Managing Your System Software, Release 4.2.1

The following table provides an overview of the significant changes up to this current release. The table does not provide an exhaustive list of all changes or of the new features up to this release.

For the latest upgrade process information, see the online version of the Cisco Nexus Dashboard Deployment and Upgrade Guide.

This section describes how to manage different firmware versions and perform cluster upgrades.

The upgrade process involves uploading a new image and then deploying it. As such, the same workflow can be used for cluster firmware downgrades as well.

The following sections provide reference information for firmware upgrades. For the latest upgrade process information, see the online version of the Cisco Nexus Dashboard Deployment and Upgrade Guide.

These sections provide the necessary information to install or upgrade system software on your Nexus Dashboard:

Before you upgrade your existing Nexus Dashboard cluster:

This section describes how to add images from the Software Download page and install those images on your Nexus Dashboard.

Upgrade the cluster

Before you Begin

You must have the upgrade image already added to the Nexus Dashboard cluster as described in Add images.

To upgrade your cluster:

1. From the main navigation menu, select Admin > System Software.

2. In the rightmost tile in the Nexus Dashboard Releases area, click Upgrade.

3. Click Set up Update or Modify Details.

   If this is the first time you are upgrading your cluster, simply click the Setup Update button in the middle of the page.

   If you have previously upgraded the cluster, the last upgrade’s details will be displayed in this page instead of the Setup Update button. In this case, click the Modify Details button at the top right of the screen.

4. In the Setup/Version Selection screen, select the target version and click Next to proceed.

   If you uploaded multiple images to your Nexus Dashboard, they will be listed here.

5. Review the validation report and click Install to proceed with the upgrade.

   Before the upgrade is triggered, the system will perform a number of validation checks and show the report.

6. In the Setup/Confirmation screen, review the details of the update and click Begin Install to proceed.

   The screen will proceed to the Install tab and you will be able to see the progress of each node.

   The process can take up to 2 hours and you can navigate away from this screen in the meantime.

7. Wait for the image installation to complete.

8. Click Install.

   It may take up to 20 additional minute for all the cluster services to start and the GUI may become unavailable during this process. The page will automatically reload when the process is completed. You can track the activation process in the Activate screen.

   

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   If the software installation fails for any reason, see Retry software installation for additional information on retrying the software installation.

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9. After the process is complete, check if services are active and verify health of the cluster.

   For more information on troubleshooting nodes, see Cisco Nexus Dashboard Troubleshooting.

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After upgrading to Nexus Dashboard 4.1.1 or later, ensure the cluster’s management IP addresses are added to the management routes Admin > System Settings > General > Routes. Failure to do so may cause significant delays when accessing API endpoints. Verifying and updating the management routes configuration with the cluster’s management IP addresses as a post-upgrade step ensures proper API functionality.

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Retry software installation

You might encounter a software installation failure at these stages:

• During the system software installation or upgrade, as described in this article.

• During the Cluster bringup stage that occurs as part of the Journey process, which is available as a drop-down list item under the question mark icon, as described in Exploring Your Nexus Dashboard.

If the software installation fails for any reason, a window might appear that describes the issue with the software installation or upgrade failure, such as this example.

Click Retry to repeat the software installation or upgrade process. If the failure persists, you might be asked to contact Cisco TAC for further assistance, or you might also be asked to use the acs reboot command to correct the issue, as described in Cisco Nexus Dashboard Troubleshooting.

Beginning with Nexus Dashboard release 4.2.1, you can now apply SMU (Software Maintenance Upgrade) released images on your Nexus Dashboard. SMUs are packages that provide bug fixes and security patches for Nexus Dashboard without requiring a full software upgrade. SMU releases are essentially patches that you would install on top of images that you already installed from the Software Download page, as described in Upgrading your Nexus Dashboard using images from the Software Download page.

These sections provide more information on applying SMU packages on your Nexus Dashboard.

Install a new SMU package

You will use CLI commands to install an SMU package in your Nexus Dashboard.

