Solutions Tech Lab

As you might know there is a feature for 8XXX CX switches called Live Upgrade. Using this feature, it basically upgrades a pair of 8XXX switches that are configured for VSX without any down time.

Here are the screenshots of the demo of VSX live upgrade feature for a customer.
The upgrade/downgrade  was from 10.06.0100 to 10.04.3031 and then to 10.06.0113
It worked flawlessly with no ping drops at all.

Here is the topology of my live upgrade in which I was doing a continuous ping from the ping client to NetEdit VM.

 
First we’ll ensure VSX is operational.

Core-8320-1# sh vsx status
VSX Operational State
---------------------
  ISL channel             : In-Sync
  ISL mgmt channel        : operational
  Config Sync Status      : In-Sync
  NAE                     : peer_reachable
  HTTPS Server            : peer_reachable


Attribute           Local               Peer
------------        --------            --------
ISL link            lag1                lag1
ISL version         2                   2
System MAC          02:01:00:01:00:00   02:01:00:01:00:00
Platform            8320                8320
Software Version    TL.10.06.0100       TL.10.06.0100
Device Role         primary             secondary

Core-8320-1#

Now we’ll downgrade them to Downgrade to 10.04.3031.

and finally

checking the firmware versions

Core-8320-1# sh vsx status
VSX Operational State
---------------------
  ISL channel             : In-Sync
  ISL mgmt channel        : operational
  Config Sync Status      : in-sync
  NAE                     : peer_reachable
  HTTPS Server            : peer_reachable

Attribute           Local               Peer
------------        --------            --------
ISL link            lag1                lag1
ISL version         2                   2
System MAC          02:01:00:01:00:00   02:01:00:01:00:00
Platform            8320                8320
Software Version    TL.10.04.3031       TL.10.04.3031
Device Role         primary             secondary

Core-8320-1#

Also checking the core switches in NetEdit

Now we’ll upgrade them to 10.06.0113 version.

Checking the VSX status from the CLI

Core-8320-1# sh vsx status
VSX Operational State
---------------------
  ISL channel             : In-Sync
  ISL mgmt channel        : operational
  Config Sync Status      : In-Sync
  NAE                     : peer_reachable
  HTTPS Server            : peer_reachable

Attribute           Local               Peer
------------        --------            --------
ISL link            lag1                lag1
ISL version         2                   2
System MAC          02:01:00:01:00:00   02:01:00:01:00:00
Platform            8320                8320
Software Version    TL.10.06.0113       TL.10.06.0113
Device Role         primary             secondary

Core-8320-1#