How to upgrade a FF 5700 irf stack??

[erBabi1]

Hi to all,

I have 5 units in a irf-fabric stack of the Fiber Fabric 5700 model. I need upgrade the firmware and I have got some doubts.

When I make the upgrade, first I upgrade the Master, is this unit who propagates the new firmware version by the stack?? or I need upgrade each unit separately??

If the Master propagates the new firmware, the other units will be reloaded, this reload is sequentially or all units will be reloaded at the same time??

Someone can leave me some manual or document which explain this process.

Thanks in advance

Regards.

David.

[Oliver Wehrli · Accepted solution]

Hi David,

Upgrade procedures for the 5700 are discussed extensively in the Fundamentals Configuration guide:

http://h20566.www2.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?sp4ts.oid=7268889&docId=emr_na-c04406879

I would primarlily refer to the Fundamentals guide as it dicusses several approaches, hence you can select the one that suits your environment. On top of that, those approaches minimize the downtime and give you more control over the upgrade process.

If we talk ISSU, the procedure differs if you are upgrading to an ISSU (In-Service-Software-Upgrade) compatible version or an incompatible one.

With an ISSU-incompatible version you will face a temporary split-brain condition of the IRF stack as there cannot be different firmware versions in the same stack. Hence, from an operational perspective it is CRUCIAL that you have a MAD configuration in place (such as LACP or BFD MAD, refer to the IRF configuration guide for reference: http://h20566.www2.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?sp4ts.oid=7268889&docId=emr_na-c04565839)

Another procedure of a software upgrade in an IRF stack is outlined in the last part of the the Release Notes of each firmware release: http://h20564.www2.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=c04633232

In this procedure, you set the new firmware on the master switch as primary boot image, copy the firmware to all subordinates, enable auto-update (if previously disabled) and reboot the stack.

Hope this helps for now,

Regards,

Oliver

[erBabi1]

Hi,

thanks for your reply!!!

I only wanted to know, if the switches, will restart all at the same time, or if they restart sequentially.... If the switches restart sequentially, I'm able to do the upgrade when we had scheduled....

I'm new in the forum and I don't know where I have to post yet, I hope to learn early...

Thanks for all one more time....

Regards.

[Oliver Wehrli]

Very welcome but once again to be clear:

With an ISSU compatible version you can control the reboot process with this command:

issu commit chassis chassis-number

This will selectively reboot the individual stack member (indentified by the chassis number) and upgrade it to the new firmware without affecting the other stack members.

If you follow the procedure in the release notes you will reboot the whole stack and interrupt network connectivity.

Hence, follow one of the ISSU guidelines outlined in the fundamentals configuration guide instead. This will give you more control over your upgrade process.