5520 mixed stack w/5510 upgrade GOTCHA!

[telecom116]

Experienced something tonight and thought I'd let folks know a upgrade GOTCHA involving mixed 5510/5520 stacks.

DO NOT USE THE SECONDARY IMAGE command when downloading software on mixed stacks involving ERS 5510, ie:

download address 10.10.10.10 secondary image 5xxx_617005s.img

I strongly believe the 5510 switches do not have a dual boot image storage capability, but the existing code (6.1.4) will happily let you use the secondary modifier, and then proceed to cause much cussing and gas use (thankfully only 10 minutes from home rather than some sites 10 hours away).

It's too late in the night (1:47 CST) for me to go into it, but I was able to recover the stack, get the code upgraded, and have the stack form properly without having to restore the configuration to it (thank you to HP Network Automation for confirming this fact.) 

If anyone wants to hear the full tale of woe, I might be inclined to do it.  Later.

[Flintstone]

Hi telecom116,
Thanks for sharing your  GOTCHA experiences with us 

CheerZ

[Dominik]

You are absolutly right telecom116, the ERS5510 is the only sitch of the ERS5000 famaily that
has only one flash memory bank.
A secondary image is not available for the ERS5510, so be aware of this in the future.

Cheers

[telecom116]

After having to resurrect a couple of 5520 switch configs with the code upgrade issues of 6.1.6, I have been been using the secondary boot image as a "just in case" since.  However, you would think that Avaya upgrade would be smart enough to block this command if stacked with a 5510.

However, I forgot that this particular stack even had a 5510 in it.  Luckily I only one other stack with a  5510/5520.

When you only have three 5510s amongst the 60 or so 5520 switches, you tend to forget about the quirks. 

[Michael McNamara]

We only have a few hybrid 5510/5520 stacks but the few we have continually give us headaches. So much so that I've now outlawed (policy) the stacking of the two switch models. If we need to add a new switch to a 5510, the 5510 must be replaced with a 5520.

I have a lot of 5510s in a top of rack configuration that work great... but in a stack, quite a few issues.

Cheers!