[c-nsp] vs upgrading Nexus 5000 and 2000

[John Gill]

Hello Arne,
This section in the upgrade guide is made just for the situation where 
you want a minimal downtime on the FEX, about 2 minutes as opposed to 
the 5 it takes for a N5k to reload:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/datacenter/nexus5000/sw/upgrade/503_N1_1/n5k_upgrade_downgrade_503.html#wp641802

NOTE: if you don't use "install all" and instead set the boot variables, 
you will not receive BIOS and power sequencer updates.

For this reason, 2 upgrades may be a good idea, so you can get an 
"install all" type upgrade on each switch instead of just setting boot 
variables.  Use install all on switch A, and then let it reload. After 
it comes back and you upgrade your switch B by setting boot variable 
manually, you can then reload fex, and then reload the switch. <- this 
is paraphrasing from the link above.  The link above does not include 
this: you want to upgrade again, but use install all on switch B and 
then go over to switch A and use the manual boot parameters to reload 
this switch.

------------------------
If your motivation is not necessarily the reload time of 2 vs 5 minutes, 
then I think all you need to know is that the dual-homed fex will reload 
only on the upgrade of the 2nd N5k, so that can help you decide when to 
upgrade the 2nd N5k.  The above steps don't need to be followed in that 
case.  I guess maybe I should ask what your constraint is?

Another note: if you want the power-sequencer upgrade to take effect, at 
some point you will need to pull power on the N5k and power it back up - 
this can be done any time after the upgrades are complete.

Use this matrix to help with specific supported from/to combinations:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/datacenter/nexus5000/sw/release/notes/Rel_5_0_3_N1_1/Nexus5000_Release_Notes_5_0_3_N1_1c.html#wp267984

I should also mention, make sure your banner does not start with a 
space, you could end up in a boot loop due to:
CSCtj71171    Nexus 5k crash boot loop during upgrade to 5.0(2)N1(1)


Regards,
John Gill
cisco

On 6/7/11 10:19 AM, Arne Larsen / Region Nordjylland wrote:
> Hi all
>
> When upgrading a Nexus5K setup with dual homed extenders, is it possible to control the reboot of the extender.
> If I put the installation into pending mode, and upgrade one of the 5K's, can I then reboot them one by one.
> We are going from 4.1.3 to 5.0.2
>
>
> /Arne
>
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