Software Installation and Upgrade for vEdge Routers

Best Practices for Software Upgrades

• Upgrade the software from the vManage NMS rather than from the CLI.
• If you are upgrading the software image on a remote vManage NMS, the overlay network must already be up and operational.
• If you are upgrading all devices in the overlay network, you must perform the upgrade in the following order:
  1. Upgrade the vManage NMSs.
  2. Upgrade the vBond orchestrators.
  3. Upgrade one-half of the vSmart controllers.
  4. Have the upgraded vSmart controllers run for at least 1 day (24 hours) to ensure that the Viptela devices and the overlay network are stable and running as expected.
  5. Upgrade the remainder of the vSmart controllers.
  6. Upgrade 10 percent of the vEdge routers. For multi-router sites, it is recommended that you upgrade only one router per site.
  7. Have the upgraded vEdge routers run for at least 1 day (24 hours) to ensure that the Viptela devices and the overlay network are stable and running as expected.
  8. Upgrade the remainder of vEdge routers.
• If the new software images are located on an FTP server, ensure that the FTP server can handle concurrent file transfers.
• If the new software images are in the image repository on the vManage NMS, ensure that the WAN in which the vManage NMS is located has sufficient capacity for concurrent file transfers.
• You cannot include the vManage NMS in a group software upgrade operation. You must upgrade and reboot the vManage server by itself.
• In a group software upgrade operation, you can upgrade and reboot up to 32 vEdge routers in parallel at the same time.
• When you are setting a software image to be the default software image, activate it first, before making it the default image.

Obtain Software Images from Viptela

To upgrade the software running on the devices in the overlay network, you must first obtain the new software packages from the Viptela website. To do so, go to http://viptela.com/support/, log in to Viptela Support, and download the software packages for the new release. You can also download the software images to an FTP server in your network and, from the vManage NMS, point to the upgrade packages on the remote host.

For initial software installation, the software package names for Releases 16.1 and later have the following format, where x.x.x represents the Viptela software release version. These packages contain the virtual machines and the Viptela software.

• vEdge Cloud router
  • viptela-x.x.x-edge-genericx86-64.ova (for ESXi Hypervisor)
  • viptela-edge-genericx86-64.qcow2 (for KVM Hypervisor)
• vBond orchestrator
  • viptela-edge-genericx86-64.ova (for ESXi Hypervisor)
  • viptela-edge-genericx86-64.qcow2 (for KVM Hypervisor)
• vSmart controller
  • viptela-smart-genericx86-64.ova (for ESXi Hypervisor)
  • viptela-smart-genericx86-64.qcow2 (for KVM Hypervisor)
• vManage
  • viptela-vmanage-genericx86-64.ova (for ESXi Hypervisor)
  • viptela-vmanage-genericx86-64.qcow2 (for KVM Hypervisor)

The software upgrade package names for Releases 16.1 and later have the following format, where x.x.x represents the release version. The strings mips64 and x86_64 represent the underlying chip architecture.

• vEdge router hardware—viptela-x.x.x-mips64.tar.gz
• vBond orchestrator, vEdge Cloud router, and vSmart controller—viptela-x.x.x-x86_64.tar.gz
• vManage NMS—vmanage-x.x.x-x86_64.tar.gz

For Releases 15.4 and earlier, the software upgrade packages are in files with the extension .tar.bz2, or in the case of the vEdge 100 router, .tar.gz. The package names have the following format, where x.x.x represents the release version. The strings mips64 and x86_64 represent the underlying chip architecture.

• vEdge router—viptela-x.x.x-mips64.tar.bz2
• vBond orchestrator and vSmart controller—viptela-x.x.x-x86_64.tar.bz2
• vManage NMS—vmanage-x.x.x-x86_64.tar.bz2

Add New Software Images to the Repository

Once you have downloaded the new software packages from the Viptela website, upload them into the vManage repository. If you downloaded the software images to an FTP server, from the vManage NMS, point to the upgrade packages on the remote host.

