Upgrading FTOS from USB

I have had some trouble lately upgrading FTOS via TFTP, the session starts but throws some errors. An easier way to upgrade the firmware or FTOS software is to use a USB stick:

FTOS needs to see a FAT32 formatted USB stick. I have seen plenty of times where the stick inserted with FAT32 isn't recognised with a file system. If this happens just get the switch to format the USB stick with this command:

format USBFLASH:

Once the stick is formatted copy the FTOS .bin file to the stick from a laptop and insert it back into the switch chassis.

Issue the command:

upgrade system usbflash: A:

After the file has copied to flash you issue the command reload to finish the process.

The process can take about 5 minutes. Please note in this example, I'm upgrading from version 8.x.x.x to 9.3.0.0 on a S4820T, in this case on reboot each physical port had to have a firmware upgrade from version 01.50 to 01.66 which took approximatly 10 minutes. Make sure you plan this into your downtime plan!

You can verify the firmware upgrade by issuing the show os-version command

Dell M1000e IOM firmware fails from CMC GUI

When trying to update the IOM firmware from the CMC GUI you see the error below. I tried pulling the standby CMC and vice-versa but this did not work either.

Fix:

Connect to the CMC management IP address via putty over SSH, and issue this command.

racadm fwupdate -s -m all

This should list all the modules that require a firmware update.

racadm fwupdate -u -m iominf-1

The command above will update the IOM is A1, so you will need to repeat this if you have more IOMs, changing the last digit. Be warned this command will reboot the switch!

Updating firmware on Force10 MXL Blade IOM

Attach to the switch via a console cable, or the CMC backdoor. Start TFTP on your PC with the firmware in the TFTP root.

Show system brief or show os-version
Conf
Int management 0/0
ip address 1.2.3.4 /24
no shutdown
exit
upgrade system tftp://1.2.3.1/FTOS-XL-8.3.16.4.bin A:
wr
reload
show os-version