS 9000 Series Firmware Upgrade

It is always good practice to read the software ‘release notes’ before proceeding with an upgrade.
The ‘Cisco MDS 9000 NX-OS and SAN-OS Software’ release notes can be found here.

These are the steps I follow when upgrading:

1. Open an SSH session to the switch.


2. Take a backup of your configuration. Firstly ensure that your running configuration has been
applied to the startup-config:
copy running-config startup-config
Then backup your startup configuration. In this example we are backing up to an ftp server:
copy system:startup-config ftp://FTPserver_IP/startup-config.cfg

3. Ensure the switch is in a healthy state before proceeding:

If the MDS is a Director Level switch, then check the redundancy and module status:
show system redundancy status
show module

During the upgrade the standby supervisor is upgraded first. Once the upgrade has completed on
the standby then an automatic switchover occurs and the upgraded standby becomes primary while
the other supervisor is upgraded. The odd time I have experienced with a Director switch that the
supervisor does not switch back to the original primary after the code upgrade has completed. In this
scenario simply use these cmds to switch manually:
attach module #
system switchover (if running on standby)
4. Check the current firmware version:

5. Change directory to bootflash and upload the new bin files to the switch. This example uses an ftp
transfer:
copy ftp://user@IP_Address/m9100-s3ek9-kickstart-mz.5.2.8c.bin m9100-s3ek9-kickstart-
mz.5.2.8c.bin
copy ftp://user@IP_Address/m9100-s3ek9-mz.5.2.8c.bin m9100-s3ek9-mz.5.2.8c.bin
6. Ensure the code was uploaded to the bootflash directory successfully:

7. Determine if the upgrade will be non-disruptive:


show install all impact system bootflash:///m9100-s3ek9-mz.5.2.8c.bin
For a non-disruptive upgrade the switches are designed in such a way that the ports will remain
connected and traffic flow will continue non-disrupted throughout the upgrade. This is so because
the switch has been engineered in such a way that the control plane is separate to the data plane. In
the case of a director level switch the modules are upgraded and rebooted in a rolling fashion one at
a time non-disruptively(non-disruptively due to the separation of the control and data planes).

8. Check the MD5 and confirm the files validity:


show version image bootflash:///m9100-s3ek9-mz.5.2.8c.bin
show version image bootflash:///m9100-s3ek9-kickstart-mz.5.2.8c.bin

9. Check for any incompatibilities between the running and the upgrade code versions. This will
check for features that are currently running on the switch but are not supported on the upgrade
code level:
show incompatibility system bootflash:///m9500-sf2ek9-mz.5.2.8c.bin
10. Enter the following command to install the new firmware on the switch:
install all system m9100-s3ek9-mz.5.2.8c.bin kickstart m9100-s3ek9-kickstart-mz.5.2.8c.bin

11. Display the status of the upgrade:


‘show install all status’

12. Run ‘show version’ to ensure the switch is now running at the upgraded code level. As you can
see from the below example the ‘system version’ is still on the previous firmware level – a reload is
required to apply the upgrade. NOTE: A reload is disruptive to traffic flow (As pointed out
by @dynamoxxx below). This is not common and I have only identified this with the 9148 Switch
when upgrading from 5.0.x to 5.8.x.

After reload the system version should be at the upgraded version:

It is good practice to delete the old install files from the bootflash directory:
cd bootflash:
delete m9100-s3ek9-kickstart-mz.5.0.1a.bin
delete m9100-s3ek9-mz.5.0.1a.bin

SHARE THIS:
 Twitter

 LinkedIn

 Facebook

 Print
 Email

 WhatsApp

 Skype

RELATED
Cisco MDS – Clear All Zoning ConfigurationAugust 13, 2014In "CISCO MDS"

Cisco MDS – How To Remove Zones from an Active ZonesetMarch 22, 2014In "ACTIVE ZONESET"

Cisco Nexus 3064 – Configuring Jumbo FramesSeptember 2, 2015In "3064"

POSTED ON OCTOBER 3, 2014 POSTED IN UNCATEGORIZED TAGGED


#9000 , CISCO , CODE , FIRMWARE , MDS , UPGRADE
9 Comments »

1. dynamox
OCTOBER 3, 2014 AT 5:59 PM REPLY

reload after the upgrade (disruptive to FC traffic folks) ? Not a single MDS switch requires
reload ofter NX-OS upgrade unless you are downgrading. Also supervisors on directors
never go back to original active/standby state, you have to manually switch them over.

o Dave Ring
OCTOBER 4, 2014 AT 8:18 PM REPLY

As always @dynamoxxx thanks for your input. Post updated to reflect the disruptive nature
of reload.

2. ruban kumar
MAY 9, 2016 AT 8:39 PM REPLY

Very Useful.. Thanks Dave

3. ash
JULY 8, 2016 AT 7:46 PM REPLY

Good article. A query regarding upgrade process for a director class switch (9513), would I
have to copy the bin files to the standby sup as well?
o David Ring
JULY 24, 2016 AT 10:38 AM REPLY

Nope

4. AM
MARCH 27, 2017 AT 6:48 PM REPLY

great article. does MDS 9500 require incremental NXOS upgrade? or can i just go from
version 4.2(7e) to 7.3.1.DY.1?

5. dynamox (@dynamoxxx)
MARCH 27, 2017 AT 10:05 PM REPLY

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/datacenter/mds9000/sw/7_3/release_notes/
mds_nxos_rn_7_3.html#pgfId-1104892

6. Mohamed
MARCH 2, 2018 AT 8:33 AM REPLY

MDS 9513 requires reboot after NX-OS install from 5.2 to 6.2?

o quadforce
JULY 16, 2018 AT 1:28 AM REPLY

Nope! 5.2 to 6.2 is non-disruptive.

Leave a Reply

Post navigation
NEXT POST EMC NAS Plug-In For vSphere VAAI (VNXe Example)
PREVIOUS POST VMware PowerCLI – Adding RDM Disk’s
Search for...Search
Categories

 Uncategorized (176)
 VxRAIL (96)
 Storage (70)
 VCF (64)
 vRealize (28)

Tags

 VCF on VxRail (49)


 VxRAIL (49)
 EMC (37)
 VMAX (28)
 VMWARE (22)

Year

 2023 (6)
 2022 (24)
 2021 (17)
 2020 (34)
 2019 (36)

 Twitter

 LinkedIn

 WordPress
@DavidCRing
 RT @DellTechIreland: Check out today's @irishexaminer as @jeffatdell shares critical
insights on the importance of the #manufacturing secto… 2 weeks ago

Blogs I Follow
 Site Title
 Head In The Clouds
 Inside The (Vx)Rails
 FearDamhan
 LifeOfBrianOC
 Did You Bounce IT?
 https://cliffcahill.com
 Scamallach
 50mu - about storage
 Dell PowerFlex and PowerMax with VMware
 UCSguru.com

 Follow

You might also like

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy