Dell EMC SmartFabric OS10 Installation, Upgrade, and Downgrade Guide

Summary of Upgrade Steps

1. Download the new OS10 image.
2. Install the image on VLT-Peer1 and VLT-Peer2 nodes.
3. Upgrade the secondary VLT node. The production traffic is not affected during this process because the primary VLT node continues to forward traffic.
4. After the secondary VLT node upgrade is complete, upgrade the primary VLT node. During the primary VLT node upgrade, the system reloads. During this reload, the secondary VLT node becomes the primary and continues to forward traffic.

The following describes the VLT upgrade process:

In this example topology:

• VLT-Peer1 and VLT-Peer2 are leaf nodes that are connected to the spine switch through port channel 10.
• Host1 is connected to both the VLT peer nodes through port channel 20.
• Host2 uses switch-independent NIC teaming.
• Switch1 is connected to the VLT peer nodes through port channel 30.

Important notes

• The ports that are connected to Host2 are not part of a VLT port channel. If you have this type of deployment, configure the delay-restore for orphan ports feature on the VLT nodes to reduce traffic loss during upgrade or reload.
• When you upgrade one of the VLT peer nodes (for example, VLT-Peer1), the forwarding plane continues to forward the traffic to the other node (VLT-Peer2).
• If you are upgrading VLT nodes from 10.5.0.5 or previous release to 10.5.1.9 or later release, see:
  • VLT upgrade with minimal loss for upgrades from 10.5.0.5 or earlier to 10.5.1.9 or later releases.
  • VLT upgrade with minimal loss in a VLT or VXLAN topology if network statements are used to advertise BGP prefixes.
• You must not make any configuration changes when the VLT peer nodes are running different versions of the software.

1. Download the new software image on both the VLT peer nodes (VLT-Peer 1 and VLT-Peer 2) from the Dell Support Site. Extract the bin files from the tar file, and save the file in EXEC mode. Download the extracted bin file to the OS10 switch using the image download command.

   image download file-url

   For example:

   VLT-Peer1# image download scp://userid:passwd@hostip:/filepath

   VLT-Peer2# image download scp://userid:passwd@hostip:/filepath

   NOTE Some Windows unzip applications insert extra carriage returns (CR) or line feeds (LF) when they extract the contents of a .tar file, which may corrupt the downloaded OS10 binary image. Turn off this option if you use a Windows-based tool to untar an OS10 binary file.
2. (Optional) View the current software download status in EXEC mode.

   VLT-Peer1# show image status
   Image Upgrade State:     idle
   ==================================================
   File Transfer State:     idle
   --------------------------------------------------
   State Detail:          Completed: No error
   Task Start:            2018-08-16T19:38:37Z
   Task End:              2018-08-16T19:38:44Z
   Transfer Progress:     100 %
   Transfer Bytes:        417828173 bytes
   File Size:             417828173 bytes
   Transfer Rate:         58152 kbps 
    
   Installation State:      idle
   --------------------------------------------------
   State Detail:          No install information available
   Task Start:            0000-00-00T00:00:00Z
   Task End:              0000-00-00T00:00:00Z
   

   VLT-Peer2# show image status
   Image Upgrade State:     idle
   ==================================================
   File Transfer State:     idle
   --------------------------------------------------
   State Detail:          Completed: No error
   Task Start:            2018-08-16T19:41:49Z
   Task End:              2018-08-16T19:42:09Z
   Transfer Progress:     100 %
   Transfer Bytes:        417828173 bytes
   File Size:             417828173 bytes
   Transfer Rate:         21092 kbps 
    
   Installation State:      idle
   --------------------------------------------------
   State Detail:          No install information available
   Task Start:            0000-00-00T00:00:00Z
   Task End:              0000-00-00T00:00:00Z 

3. Install the image using the image install command on both the VLT peer nodes.

   VLT-Peer1# image install image://PKGS_OS10-Enterprise10.5.1.9.483stretch-installer-x86_64.bin
   
   Install started.

   VLT-Peer2# image install image://PKGS_OS10-Enterprise10.5.1.9.483stretch-installer-x86_64.bin
   
   Install started.

