IOS upgrade checks

Hello

Recently i’ve had to upgrade a large number of devices and the ios was quite new and therefore risky. We came up with some checks to make sure that post-upgrade the device will be usable.

Step 1:

I collect as much output as possible:

show vlan brief | redirect ftp://1.1.1.1/dewille/myriskycoreswitch/myriskycoreswitchshowcdpbefore.txt
show cdp nei | redirect ftp://1.1.1.1/dewille/myriskycoreswitch/myriskycoreswitchshowcdpbefore.txt
show int status | redirect ftp://1.1.1.1/dewille/myriskycoreswitch/myriskycoreswitchshowintstatusbefore.txt
show arp | redirect ftp://1.1.1.1/dewille/myriskycoreswitch/myriskycoreswitchshowarpbefore.txt
show module | redirect ftp://1.1.1.1/dewille/myriskycoreswitch/myriskycoreswitchshowmodulebefore.txt

show run | redirect ftp://1.1.1.1/dewille/myriskycoreswitch/myriskycoreswitchshowrunbefore.txt
show power inline | redirect ftp://1.1.1.1/dewille/myriskycoreswitch/myriskycoreswitchshowpowerinlinebefore.txt
show mac address-table | redirect ftp://1.1.1.1/dewille/myriskycoreswitch/myriskycoreswitchshowmacaddressbefore.txt
show etherchannel summary | redirect ftp://1.1.1.1/dewille/myriskycoreswitch/myriskycoreswitchshowetherbefore.txt

show int trunk | redirect ftp://1.1.1.1/dewille/myriskycoreswitch/myriskycoreswitchshowtrunkbefore.txt
show authentication sessions | redirect ftp://1.1.1.1/dewille/myriskycoreswitch/myriskycoreswitchshowdot1xbefore.txt

Step 2

I make sure there is enough room on the flash. If there is, I download the new image to the flash (or bootflash). If there isn’t, i delete the existing image.

Step 3

I verify the new image (verify /md5 flash:thenewimage.bin)

Step 4

I delete the old boot system variable (no boot system) and add the new boot system variable to point to the new .bin file.

Step 5

I make sure with the command show bootvar that config-register is 0x2102 so that the boot system variable is taken into account upon the reload

Step 6

I write the config (wr)

Step 7

I reload the switch and keep my fingers crossed

Step 8

When the device reloads, I check the log buffer, I collect all the output from show commands once again to have something to compare the pre-reload files with. Finally, I monitor the reloaded device for 24 hours to make sure it doesn’t crash.

 

And if it does crash… well.. it’s a different story entirely.