Maintaining Software Images

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Overview of Software Image Management

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. The software image management page provides a consolidated view of the various aspects of image management such as software image management lifecycle widget, software image summary, and job details.

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 Telnet or SSH credentials. Also SNMP read-write community strings that match the community strings entered when the device was added to Prime Infrastructure must be configured.

To ensure that there are no SNMP views blocking access to the CISCO-FLASH-MIB, remove the following command from the configuration for all routers and switches (if present) on which you want to download a software image:

snmp-server view ViewName ciscoFlashMIB excluded

SSH or Telnet must be configured for importing the images from a device.

Related Topics

• Software Image Management Processes and Supported Devices
• Prime Infrastructure does not support software image distribution on Cisco Catalyst 4500 devices configured with a redundant supervisor engine.
• Configuring Software Image Management Server for Image Distribution
• Managing Software Images
• Importing Software Images
• Importing Software Images to the Virtual Image Repository
• Changing Software Image Requirements
• Distributing Software Images to Devices
• Activating Software Images
• Supported Image Format for Stack Devices
• Viewing Recommended Software Images from Cisco.com
• Analyzing Software Image Upgrades

Software Image Management Processes and Supported Devices

Table 31-1 describes the different processes involved in managing software images and whether the processes are supported in the Unified Wireless LAN Controllers and devices.

Note Prime Infrastructure does not support software image distribution on Cisco Catalyst 4500 devices configured with a redundant supervisor engine.

Note Prime Infrastructure supports software image distribution on Cisco Catalyst 6000 devices with dual supervisors; Prime Infrastructure distributes the software image on both the active and the standby supervisor engine.

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 I nventory > Device Management > Software Images and click Links adjacent to Software Image Repository under Useful Links section. Click 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.

Configuring Software Image Management Server for Image Distribution

You can add and configure a software image management server for distributing images to a group of devices in a particular location.

Before you begin, you must create location groups in Inventory > Group Management > Network Device Groups to add sites in software image management server.

Step 1 Choose Administration > Servers > Software Image Management Servers.

Step 2 Click the Add icon and enter the Server Name, IP Address and Sites Served details of the software image management server. Active protocols are configured by specifying the above details.

You can add multiple sites in one software image management server. You can add a maximum of three servers.

Step 3 Click Save.

Step 4 Click Manage Protocols.

Step 5 Click the Add icon and enter the software image management protocol details.

Prime Infrastructure does not support TFTP protocol for image distribution using software image management server. The supported protocols are SFTP, SCP, and FTP.

Step 6 Click Save.

Note When a distribution job is triggered using the Software Image Management Server (an external server), the protocol orders, which is configured on the Manage Protocols and Image Management Settings page is picked up by the common protocol which is applicable to the respective devices. For example, if the distribution is triggered using the local file server, then the distribution job running is based on the image management protocol order.

Related Topics

• Creating Location Groups

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.

Step 2 Click Software Image Repository under Useful Links.

Step 3 Click Image Dashboard in the top-right corner of Software Image page.

Step 4 Click a software image name to display details about the image.

Step 5 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 Distributing 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 Prime Infrastructure does not support software image distribution on Cisco Catalyst 4500 devices configured with a redundant supervisor engine..)

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 31-1.

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.

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

• Distributing Software Images to Devices
• Importing Software Images to the Virtual Image Repository

Importing Software Images to the Virtual Image Repository

You can use the Prime Infrastructure Virtual Image Repository (VIR) to automatically retrieve and store device images from specified URLs or files. You can schedule these downloads to occur regularly.

Currently, the VIR supports FTP or HTTP downloads only.

To import software images to the VIR:

Step 1 Choose Inventory > Device Management > Virtual Image Repository. The page lists the number of images currently retained in the repository.

Step 2 Click Import.

Step 3 Specify the Source from which to import the software image. You can specify one of the following sources:

• URL—Specify the FTP or HTTP URL from which to import the software image. You can use an HTTP URL where user credentials are not required.
• File—A local file on the client machine.

Step 4 Click Collection Option s and then enter the required information.

Step 5 Click Schedule and specify the schedule on which to import image file. You can run the collection job immediately or schedule it to run at a later time. You can also schedule the job to recur automatically

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

• Distributing Software Images to Devices
• Importing Software Images

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 In the Useful Links section, click Link adjacent to Software Image Repository to view the Software Image Summary page.

Step 3 Navigate to and select the software image for which you want to change requirements, then click Image Details.

Step 4 Modify the necessary fields, then click Save. Your changes are saved in the required software version.

Distributing 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 a device’s 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 privileges (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.

For software image distribution to work efficiently, the device and server from which the distribution is performed must be in the same geographical location or site. The Software Distribution job may return an error if the distribution takes too much time due to network slowness or low device speeds.

