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snob
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‎11-12-2011 10:25 PM - edited ‎11-12-2011 10:29 PM

‎11-12-2011 10:25 PM - edited ‎11-12-2011 10:29 PM

[A5500-EI] painful firmware upgrade process


Hello,

well, it was time to upgrade my A5500-EI switches and unfortunately it literallily really took ages. Well, you will think: Hey, open IMC and update the switch. Well, I actually did it once. Afterwards I had to do some on site service.
First of all, I really like the A5500-EI series in terms of features. But updating them is a pain.


So, let´s imagine a full stack, so 9 pieces, of A5500-EI switches.
First of all, those switches have 32MB of flashrom, so you can use two different fimware releases for "Main" and "Backup" purposes, in case something fails (actually never happened for me).
So, first step is transfering the files (bootrom and boot-loader) on the A5500-EI which is currently around 13MB. Let´s login onto the master irf switch and do something:


del /unreserved flash:/s5500ei-cmw520-r2202p015.bin
.............................................................................................................................................................................................................

Afterwards you have some space for the new bootloader and bootrom files:

tftp 10.14.70.44 get S5500EI-BTM-710.btm
tftp 10.14.70.44 get S5500EI-CMW520-R2210-S168.bin


Afterwards you have need some free space on the rest of the switches:

del /unreserved slot1#flash:/s5500ei-cmw520-r2202p015.bin
.............................................................................................................................................................................
del /unreserved slot2#flash:/s5500ei-cmw520-r2202p015.bin
.............................................................................................................................................................................
del /unreserved slot3#flash:/s5500ei-cmw520-r2202p015.bin
.............................................................................................................................................................................
del /unreserved slot4#flash:/s5500ei-cmw520-r2202p015.bin
.............................................................................................................................................................................
del /unreserved slot6#flash:/s5500ei-cmw520-r2202p015.bin
.............................................................................................................................................................................
del /unreserved slot7#flash:/s5500ei-cmw520-r2202p015.bin
.............................................................................................................................................................................
del /unreserved slot8#flash:/s5500ei-cmw520-r2202p015.bin
.............................................................................................................................................................................
del /unreserved slot9#flash:/s5500ei-cmw520-r2202p015.bin
.............................................................................................................................................................................


Afterwards you can copy the boot-loader files from the master to the rest of the IRF membergs:


Copy flash:/s5500ei-cmw520-r2210-s168.bin to slot1#flash:/s5500ei-cmw520-r2210-s168.bin?[Y/N]:y
..........................
Copy flash:/s5500ei-cmw520-r2210-s168.bin to slot2#flash:/s5500ei-cmw520-r2210-s168.bin?[Y/N]:y
..........................
Copy flash:/s5500ei-cmw520-r2210-s168.bin to slot3#flash:/s5500ei-cmw520-r2210-s168.bin?[Y/N]:y
..........................
Copy flash:/s5500ei-cmw520-r2210-s168.bin to slot4#flash:/s5500ei-cmw520-r2210-s168.bin?[Y/N]:y
..........................
Copy flash:/s5500ei-cmw520-r2210-s168.bin to slot6#flash:/s5500ei-cmw520-r2210-s168.bin?[Y/N]:y
..........................
Copy flash:/s5500ei-cmw520-r2210-s168.bin to slot7#flash:/s5500ei-cmw520-r2210-s168.bin?[Y/N]:y
..........................
Copy flash:/s5500ei-cmw520-r2210-s168.bin to slot8#flash:/s5500ei-cmw520-r2210-s168.bin?[Y/N]:y
..........................
Copy flash:/s5500ei-cmw520-r2210-s168.bin to slot9#flash:/s5500ei-cmw520-r2210-s168.bin?[Y/N]:y
..........................

Alternatively, it seems you can do a
boot-loader file flash:/s5500ei-cmw520-r2210-s168.bin slot all main
or
boot-loader file flash:/s5500ei-cmw520-r2210-s168.bin slot all backup

which copies the boot-loader file to each switch, iff there´s enough space left...

 
One disadvantage of the A5500-EI series is its slow flashom. I´m getting around 50-70 kb/s when copying with tftp. Deleting a file lasts at least as long.

Perhaps someone of you could help. How do you make your updates? Do you have some more intelligent scripts?

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