4. Use the show image status command to view the installation status.

   VLT-Peer1# show image status
   Image Upgrade State:     idle
   ==================================================
   File Transfer State:     idle
   --------------------------------------------------
   State Detail:          Completed: No error
   Task Start:            2018-08-16T19:38:37Z
   Task End:              2018-08-16T19:38:44Z
   Transfer Progress:     100 %
   Transfer Bytes:        417828173 bytes
   File Size:             417828173 bytes
   Transfer Rate:         58152 kbps 
    
   Installation State:      idle
   --------------------------------------------------
   State Detail:          Completed: Success
   Task Start:            2018-08-16T19:40:57Z
   Task End:              2018-08-16T19:45:16Z
   

   VLT-Peer2# show image status
   Image Upgrade State:     idle
   ==================================================
   File Transfer State:     idle
   --------------------------------------------------
   State Detail:          Completed: No error
   Task Start:            2018-08-16T19:41:49Z
   Task End:              2018-08-16T19:42:09Z
   Transfer Progress:     100 %
   Transfer Bytes:        417828173 bytes
   File Size:             417828173 bytes
   Transfer Rate:         21092 kbps 
    
   Installation State:      idle
   --------------------------------------------------
   State Detail:          Completed: Success
   Task Start:            2018-08-16T19:42:59Z
   Task End:              2018-08-16T19:47:19Z 

5. Change the boot partition to standby on VLT-Peer1.

   VLT-Peer1# boot system standby

6. Save the configuration to startup-configuration. Optionally obtain a backup of the startup configuration in EXEC mode on VLT-Peer1.

   VLT-Peer1# write memory
   VLT-Peer1# copy config://startup.xml config://<backup file name>

7. Reload VLT-Peer1.

   VLT-Peer1# reload

8. Wait for VLT-Peer1 to come up. VLT adjacency is established. VLT-Peer1 becomes the secondary node. Wait until VLT-Peer1 starts to forward traffic after the delay-restore timer expires.

   VLT-Peer1# show vlt 100
   Domain ID                  : 100
   Unit ID                    : 2
   Role                       : secondary
   Version                    : 2.3
   Local System MAC address   : 0c:33:d1:73:cd:00
   Role priority              : 32768
   VLT MAC address            : 0c:33:d1:e7:5e:00
   IP address                 : fda5:74c8:b79e:1::2
   Delay-Restore timer        : 90 seconds
   Remaining Restore time     : 80 seconds
   Peer-Routing               : Disabled

9. Change the boot partition to standby on VLT-Peer2.

   VLT-Peer2# boot system standby

10. Save the configuration to startup-configuration. Optionally obtain a backup of the startup configuration in EXEC mode on VLT-Peer2.

    VLT-Peer2# write memory
    VLT-Peer2# copy config://startup.xml config://<backup file name>

11. Reload VLT-Peer2.

    VLT-Peer2# reload

12. Wait for VLT-Peer2 to come up. VLT adjacency is established. VLT-Peer2 becomes the secondary node. Wait until VLT-Peer2 starts to forward traffic after the delay-restore timer expires. To check the delay-restore timer value, enter the show vlt domain-id command.

    VLT-Peer2# show vlt 100
    Domain ID                  : 100
    Unit ID                    : 2
    Role                       : secondary
    Version                    : 2.3
    Local System MAC address   : 0c:33:d1:73:ee:00
    Role priority              : 32768
    VLT MAC address            : 0c:33:d1:e7:5e:00
    IP address                 : fda5:74c8:b79e:1::2
    Delay-Restore timer        : 90 seconds
    Remaining Restore time     : 80 seconds
    Peer-Routing               : Disabled
    

    When the delay-restore timer expires, the system generates a syslog message similar to the following one:

    <165>1 2021-02-24T02:29:29.296791+00:00 host1 dn_alm 881 - - Node.1-Unit.1:PRI [event], Dell EMC (OS10) %VLT_DELAY_RESTORE_COMPLETE: VLT delay restore timer stop

Upgrade on VLT peer nodes is now complete. Both the nodes actively forward traffic. After upgrade, VLT-Peer1 is the primary node and VLT-Peer2 is the secondary node.