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In this Document

Goal

Solution

Scope

Assumptions and Prerequisites

1. Login to Cisco management switch

2. Verify  the switch model version and current firmware version

4. Prepare the TFTP server

5. Update and Preserve Current Configuration

6. Transfer the new Cisco IOS SSH-capable firmware to switch's boot flash

7. Verify the transferred firmware file for integrity

8. Prepare Cisco switch to boot with new IOS firmware

9. Boot the Cisco switch with new firmware

10. Login to switch and verify it is now running the new firmware version

11. Backup New Current Configuration

12. Configure SSH access (Optional)

13. Disable Telnet access (Optional)

14. Reverting back to older firmware version (Optional)

References

Applies to:

Goal

Update Cisco Catalyst 4948 Ethernet Switch Firmware.

Solution

Scope

This document is aplicable to Cisco 4948 and 4948E-F model switches in the following Oracle Engineered Systems: Exadata Database Machine, Exalogic Elastic Cloud Machine, and Big Data Appliance.

Assumptions and Prerequisites

• Cisco switch included in the Oracle's Engineered System environment has been configured to communicate over management network.
• SSH (preferred) or Telnet access and enable password are available.
• A system able to connect to the Cisco switch.
  • A tftp server is available on the network and can be reached by the Cisco switch.

SSH is the recommended secure access method. It's also recommended that Telnet be disabled. The default IOS firmware for the Cisco switch inside Oracle's Engineered System as oringally deployed may not have SSH server capability or not have it enabled. In that case Telnet access should be available. New firmware will have SSH capability. This document provides instructions on how to apply new firmware and configure SSH.

1. Login to Cisco management switch

Login to Cisco switch using SSH or Telnet, and log in as the 'admin' user with the admin password. Change to enable mode using  the following command. When prompted for a password, use the administrative password.

2. Verify  the switch model version and current firmware version

The switch model number will be in the last section of output indicating the hardware configuration. Cisco switch firmware is specific to a specific model. In this example, the model is WS-C4948E-F. New firmware needs to be for the correct model of Cisco switch. Obtain the appropriate firmware file from Oracle Support.

The IOS version provided to the customer (in response to their SR request) must be the correct version for that customer's switch model.

3. Verify free space available on switch's flash memory

Issue the "show file systems" command to display the available space. 

The above sample output shows approximately 58MB free space in bootflash. There needs to be sufficient space for the new firmware file update.

You can also display the contents of bootflash using the "dir" command as shown below. Here, it shows two IOS firmware files stored as example. 

If there is not enough free space, then older firmware files will need to be deleted. For example:

4. Prepare the TFTP server

Create a new directory on the TFTP file server for transfering the new firmware file. In this document, we will use /tftpboot/cisco as our remote path on theTFTP file server (named tftp-server in our examples). Download the new Cisco IOS firmware to this directory on the tftp-server host so that Cisco switch can download it via TFTP in later steps. In this document, we will use file firmware.file3.bin . It may look as below:  

5. Update and Preserve Current Configuration

By default, the current configuration may not be setup to boot from a specific firmware file. As a best practice, we recommend to update current configuration to include the boot firmware file name. In the previous section, we have already identified the default IOS firmware file stored in bootflash. The following steps will update current configuration to specify the firmware boot file. In the example below, the current active firmware file is firmware.file2.bin .

Next, save the current configuration, write to nvram and also save it in boot flash with a unique name.

Now, transfer a backup of this configuration to the remote TFTP file server. You may find it necessary to create a placeholder file which is writeable to the world on the TFTP server before you can upload the actual file, this is typically the default behavior of the TFTP daemon. Else the copy operation will fail. The following is an example of how to create the placeholder:

Alternatively, tftpd can be restarted on the file server with the -c option which should allow the creation of new files.

--create, -c
Allow new files to be created. By default, tftpd will only allow upload of files that already exist. Files are created with default permissions allowing anyone to read or write them, unless the --permissive or --umask options are specified.

