Windows Knowledge Base

[Brocade]Upgrade Firmware on Silkworm switchs

The firmware can be downloaded to the switch in one of the following ways:
- Fabric Manager
- Telnet session
- WebTools administration functions

Here we will explain using telnet to perform the firmware upgrade.

1. Validate file system size make sure they are below 90%

FC_SW_A:root> df

Filesystem 1k-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on

/dev/root 120128 70944 49184 59% /

/dev/hda1 120112 70580 49532 59% /mnt

If you found out that your switch root (/) utilization is great than 90%, please contact Brocade or Vender for recommendation.
2. Telnet to FC Switch
3. Setup timeout value to 0 by:

FC_SW_A:root> timeout 0

IDLE Timeout Changed to 0 minutes

The modified IDLE Timeout will be in effect after NEXT login

FC_SW_A:root>

Relogin to switch after changes made
4. Perform Switch configuration backup by run configupload

FC_SW_A:root> configupload

Protocol (scp or ftp) [ftp]:

Server Name or IP Address [host]: 10.10.10.228

User Name [user]: fm

File Name [config.txt]: FC_SW_A_config.txt

Password:

Upload complete

FC_SW_A:root>

You can also run supportsave to create snapshot of the switch configuration.
5. Next confirm the current version using firmwareshow command

FC_SW_A:root> firmwareshow

Primary partition: v4.4.0e

Secondary Partition: v4.4.0e

If it's Enterprise level switch, please make sure HA environment on the switch is functional with the two CPs active and synchronized before starting the firmware upgrade:

DIR3:root> firmwareshow

Slot Name Appl Primary/Secondary Versions Status

------------------------------------------------------------------------

5 CP0 FOS v5.1.0 ACTIVE *

v5.1.0

6 CP1 FOS v5.1.0 STANDBY

DIR3:root> hashow

Local CP (Slot 5, CP0): Active, Warm Recovered

Remote CP (Slot 6, CP1): Standby, Healthy

HA enabled, Heartbeat Up, HA State synchronized

DIR3:root>

6. Perform firmware code upgrade,  but make sure the downloaded firmware code is unzipped to ftp directory.

FC_SW_A:root> firmwaredownload

You can run firmwareDownloadStatus to get the status

of this command.

This command will cause the switch to reset and will

require that existing telnet, secure telnet or SSH

sessions be restarted.

Do you want to continue [Y]: y

Server Name or IP Address: 10.10.10.200

User Name: user

File Name: /temp/v5.3.0

Network Protocol(1-auto-select, 2-FTP, 3-SCP) [1]: 2

Password:

Checking system settings for firmwareDownload...

Trying address-->AF_INET IP: 192.168.126.115, flags : 2

System settings check passed.

You can run firmwaredownloadstatus to get the status

of this command.

This command will cause a warm/non-disruptive boot on the switch,

but will require that existing telnet or SSH sessions

be restarted.

Do you want to continue [Y]: y

Firmware is being downloaded to the switch. This step may take up to 30

minutes.

Firmware is being downloaded to the switch. This step may take up to 30
minutes.

Please note that for upgrading firmware prior v5.2.0, When you issue the firmwareDownload command, there is an automatic search for the correct package file type associated with your switch. So you must Specify the path to the v5.1.0 directory and append the keyword release.plist to the path even though release.plist is not
located in the root of the firmware archive.  For for FOS v5.2 or later, instead of  Specify the fully-qualified path name of the firmware directory, e.g:
/pub/v5.1.0/release.plist
You will just need to specify the path of FOS directory, please refer to example output above.
File Name: /temp/v5.3.0

7. Check the firmware version of the switch, below is the output of 200E of firmwareshow.

FC_SW_A:root> firmwareshow

Primary partition: v5.3.1b

Secondary Partition: v5.3.1b

Below is the output on Enterprise level directors.

DIR3:root> firmwareshow

Slot Name Appl Primary/Secondary Versions Status

------------------------------------------------------------------------

5 CP0 FOS v5.3.1 ACTIVE *

v5.3.1

6 CP1 FOS v5.3.1 STANDBY