1. In vManage NMS, select the Maintenance ► Software Upgrade screen.
2. Click the Repository button located on the right side of the title bar. The Software Repository screen opens.
3. Click Add New Software, and select the location from which to download the software image. The location can be:
   • vManage—To select an image stored on the local vManage NMS.
   • Remote Server—To select an image stored on a remote file server.
   • Remote Server – vManage—To select an image stored on a remote vManage. This location is available in Releases 17.2 and later.
4. If you select vManage, the Upload Software to vManage dialog box opens.
   1. Click Choose File to select the software images for vEdge routers, vSmart controllers, or vManage NMS.
   2. Click Upload to add the images to the vManage repository.
5. If you select Remote Server, the Location of Software on Remote Server dialog box opens.
   1. Enter the version number of the software image.
   2. Enter the URL of the FTP or HTTP server on which the images reside.
   3. Click OK to point to the software images on the remote host.
6. If you select Remote Server – vManage. the Upload Software to vManage dialog box opens.
   1. Enter the hostname of the vManage server.
   2. Click Choose File to select the software images for vEdge routers, vSmart controllers, or vManage NMS.
   3. Click Upload to add the images to the vManage repository.

The added software images are listed in the vManage repository table and are available for installing on the devices. The table displays the name and type of image, when it was updated, and the URL.

To return to Device List view, click Device List.

Upgrade the Software Image

After the software images are present in the vManage image repository, you can upload the software image on a device:

1. In vManage NMS, select the Maintenance ► Software Upgrade screen.
2. Click the checkbox to the left of each row to select one or more devices on which to upgrade the software image. To search for a device, use the Device Groups drop-down and/or the Search box located directly above the device table.
3. Click the Upgrade button located in the upper left corner of the screen. The Software Upgrade dialog box opens.
4. From the Version drop-down, select the version of the software image you want to install. The vManage and Remote Server buttons are activated.
5. Select whether the software image is available on vManage NMS or on the Remote Server.
6. If you select Remote Server in Step 5, choose the appropriate VPN for vSmart/vManage and for vEdge, and continue with Step 8.
7. If you select vManage NMS in Step 5, you can choose to automatically activate the new software image and reboot the device by selecting the Activate and Reboot checkbox. (Note that if you do not select the Activate and Reboot checkbox, the new software image is still installed but the device continues to use the existing software image. To activate the newly installed software image, see Activate a New Software Image below.)
8. Click Upgrade. A progress bar indicates the status of the software upgrade.

If the upgrade does not complete successfully within 60 minutes, it times out.

If the control connection to the vManage NMS does not come up within 15 minutes, vManage NMS automatically reverts the device to the previously running software image.

Activate a New Software Image

If you selected the Activate and Reboot checkbox when uploading the software image, then when you click Upgrade, the new software activates automatically and the device reboots.

If you uploaded the software image from a Remote Server, or if you did not select the Activate and Reboot checkbox when uploading the software image from the vManage NMS, the new image is installed on the device but the device continues to use the existing software image. To activate the new software image:

1. In vManage NMS, select the Maintenance ► Software Upgrade screen.
2. Click the checkbox to the left of each row to select one or more devices on which to activate the new software image. To search for a device, use the Device Groups drop-down and/or the Search box located directly above the device table.
3. Click the Activate button located in the upper left corner of the screen to activate the new software. The activation process reboots the device and upgrades it to the newly installed software.

If the control connection between the device and the vManage NMS does not come up within 15 minutes, vManage NMS automatically reverts the device to the previously running software image.

View Log of Software Upgrade Activities

To view the status of software upgrades on each device and a log of related activities:

1. Click the Active Devices toggle button. The top of the screen, directly below the title bar, displays the total number of upgrades performed along with the total number of successes and failures. The Software Upgrade table displays the status of each upgrade operation.
2. Click the right angle bracket to the left of each table row to see details of the operation. To close the details, click the down angle bracket.

Redundant Software Images

You can download and store multiple software images on a Viptela device.

To list the currently installed software version and to see which software image is currently running, use the following command:

Viptela# show software
VERSION   ACTIVE  DEFAULT  PREVIOUS  CONFIRMED  TIMESTAMP                 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
15.4.3    true    false    false     user       2016-02-04T03:45:13-00:00
15.4.2    false   true     true      user       2015-12-06T14:01:12-00:00

To upgrade the software to a specific version, use the following command:

Viptela# request software activate