UPGRADING CISCO NEXUS SWITCHES VIA USB PORT
Muhammad Awais Butt
![Muhammad Awais Butt]()
Muhammad Awais Butt
Senior Network and Security Engineer at Emaratech CISM || CISSP || CCIE DC#51557
PROBLEM STATEMENT : Recent Cisco Nexus software images are huge ( around 01 to 02 Gig) in size and uploading them to switch via FTP/ TFTP/ SCP may even consume 05 to 08 hours and if this delay was not factored in your activity maintenance window, you may have to reschedule the activity.
SOLUTION : Uploading Cisco software image through USB port of switch is the fastest option of all and it will reduce the upload time from hours to 5 ~ 10 minutes.
In this example, I will be referring to Cisco Nexus 3548-XL model and below are the steps you need to perform for such upgrade.
- One common issue you will face while uploading your image via USB port is that your switch will fail to mount the USB drive regardless of whatever formatting choice you use for your USB. The easiest way to get over this problem is by formatting USB through switch itself by using below command.
- Once your USB is formatted and detected by switch, rest of the steps are fairly simple. You just have to copy the desired image from USB drive to Switch flash/ Bootflash by using below command. For me, I uploaded 1.8 Gig file to switch within 05 minutes.
- After copying the image to switch, the most important and often forgotten step is to verify the checksum of image which should match with the checksum value provided by Cisco website itself. This step is to make sure the integrity of the software image is intact and there is no corruption during download.
- After verifying MD5 checksum, we need to check the impact of new software image before installing it. If all outputs are successful, we will then install the software image which will be disruptive and require a reload. Below are the commands to achieve these steps.
- show install all impact nxos nxos.your_image.bin -- checking the impact of new release
- install all nxos bootflash:nxos.your_image.bin -- installing new image on your switch.
Technical Analyst @ Sebrae | Network Engineer | Infrastructure Analyst
2 年Thank you for this article, Muhammad Awais Butt! It was very helpful during my maintenance window this night. ??
Network Engineer- Operations
2 年Hi, I am facing this issue below plz help while this pendrive is working on another switch, and i changed the pen drive too. but same issue. please suggest. GRD-SFS01# dir usb1: usb is either not present or not formatted or not mounted GRD-SFS01# format us usb1:??usb2: GRD-SFS01# format usb1: This command is going to erase the contents of your usb1:. Do you want to continue? (yes/no)?[y] y Formatting usb1: Cannot format usb1: Make sure the drive is inserted. GRD-SFS01#
Muhammad. You Da man. I was trying to copy this file for more than three days. I followed your instructions over USB and took less than five mins. It took me longer due to company restrictions to use USB but this was the best solution. Thank you very much.
You are right. I was uploading the image from tftp and started running it said that it will be 8 hours and times out after a while. I'm going to try with a USB. Let you know the results. Thanks,