Software upgrade procedures on the routers from different vendors - Part 1

Sometimes it's quite challenging to do the upgrade from one software to another, especially on the boxes with more than one routing engines/processors. In today's post I want to briefly describe upgrade of the Cisco 7600 series router with the dual RSP-s onboard. In the next parts of this post I will write more details about upgrade of CRS-1, Juniper MX960 and Nexus 7K in a more or less moderate and challenging environment.

CISCO IOS upgrade procedures on C7600-s with dual RSP-s

Cisco IOS upgrade to 12.2(33) SRE8 on 7609s series router:

What are parts and modules our experimental router consists from :

c7600#show module

Mod Ports Card Type                              Model              Serial No.
--- ----- -------------------------------------- ------------------ -----------
  1    2  7600 ES+                               7600-ES+2TG3CXL    JAExxxxxxx
  2    2  7600 ES+                               7600-ES+2TG3CXL    JAExxxxxxx
  5    2  Route Switch Processor 720 (Active)    RSP720-3CXL-GE     JAExxxxxxx
  6    2  Route Switch Processor 720 (Hot)       RSP720-3CXL-GE     JAExxxxxxx

Redundancy configuration:

c7600#show run | s redundancy
redundancy
 main-cpu
  auto-sync running-config
 mode sso

SSO=Stateful Switchover, so in case of ACTIVE RSP failure all the controls will be passed to already synchronized STANDBY RSP.

First of all let’s check free space:

c7600#dir sup-bootdisk:

Directory of sup-bootdisk:/

    1  -rw-    41584640   Jun 6 2012 04:27:10 +04:00  c7600-fpd-pkg.122-33.SRE6.pkg

    2  -rw-   148235172   Jun 6 2012 04:34:14 +04:00  c7600rsp72043-advipservicesk9-mz.122-33.SRE6.bin

…….

518791168 bytes total (104996864 bytes free)

c7600#dir slavesup-bootdisk:

Directory of slavesup-bootdisk:/

    1  -rw-    41584640   Jun 6 2012 04:26:26 +04:00  c7600-fpd-pkg.122-33.SRE6.pkg

    2  -rw-   148235172   Jun 6 2012 04:36:08 +04:00  c7600rsp72043-advipservicesk9-mz.122-33.SRE6.bin

…….

518791168 bytes total (98148352 bytes free)

As found 12.2 (33) SRE6 is currently saved on RSP-s and free space is available.  Let’s download new software and copy to router.

Copy procedure :

IOS:

c7600#copy ftp://10.10.10.11/c7600rsp72043-advipservicesk9-mz.122-33.SRE8.bin sup-bootdisk:

c7600#copy ftp://10.10.10.11/c7600rsp72043-advipservicesk9-mz.122-33.SRE8.bin slavesup-bootdisk:

FPD (Field Package Devices)

c7600#copy ftp://10.10.10.11/c7600-fpd-pkg.122-33.SRE8.pkg sup-bootdisk:

c7600#copy ftp://10.10.10.11/c7600-fpd-pkg.122-33.SRE8.pkg slavesup-bootdisk:

Verify MD5:

C7600#verify sup-bootdisk:c7600rsp72043-advipservicesk9-mz.122-33.SRE8.bin

......................................................................................................................................

......................................................................................................................................

...............................................Done!

Embedded Hash   MD5 : 6D9D77FD4314B63463744E2F595600F3

Computed Hash   MD5 : 6D9D77FD4314B63463744E2F595600F3

CCO Hash        MD5 : 1DFC8CC23341B80B2D5ED750121E894D

Same operation for the image saved on second RSP:

C7600#verify slavesup-bootdisk:c7600rsp72043-advipservicesk9-mz.122-33.SRE8.bin

......................................................................................................................................

......................................................................................................................................

...............................................Done!

Embedded Hash   MD5 : 6D9D77FD4314B63463744E2F595600F3

Computed Hash   MD5 : 6D9D77FD4314B63463744E2F595600F3

CCO Hash        MD5 : 1DFC8CC23341B80B2D5ED750121E894D

Let’s check boot sequence :

C7600#show run | s boot

boot-start-marker

boot system bootdisk: c7600rsp72043-advipservicesk9-mz.122-33.SRE6.bin   <-primary boot image

boot system bootdisk:c7600rsp72043-advipservicesk9-mz.122-33.SRE5.bin    <-secondary boot image

boot-end-marker

Change boot sequence for the new image to be loaded first:

C7600#conf t

C7600(config)# no boot system bootdisk: c7600rsp72043-advipservicesk9-mz.122-33.SRE6.bin

C7600(config)# no boot system bootdisk:c7600rsp72043-advipservicesk9-mz.122-33.SRE5.bin

C7600(config)# boot system bootdisk: c7600rsp72043-advipservicesk9-mz.122-33.SRE8.bin

C7600(config)# boot system bootdisk:c7600rsp72043-advipservicesk9-mz.122-33.SRE6.bin

C7600(config)#end

C7600#wr

Final check before reload:

C7600#show boot

BOOT variable = bootdisk:c7600rsp72043-advipservicesk9-mz.122-33.SRE8.bin,12;bootdisk:c7600rsp72043-advipservicesk9-mz.122-33.SRE6.bin,12;

CONFIG_FILE variable does not exist

BOOTLDR variable does not exist

Configuration register is 0x2102

Standby BOOT variable = bootdisk:c7600rsp72043-advipservicesk9-mz.122-33.SRE8.bin,12;bootdisk:c7600rsp72043-advipservicesk9-mz.122-33.SRE6.bin,12;

Standby CONFIG_FILE variable =

Standby BOOTLDR variable =

Standby Configuration register is 0x2102

Pay attention for confreg to be 0x2102 if this is the first upgrade from the scratch! Otherwise router with the confreg 0x2101 will load the first found image.

For the new image to be activated router should be reloaded J

C7600#reload

Proceed with reload? [confirm]

Downtime during image load about 10-15 minutes for the 9 slot chassis, up to 20 minutes for the 7613.

ISSU for the 7600 chassis is not recommended at all, because in most cases such upgrade leads to stuck.

Check version after reload:

C7600#show version | i IOS

Cisco IOS Software, c7600rsp72043_rp Software (c7600rsp72043_rp-ADVIPSERVICESK9-M), Version 12.2(33)SRE8, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)

BOOTLDR: Cisco IOS Software, c7600rsp72043_rp Software (c7600rsp72043_rp-ADVIPSERVICESK9-M), Version 12.2(33)SRE8, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)

Enjoy new IOS image :)