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We highly recommend that you wait for a maintenance window before you install an SMU package in your Nexus Dashboard.

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1. Verify that the cluster is healthy before downloading and applying an SMU package to your Nexus Dashboard.

   See Exploring Your Nexus Dashboard for more information.

2. SSH into the primary Nexus Dashboard node as rescue-user and enter these commands through the command line.

   On multi-node clusters, when you apply an SMU package on the primary node in the cluster, it then applies the SMU package on the remaining nodes in the cluster as well.

3. Download and add the SMU iso package on the Nexus Dashboard cluster.

   acs install add <url>

   Where:

   • The path to the SMU iso package could be through http or https, such as these examples:

     acs install add http://server.example.com/smu-package.iso

     acs install add https://server.example.com/updates/smu-package.iso

   • Or the path to the SME iso package could be through scp, such as this example:

     acs install add scp://10.10.10.10:/folder/smu-package.iso

     

     ---

     If you are using scp to download the SMU iso package, you will have to set up a remote storage scp server in the Systems Settings area prior to the download. See Working with System Settings for more information.

     ---

     For example:

     $ acs install add http://updates.example.com/acs-smu-2024-12.iso
     SMU package add operation started. Package ID: abc-123-def

4. Display SMU package details to verify that the package is ready to install.

   acs show install package <name>

   or

   acs show install inactive

   For example:

   acs show install package nd-dk9.4.2.0.0110007001.iso

5. Activate the SMU package.

   acs install activate <name>

   For example:

   acs install activate nd-dk9.4.2.0.0110007001.iso

   Output similar to this appears:

   SMU package activate operation started for: nd-dk9.4.2.0.0110007001.iso

6. Confirm that the package is active to verify that the installation was successful.

   • Use this command to view only active packages that are currently installed.

     acs show install active

     Output similar to the following appears.

     PACKAGE NAME                    STATE       PROGRESS    DESCRIPTION
     nd-dk9.4.2.0.0110007001.iso     installed   100%        SMU package contains CSCws45780, CSCwp92789

   • Use this command to view specific package details.

     acs show install package <name>

     For example: acs show install package nd-dk9.4.2.0.0110007001.iso

     Output similar to the following appears.

     PACKAGE NAME                    STATE       PROGRESS
     nd-dk9.4.2.0.0110007001.iso     Processed   100%
     
     Service Status:
     SERVICE     VERSION                     STATUS      PROGRESS    ERROR
     uiassets    4.1.2030-v1.0.10-0084cdf    Processed   100%        -

Activate an SMU package

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You can only activate an SMU package when the SMU package is in the processed state. See Understand SMU package states for more information.

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Use the acs install activate command to apply an inactive package to your system.

acs install activate <package-name>

For example:

$ acs install activate nd-dk9.4.2.0.0110007001.iso
SMU package activate operation started for: nd-dk9.4.2.0.0110007001.iso

The package will transition from the processed (inactive) to the installed (active) state.

To verify the activation:

$ acs show install active
PACKAGE NAME                    STATE       PROGRESS    DESCRIPTION
nd-dk9.4.2.0.0110007001.iso     installed   100%        SMU package contains CSCws45780, CSCwp92789

Remove all active SMU packages

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These procedures will deactivate all active SMU packages, so verify that you want to deactivate all active SMU packages before proceeding with these procedures. The system will ask for confirmation before proceeding.

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To deactivate and remove all active SMU packages from your system:

1. View currently active packages.

   $ acs show install active
   PACKAGE NAME                    STATE       PROGRESS    DESCRIPTION
   nd-dk9.4.2.0.0110007001.iso     installed   100%        SMU package contains CSCws45780, CSCwp92789

2. Remove all active packages.

   $ acs install remove active
   This operation will deactivate and remove all active SMU packages. Continue? (y/n): y
   Deactivating SMU package: nd-dk9.4.2.0.0110007001.iso
   Deactivation started for 1 out of 1 active SMU packages

3. Verify that all active packages were removed.

   $ acs show install active
   (no active packages)

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