When specifying Distribution Options, be aware that choosing the Erase Flash Before Distribution options deletes files in order to free space to store the new image. This may include PKG, TAR, and other files in addition to the core image BIN files. Deletion excludes the running image and most system files (such as vlan.dat, config.text, private-config.text, system_env_vars, and so on). Deletion always starts with the largest file that is not in the exclusion list, and then proceeds sequentially with the next largest file until the required free space is available. If all candidate files have been erased but there is still insufficient space, the running image will be deleted as a last resort.

Under normal circumstances, all files and folders other than those specifically excluded are candidates for deletion by Erase Flash Before Distribution. A few devices may offer other criteria, such as lists of candidate extensions, but this is not a feature of most IOS devices.

Step 1 Choose Inventory > Device Management > Software Images.

Step 2 Click Distribute in the Software Image Management Lifecyle widget.

Step 3 In the Image Selection window, choose the software images that you want to distribute.

Step 4 Click the Device Selection tab, and choose the devices that you want to distribute the image.

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

Step 5 Click the Image Details Verification tab and click the image row to do the following:

• Choose the image name in the Distribute Image Name field to change your selection and pick a new image, then click Save.
• Choose the value displayed in the Distribute Location field, select a new location in which to store the software image, then click Save.
• Choose the value displayed in the Software Image Management Server field, then click Save. You can choose either a Local file server or one of the servers created under Administration > Servers > Software Image Management Servers.

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 6 Click the Image Deployment tab and set the image deployment options as required:

• Backup Current Image—Before distributing new images,, import the running images from the device to software images repository page.
• Insert boot command—To set the boot variable in the device boot path list.
• Activate—To enable the Activate option, you must check the Insert Boot Command check box.

– Activate OFF—New image will be distributed and boot variable is set in device boot path list. Device will not be rebooted in this mode and will continue to run with the running image.

– Activate Sequential—Once the image distribution is completed for all the selected devices, the device will reboot sequentially.

– Activate Parallel— Once the image distribution is completed for all the selected devices, the devices will reboot simultaneously.

• Erase Flash Before Distribution—Clears the flash memory before image distribution if there is no sufficient space in the device.
• Continue on Failure—If the image distribution fails for one image, the next device in queue will be picked up for distribution.
• TFTP Fallback—It prompts the device to reload the current running image from the TFTP server location during image distribution failure.

Prime infrastructure allows you to use a maximum of one Local file server and three Software Image Management Servers for software image distribution. Each server can distribute the image to five devices at one instance. When the image distribution is completed for one device, the next subsequent device will be taken up for the image distribution.

Step 7 Click the Schedule Distribution tab and specify the schedule options, then click Submit.

The distribute image job is non-repetitive. The details about the image distribution job is displayed in the Software Image Management dashboard. You can also view the image distribution job details from Administration > Dashboards > Job Dashboard > User Jobs > SWIM distribution. The Duration field is updated after the job completes.

Activating Software Images

After successful distribution of the images to all the devices, you must apply the image and reboot the device. Prime Infrastructure provides the following two options to activate the images:

• Activate From Library—Allows you to activate an image already available in the device flash memory. Table 31-2 lists the supported device types and the image family.
• Activate from Completed Distribution Jobs—Allows you to activate the images based on the recent successful or partially successful Image Distribution jobs.

Step 1 Choose Inventory > Device Management > Software Images.

Step 2 Click Activate in the Software Image Management Lifecyle widget.

Step 3 In the Activation Source window, click the Activate from Library radio button or Activate from Completed Distribution Jobs radio button as required.

Step 4 If you choose Activate from Completed Distribution Jobs, click the Job Selection tab. All successful and partially successful jobs are displayed.

Step 5 In the Job Selection window, choose the successful image distribution jobs that you want to activate.

Step 6 Click the Activate Preview tab, and choose the devices that you want to activate the image.

After selecting the devices, go to Step 11.

Step 7 If you choose Activate from Library in the Activation Source wind, click the Image Selection tab.

Step 8 In the Image Selection window, the supported images are filtered and displayed from the Software Image Summary page. Choose the software images that you want to distribute.

Step 9 Click the Device Selection tab, and choose the devices that you want to activate the image.

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

Step 10 Click the Activate Image tab, and verify whether the selected devices and software images are mapped correctly for activation.

Step 11 Click the Activate Job Options tab, and choose the required Activate Job options.

If you choose the ISSU option from the Activate drop-down list, the software image in the device will get upgraded without need for rebooting the device. The ISSU option supports only Catalyst 4000, Catalyst 6000 and Nexus devices.

Step 12 Click Submit to activate the software image in the selected devices.

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 I nventory > Device Management > Software Images.

Step 2 Click Software Image Repository under Useful Links.

Step 3 Click the software image which you want to change requirements.

Step 4 Choose the devices which you want to distribute the image from the Device List and click Distribution New Version.

Step 5 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.

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 6 Select the image to distribute, then click Apply.

Step 7 Choose the image name in the Distribute Image Name field to change your selection and pick a new image, then click Save.

Step 8 Specify Distribution Options. You can change the default options in Administration > Settings > System Settings > Image Management.

Step 9 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?
• Is the software image suitable/applicable for the device?

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.