Cisco MDS 9000 Family Release Notes for Cisco MDS SAN-OS Release 3.3(4a) (OL-14116-13, November 2009)

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Cisco MDS 9000 Family Release Notes for Cisco MDS SAN-OS Release 3.3(4a)
OL-14116-13
Downgrading Your Cisco MDS SAN-OS Software Image
Performing a Disruptive Upgrade on a Single Supervisor MDS Family Switch
Cisco MDS SAN-OS software upgrades are disruptive on the following single supervisor Cisco MDS
Family switches:
• MDS 9120 switch
• MDS 9140 switch
• MDS 9216i switch
If you are performing an upgrade on one of those switches, you should follow the nondisruptive upgrade
path shown in Table 6, even though the upgrade is disruptive. Following the nondisruptive upgrade path
ensures that the binary startup configuration remains intact.
If you do not follow the upgrade path, (for example, you upgrade directly from SAN-OS Release 2.1(2)
or earlier version to SAN-OS Release 3.3(4a)), the binary startup configuration is deleted because it is
not compatible with the new image, and the ASCII startup configuration file is applied when the switch
comes up with the new upgraded image. When the ASCII startup configuration file is applied, there may
be errors. Because of this, we recommend that you follow the nondisruptive upgrade path.
Upgrading an MDS 9222i Switch
If you are running SAN-OS Release 3.3(4a) on an MDS 9222i switch and you want to upgrade to an
NX-OS 4.x release, you can upgrade to release 4.1(3a) and higher. Do not attempt to upgrade an MDS
9222i switch from SAN-OS 3.3(4a) to NX-OS 4.1(1x) (including 4.1(1b) and 4.1(1c)) because the
upgrade path is not supported on the MDS 9222i. This restriction does not apply to other platforms.
Before upgrading, issue the show install all impact upgrade-image CLI command to determine if your
upgrade will be nondisruptive.
Following the upgrade, you may need to enable features with the feature feature-name command, such
as the feature iscsi command. In SAN-OS 3.3(x) release, features are enabled with the feature-name
enable command, such as the iscsi enable command.
Downgrading Your Cisco MDS SAN-OS Software Image
This section lists the guidelines recommended for downgrading your Cisco MDS SAN-OS software
image and contains the following sections:
• General Downgrading Guidelines, page 22
• FICON Downgrade Paths, page 24
• Downgrading the SSI Image on Your SSM, page 25
• Downgrading an MDS 9222i Switch, page 25
General Downgrading Guidelines
Use the following guidelines to nondisruptively downgrade your Cisco MDS SAN-OS Release 3.3(4a):