PCM+ and software updating

[Jason Scott]

How do you do it? I've gone over the (limited) documentation. Tried various settings of snmp communities and telnet passwords. The device is fully readable by PCM+ but the software updates never work and the failure message is vague at best.

I'm really disappointed with PCM+. It could be a great product but it feels like its half finished and still in early beta.

[Les Ligetfalvy]

I had probs with previous versions but 1.5 has been solid. That said, I still prefer the CLI.

[Jason Scott]

I like the CLI too, however the switches lack any form of scheduled reboot. If they had this I wouldn't worry about PCM.

We're running the latest PCM version and have managed to get traffic management working (not impressed with this either).

[Bjorn Tore Paulen]

I made a script in Expect running on Linux, that logs in to the switch and does whatever needs to be done (reboot etc.) I had to add an additional check in the end, because the switch all the time asks if I want to save the changes (even though none are made). Anybody know anything about that?

The script is very simple:

#!/usr/bin/expect -f

set ip $argv
set timeout -1
spawn telnet "$ip"
expect "Please Enter Login Name: "
send "*****\r"
expect "Please Enter Password: "
send "*****\r"
expect "> "
send "en\r"
expect "Password: "
send "*****\r"
expect "# "
send "reload\r"
expect "? "
send "y"
expect "? "
send "y"
sleep 1
close

[Jason Scott]

Ooh, that script looks interesting. Wish we had some linux boxes here. Is there a similar program for Windows?

[Bjorn Tore Paulen]

What about

http://expect.nist.gov/#windows


Oh, and I use 'at' to run the script at a given time;
at 04:00
hp_boot 10.0.4.2
^Z

[Les Ligetfalvy]

Back to your PCM+ problem...

Are you trying to get the "Software update wizard" working in the device view, or are you trying to do something under "Policies"?

If the wizard, how far... do you get the following?
Starting scan...
Success: 111.222.33.44
Refresh complete.

If not, what error do you get?

Like I said, 1.5 works flawlessly for me.

[Jason Scott]

I'm trying the software wizard. At first I couldn't get the scan to work. It would always timeout, but then I realised our TACACS+ logins were interfering.

Now it completes the scan, and I can finish the wizard. In the event logs of PCM it shows software update status as 'Updating' but after that I never see a complete or failed message. Logging into the switch shows the flash to still be the old version.

I have checked in the data/downloads directory and the correct software images are there.

[Les Ligetfalvy]

Take a look in the devie log viewer for telltale signs. If you reboot the switch, will it then take the update?

I found that if you just X out of a telnet session and do not do a proper logoff, much of the PCM+ utilities will not work since the swiches have a concurrent connection limit. You could console in and KILL the open sessions or let the reboot take care of it.

[Jason Scott]

Figured it out: I didn't have the ip authorised-manager command on the switch and without that the PCM server couldn't do the necessary changes.

I'm just looking through the policy stuff now for another matter: can you have PCM automatically change your passwords across the network?