Copy the configuration over to the TFTP file server from the switch:

After entering the command above, the switch will prompt for the tftp server name and file name to use when saving to the remote tftp server. Those outputs aren't shown here.

6. Transfer the new Cisco IOS SSH-capable firmware to switch's boot flash

Copy the new firmware file into Cisco switche's flash filesystem and verify its integrity in boot flash. In this example, our tftp server is named "tftp-server" and we have staged the updated IOS firmware on the tftp server at /tftpboot/cisco/firmware.file3.bin. Because /tftpboot is the root directory for TFTP on the tftp server, it is left out of the path name when prompted for 'Source filename'.

7. Verify the transferred firmware file for integrity

Run verify command to verify and validate the download was successful and complete

If no errors are returned from the verify command, then the verification was successful.

8. Prepare Cisco switch to boot with new IOS firmware

The following steps update the configuration with config-register value of 0x2102 and a new IOS firmware boot file that we just downloaded. 0x2102 instructs the boot process to ignore any breaks, sets baudrate to 9600 and boots into ROM if the main boot process fails for some reason.  

Save the configuration into nvram

9. Boot the Cisco switch with new firmware

In this step, we boot the switch under the new IOS firmware. When the "reload" command is issued, the switch will reboot and there will be an outage on the management network for all connected devices (including all storage cells, database servers, ILOMs, and InfiniBand switches) for a minute or two while the switch reboots. A management network outage should not cause an application outage as the databases should all remain available and functioning normally. You will be asked to confirm if you wish to continue and reboot the Cisco switch. Any monitoring of the switch and management network should be blacked out during reboot to avoid any false alarms for outages.

10. Login to switch and verify it is now running the new firmware version

The "System image file is" should show the new version, in this example: 'bootflash:firmware.file3.bin'

11. Backup New Current Configuration

Save the current configuration, write to nvram and also save it in boot flash with a unique name.

Now, take a backup of this configuration on remote TFTP file server.

After entering the command above, the switch will prompt for the tftp server name and file name to use when saving to the remote tftp server. Those outputs aren't shown here.

12. Configure SSH access (Optional)

With the switch successfully reloaded, reconnect using telnet and configure SSH as shown in the procedure below. The username command in the example below is required and shows the choice of username "admin" and password of "welcome1" to configure a user. This is a required statement, but the username and password can  be any username or password (it is recommended to choose a better password than "welcome1"). After telnet login, please use 'enable' command to get superuser privileges again and proceed with following configurations.

Verify the SSH configuration is working and configured properly using the "show ip ssh" command:

This switch should now be available for SSH logins using username admin, password welcome1 via SSH v2 (which is typically the default for most SSH clients).

13. Disable Telnet access (Optional)

After configuring SSH access and verifying it, some sites may want to disable telnet access to the switch (leaving only SSH access available). This is optional as the switch can allow access via SSH and telnet simultaneously. To disable telnet access, connect to the switch using SSH (since telnet will be disabled as part of this procedure) and enter these commands:

If there are more input lines in your operational Cisco firmware, then apply SSH to remaining lines as well. Verify the number of transport lines in 'show running' output.

After this change is in place, telnet on the switch is disabled and may be verified. SSH connectivity should be the only allowed connection method.

14. Reverting back to older firmware version (Optional)

Reverting back to an older firmware is just a matter of booting the older version as long as it's still present on the switch.

Display the contents of bootflash using the "dir" command.

Determine the older firmware to revert to. In the following example, it will be firmware.file2.bin .

Update the configuration to boot the older firmware.  

Save the configuration into nvram.

Boot the switch with the older IOS firmware. When the "reload" command is issued, the switch will reboot and there will be an outage on the management network for all connected devices (including all storage cells, database servers, ILOMs, and InfiniBand switches) for a minute or two while the switch reboots. A management network outage should not cause an application outage as the databases should all remain available and functioning normally. You will be asked to confirm if you wish to continue and reboot the Cisco switch. Any monitoring of the switch and management network should be blacked out during reboot to avoid any false alarms for outages.

References

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