VDX6740T Issue + Firmware Upgrade help

[Doppel]

Hi there.

We have a Brocade VDX6740T-1G which up until recently was acting normal. Currently I not able to SSH, telnet or ping it from any of the connected vlans or core switch. There have been no changes on switch or network that would of affected the switch in this way, so very strange.

I am only able to connect to it via a direct console connection to check config and make sure its still running, which it is. And the Core switch still is routing traffic as normal, but this particular brocade I cannot connect to it over the network in any normal way

I have rebooted the switch and it does not help with the above issue.

It is currently on firmware version 4.1.3b. I am hoping upgrading the firmware might help. I was wondering what the upgrade path might be to go from 4.1.3b to the next safest firmware version.

[Michael_Morey]

Doppel,

4.1.3b is very old indeed.  The path to get to the latest version of NOS will depend on what you value most; your time or your config.

If time is more important, you can do a Netinstall using a USB drive or Via TFTP/NFS and jump directly to 7.4.1x.  The caveat is that you will lose all of your configuration and the switch will come up in a factory default state.

If you absolutely are required to keep your config intact while upgrading, the path would be (each of these requiring a coldboot): 4.1.x > 5.0.x > 6.0.x > 7.0.x > 7.1.x > 7.2.x > 7.3.x > 7.4.x.  I could see this easily taking ~8hrs to complete if you do not run into any issues. 

For production VCS fabrics we also have a method that blends both of these approaches called the Multi-Version Upgrade.  Essentially you introduce a new VDX into the fabric to clone the config.  You then remove that device and perform the step by step upgrade to arrive at a fully migrated config.  Lastly you perform a Netinstall on your production devices and copy over the migrated config to mitigate downtime.

Hope this helps

[Doppel]

Thank you for the reply Michael. It does help alot.

We may want to do it the slow way, and do a path it through the versions to see if our issue resolves atleast in the next version up. But we are still deciding on best way to do it on our end.

I was hoping you might be able to help me find the firmware versions from 4.0.x > 6.0.x? I can see on Extreme Portal that there are versions 7.0.x and up but no earlier versions on the downloads page.

Regards,

Ned

[Michael_Morey]

Doppel,

We no longer post the old versions as they have not been supported in quite some time.  I will respond to you privately with a link.