Cisco Prime Infrastructure 3.0 User Guide

Maintaining Software Images

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• Setting Image Management and Distribution Preferences
• Managing Software Images
• Importing Software Images
• Changing Software Image Requirements
• Deploying Software Images to Devices
• Supported Image Format for Stack Devices
• Viewing Recommended Software Images from Cisco.com
• Analyzing Software Image Upgrades

Manually upgrading your devices to the latest software version can be error prone and time consuming. Cisco Prime Infrastructure simplifies the version management and routine deployment of software updates to your devices by helping you plan, schedule, download, and monitor software image updates. You can also view software image details, view recommended software images, and delete software images.

Prime Infrastructure stores all of the software images for the devices in your network. The images are stored according to the image type and version.

Before you can upgrade software images, you must configure your devices with SNMP read-write community strings that match the community strings entered when the device was added to Prime Infrastructure.

Table 30-1 describes the different processes involved in managing software images and whether the processes are supported in the Unified Wireless LAN Controllers and devices.

Setting Image Management and Distribution Preferences

By default, Prime Infrastructure does not collect and store device software images when it gathers inventory data from devices.

To set image management and distribution preferences:

Step 1 Choose Administration > Settings > System Settings > Image Management .

Step 2 To have Prime Infrastructure automatically retrieve and store device images when it collects device inventory data, check Collect images along with inventory collection .

Step 3 Select other options as necessary. Hover your mouse cursor over on the information icon to view details about the options.

The Config Protocol Order field specifies the order in which the protocol is used. For example, if SSH is listed before Telnet, SSH is used first, and Telnet is used next.

Step 4 Click Save .

Step 5 Choose Inventory > Device Management > Software Images and click the Image Dashboard icon in the top-right corner of Software Image page to view all of the software images retrieved by Prime Infrastructure. The images are organized by image type and stored in the corresponding software image group folder.

Managing Software Images

The software image dashboard displays the top software images used in your network and allows you to change image requirements, see the devices on which an image is running, and distribute images.

Step 1 Choose Inventory > Device Management > Software Images and click Image Dashboard in the top-right corner of Software Image page .

Step 2 Click a software image name to display details about the image.

Step 3 Do any of the following:

• Change image requirements. See Changing Software Image Requirements.
• View the devices on which the software image is running.
• Distribute the image. See Deploying Software Images to Devices.

Importing Software Images

It can be helpful to have a baseline of your network images by importing images from the devices in your network. You can also view recommended software images from Cisco.com.

By default, Prime Infrastructure does not automatically retrieve and store device images when it collects device inventory data. (You can change this preference as described in Setting Image Management and Distribution Preferences.)

Based on a device’s capabilities, Prime Infrastructure can use different protocols (SCP, TFTP, FTP) to import images from devices. For better reliability and security, we recommend you use secure protocols only (SFTP, SCP) for importing software images. We do not recommend using TFTP or FTP.

To import a software image:

Step 1 Choose Inventory > Device Management > Software Images.

Step 2 Click Import .

Step 3 Enter the source from where to import the software image. You can specify any one of the following sources:

• Device—An existing device. For Cisco Catalyst 3850 Ethernet Stackable Switch and Cisco 5760 Series Wireless Controller there are two modes for importing the software images.

– Install mode —When the device is running in install mode, the running image will be “packages.conf”. Prime Infrastructure does not support importing of any image in install mode

– Bundle mode —When the device is running in Bundle mode, the running image will be in “.bin” format. Prime Infrastructure supports importing of any image in bundle mode.

– You can check the running image in one of the following ways:

a. Choose Inventory > N etwork Devices, click the device name and click Image tab in the device page.

b. Use Show version command in device CLI.

• Cisco.com—Prime Infrastructure displays the recommended software images for the device type you specify, but it does not allow you to download software images directly from cisco.com. You must manually download the software image from cisco.com and then import the downloaded image file. Prime Infrastructure does not display deferred software images.
• URL—Specify the FTP URL from where you can import the software image. You can use an HTTP URL where user credentials are not required.
• Protocol—Specify the FTP location from where you want to import a software image. User credentials are required. The FTP protocol only is supported.
• File—A local file on the client machine.

Note Currently Prime Infrastructure Supports *.bin,*.tar,*.aes,*.ros,*.pie,*.img,*.pkg,*.ova and *.gz image extensions.

Note For wireless LAN controllers, you can import software images from a file or a URL or using FTP Protocol only. For more information about Software Image Management Processes and Supported Devices, see Table 30-1.

Step 4 Specify Collection Options and enter the required information.

Step 5 Specify the Schedule when to import the image file. You can run the job immediately or schedule it to run at a later time.

Note The image import job is non-repetitive, except for importing image from file.

Step 6 Click Submit .

Step 7 Choose Administration > Dashboards > Jobs Dashboard > User Jobs > SWIM Collection to view the status about the image collection job. The Duration field is updated after the job completes.

Related Topics

• Deploying Software Images to Devices

Changing Software Image Requirements

To change the RAM, flash, and boot ROM requirements that a device must meet for a software image to be distributed to the device:

Step 1 Choose Inventory > Device Management > Software Images.

