Upgrading a Cisco MDS 9500


We recently performed some upgrade our Cisco MDS 9509 and thought we’d share the steps with you. You’re welcome to hop on Cisco.com as well and grab the user guide, but if you’re running a 9500 with redundant Sup-2’s, this should be all you need to hop between SAN-OS 3.x versions and all the way up to NX-OS 5.x…

Review upgrade guide from Cisco.com
Download new system and kickstart software from Cisco.com
Upload new software via TFTP to MDS
Start SolarWinds TFTP Server on MDS-reachable system (make sure it isn’t firewalled!)
Configure TFTP Server to look in the local directory where you copied the software
Make sure the TFTP Server is started (Configure > Start)
Open a telnet (Putty) session to the MDS (or SSH, if you prefer/use that)
Upload system software: i.e. # copy tftp://192.168.1.10/m9500-sf2ek9-mz.4.2.7d.bin bootflash:
Upload kickstart software: i.e. # copy tftp://192.168.1.10/m9500-sf2ek9-kickstart-mz.4.2.7d.bin bootflash:
Assess impact of upgrade to MDS

show install all impact system bootflash:m9500-sf2ek9-mz.4.2.7d.bin kickstart bootflash:m9500-sf2ek9-kickstart-mz.4.2.7d.bin

If all “verifying” steps return “SUCCESS” and the modules listed show “non-disruptive”, proceed with installation
Install software (example below)

install all system bootflash:m9500-sf2ek9-mz.4.2.7d.bin kickstart bootflash:m9500-sf2ek9-kickstart-mz.4.2.7d.bin

Software upgrade will reboot the supervisor modules which will require reconnecting via Putty to monitor the remainder of the upgrade
After upgrade is complete:
Save the running config to startup: # copy run start
Backup the running config via TFTP: i.e. # copy run tftp://192.168.1.10/mds9509-config-20110127-4.2.7d.cfg

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