Software Upgrade

With the Software Upgrade page, you can perform software upgrades on all or selected cluster members.

Before performing the upgrade, you must:

Then you can upgrade the software.

Downloading the Files from CCO

To download a new version of switch software and the Cisco TFTP server application from CCO to your PC or UNIX station hard disk:

  1. Login to CCO by following the instructions in the Release Notes for the Catalyst 2900 Series XL and the Catalyst 3500 Series XL, Cisco IOS Release 11.2(8)SA6.
  2. Download the TFTP server application by following the instructions in CCO.
    Note: To ensure full technical support, Cisco Systems recommends using the TFTP server application (Version 1.1). Earlier versions of this application will not properly copy the files during the upgrade process.
  3. Download the tar file (combined IOS image and CVSM software HTML) by following the instructions in CCO.
    Note: The tar file contains the same software as the corresponding .bin and HTML files.
    For information about the image filenames, see the Release Notes for the Catalyst 2900 Series XL and the Catalyst 3500 Series XL, Cisco IOS Release 11.2(8)SA6.

Obtaining the TFTP Server IP Address

You need the IP address of the PC or UNIX station that is acting as the TFTP server.

Note: You can also obtain the IP address of your PC if it is running the Cisco TFTP server application. This application displays the IP address of the TFTP server on the title bar.

Upgrading the Software

The following procedure shows you how to upgrade from 11.2(8)SA6 to 11.2(8)SA6 (for example, from standard to Enterprise Edition Software) and from 11.2(8)SA6 to a later version of software. To perform this procedure:

  1. In the TFTP Server IP Address field, enter the IP address of your TFTP server.
    Note: Your TFTP server must be capable of handling multiple requests and sessions at the same time in order to perform group upgrades. If you are using Cisco's TFTP server application, which is capable of handling multiple requests and session, you must disable the Show File Transfer Progress and the Enable Logging options to avoid TFTP server crashes. To disable these options, select View > Options from the Cisco TFTP server menu bar and deselect these options.
  2. In the New IOS Image File Name field, enter the filename of the tar file that you downloaded from CCO (such as c2900XL-h2s-mz-112.8-SA6.tar or c3500XL-c3h2s-mz-112.8-SA6.tar).
    For information about the image filenames, see the Release Notes for the Catalyst 2900 Series XL and the Catalyst 3500 Series XL, Cisco IOS Release 11.2(8)SA6.
    Note: You can enter the path and filename in this field; you can precede the path with a single slash (/) or no slash. If you enter only the filename in this field, you must set up the path in the TFTP root directory of the TFTP server application.
  3. Select the Retain Current IOS Image File Names checkbox if you want to keep your existing file name from being replaced with the new IOS image file name.
    By default, this checkbox is deselected, and the image will be renamed with the new name.
  4. In the Available Cluster Members list box, select the cluster member to be upgraded, and click Add>>.
    Repeat this process until all members to be upgraded are displayed in the Selected Cluster Members list box.
    Note: You cannot upgrade 2900 XL and 3500 XL switches at the same time. You must separately group and upgrade 2900 XL switches with 4 MB of DRAM (model numbers WS-C2908-XL, WS-C2916M-XL, WS-C2924-XL, and WS-2924C-XL) from other switches and only upgrade them using the c2900XL-hs-mz-112.8-SA6.tar file.
    You can remove switches from the Selected Cluster Members list box by selecting the switch and clicking <<Remove.
  5. Click Upgrade to start the upgrade.
    If Flash memory does not have enough space for two images, the new image is copied over the existing one.
    If Flash memory has enough space, the new image is copied to the selected switches but does not replace the current running image. Only after the new image is completely downloaded is the old one erased. If you experience a failure during the copy process, you can still reboot your switch using the old image.
  6. Review the Software Upgrade Status Messages area to see the history of the upgrade process.
    The status messages tell you which devices successfully upgraded and which ones failed.
  7. If you have more switches to upgrade, repeat Steps 2 through 6.
  8. Click Reboot Cluster to reboot all switches in the cluster.
    All configuration changes are automatically saved to Flash memory. Then after a short delay, the new software image is loaded and run after rebooting.
    Note: You will lose connectivity to Cluster Manager when you reboot the cluster.