Step 2 Navigate to and select the software image for which you want to change requirements, then click Image Details .

Step 3 Modify the necessary fields, then click Save . Your changes are saved in the software version in which you made the change.

Deploying Software Images to Devices

You can distribute a software image to a device or set of similar devices in a single deployment. Prime Infrastructure verifies that the device and software image are compatible.

Based on the device capabilities, Prime Infrastructure can use different transport protocols (SCP, TFTP, FTP, SFTP) to distribute images to devices. For better reliability and security, we recommend you to use secure protocols only (SFTP, SCP) for distributing software images. If you choose SCP protocol for the image distribution, ensure that the device is managed in Prime Infrastructure with full user privilege (Privileged EXEC mode), otherwise the distribution will fail due to copy privilege error (SCP: protocol error: Privilege denied).

We do not recommend using TFTP or FTP. If you choose TFTP protocol for the image distribution and if the device and the server are in different subnet, the image should be copied within the specified session time limit (one hour) which is maintained by the application otherwise the distribution will fail due to timeout error.

Step 1 Choose Inventory > Device Management > Software Images.

Step 2 Select the software images that you want to distribute, then click Distribute .

By default, the devices for which the selected image is applicable are shown.

Step 3 Choose the image name in the Distribute Image Name field to change your selection and pick a new image, then click Save .

Step 4 To change the location on the device in which to store the software image, choose the value displayed in the Distribute Location field, select a new location, then click Save .

The Status and Status Message fields display the validity of the selections you made. For example, if the status is green, there is adequate space available to store the image on the specified location on the device.

Step 5 Check the Insert Boot Command check box and choose Sequentially or Parallely from Activate drop-down list from Image Deployment options, for the scheduled device to run the new distributed image.

Note If you do not select one of these options, the device will continue to run the older image version even after the job completes successfully.

Step 6 Specify schedule options, then click Submit .

The distribute image job is non-repetitive.

Step 7 Choose Administration > Dashboards > Job Dashboard > User Jobs > SWIM distribution to view details about the image distribution job. The Duration field is updated after the job completes.

Supported Image Format for Stack Devices

Prime Infrastructure supports only .tar images for upgrade and downgrade for stacked devices. Stack device do not support .bin format. The list of supported stack devices are:

• Stack of CBS3100 switch modules
• Cisco Catalyst Switch Module 3110X for IBM Blade Center
• Cisco Catalyst Blade Switch 3120X for HP
• Cisco Catalyst Blade Switch 3130X for Dell M1000E
• Cisco Catalyst 2975 Switch
• Cisco 3750 Stackable Switches
• Cisco Catalyst 29xx Stack-able Ethernet Switch
• Cisco ME 3600X-24FS-M Switch
• Cisco ME 3600X-24TS-M Switch
• Cisco ME 3800X-24FS-M Switch Router

Note Cisco Catalyst 3650 and 3850 switches do not have .tar images on Cisco.com. For these switches, Prime Infrastructure supports .bin format.

Viewing Recommended Software Images from Cisco.com

Step 1 Choose Inventory > Device Management > Software Images.

Step 2 Navigate to and select the software image for which you want to change requirements, then click Image Details .

Step 3 Choose one of the following image sources:

• Recommend Image from Cisco.com to select an image available on Cisco.com. Specify options, click Start Recommendation , then skip ahead to Choose the image name in the Distribute Image Name field to change your selection and pick a new image, then click Save..

Prime Infrastructure displays recommended software images for your specific device types, but it does not allow you to download software images directly from cisco.com. You must manually download software images from cisco.com and then import the downloaded image file. Prime Infrastructure does not display deferred software images.

• Select Image from Local Repository to select an image stored locally. Then, under Local Repository:

– Select the Show All Images check box to display all images available in the Prime Infrastructure repository.

– Unselect the Show All Images check box to display the software images applicable to the selected device.

Step 4 Select the image to distribute, then click Apply .

Step 5 Choose the image name in the Distribute Image Name field to change your selection and pick a new image, then click Save .

Step 6 Specify Distribution Options. You can change the default options in Administration > Settings > System Settings > Image Management .

Step 7 Specify schedule options, then click Submit .

Analyzing Software Image Upgrades

Prime Infrastructure can generate an Upgrade Analysis report to help you determine prerequisites for a new software image deployment. These reports analyze the software images to determine the hardware upgrades (boot ROM, flash memory, RAM, and boot flash, if applicable) required before you can perform the software upgrade.

The Upgrade Analysis report answers the following questions:

• Does the device have sufficient RAM to hold the new software?
• Is the device’s flash memory large enough to hold the new software?

To analyze software image upgrades:

Step 1 Choose Inventory > Device Management > Software Images.

Step 2 Click Upgrade Analysis .

Step 3 Choose the source of the software image that you want to analyze.

Step 4 Select the devices on which to analyze the software image.

Step 5 Select the images to analyze for the selected devices.

Step 6 Click Run Report .