This article has been superseded by Entuity v22.0. Please see this article for the latest information on this topic.
Applicable to Entuity v20.0 and v21.0.
Prerequisites to updating firmware
Note regarding updated firmware management dependencies
To manage the directory of IOS images and view firmware subfolders
Introduction:
From Entuity v20.0 upwards, Entuity offers functionality that enables you to update firmware images across Cisco IOS network devices.
This is undertaken by the following method:
- Upload the image to a TFTP server/network share.
- Create task (or use an out-of-the-box task) to deploy the firmware update.
- Schedule the task to execute at a time of choosing.
Prerequisites to updating firmware:
- You must have the Configuration Management module enabled in Entuity. Please see this article for help and information on configuring the Configuration Management module in Entuity.
- The device must have a Configuration Management license and credentials. Please see this section for help and information on licensing in Entuity.
- A TFTP server must be available with the correct credentials set.
- A folder containing firmware images must be set as a value in the [lcm] section of entuity.cfg.
Note regarding updated firmware management dependencies:
From Entuity v21.0 P01 and v20.0 P06 upwards, firmware management dependencies have been updated. If you have an override for scriptEngine in your startup_WIN32_site_specific.cfg or startup_UNIX_site_specific.cfg file, and you wish to continue using Firmware management, you will need to add the following statement below the last classpath:
=;${ENTUITY_HOME}/lib/TomCat/common/lib/commons-codec.jar
i.e.:
=;${ENTUITY_HOME}/lib/TomCat/webapps/webUI/WEB-INF/lib/EYEEvents.jar
=;${ENTUITY_HOME}/lib/TomCat/common/lib/commons-net.jar =;${ENTUITY_HOME}/lib/TomCat/common/lib/commons-codec.jar=com.entuity.configManager.ScriptEngineCli=-start
Supported filetypes:
From Entuity v21.0 P02 upwards, all file extension types are supported for firmware by default, except .properties files. If you wish to specify permissible file extension types, you can use the firmwareAllowedFileExtensions parameter in the [lcm] section of entuity.cfg.
If you are using Entuity v21.0 P01 or below, the following firmware filetypes are supported:
- .bin
- .image
- .img
- .ipe (from Entuity v20.0 P03 upwards)
- files with no extensions
- tftp
- ftp (Entuity v21.0 P01 upwards)
- sftp (Entuity v21.0 P01 upwards)
- scp (Entuity v21.0 P01 upwards)
- rcp (Entuity v21.0 P01 upwards)
FirmwareManager functions:
Please see this article for a list of available FirmwareManager functions.
Required user permission:
The Configuration Management Firmware tool permission is required to add firmware to the repository, to start or stop firmware updates, and to edit firmware update schedules. There are firmware-specific task permissions that are also required. Please see this article for further help and information on user permissions in Entuity.
Firmware dashboards:
A Firmware dashboard will be available at both the View and the device level.
- View level - dashboard shows every device in this View and any firmware attributes for each device
- Device level - dashboard shows the following:
- Key Info - current status of the firmware on this device.
- Events - past events involving firmware on this device.
- Firmware history - table containing firmware update history as undertaken by this process. Only successful tasks are recorded. The details are as follows:
- Started At - time and date the update started.
- Finished At - time and date the update finished.
- Filename - filename of the image.
- Status - status of the change, one of the following:
- Successfully backed up image
- Image Uploaded and Verified
- Image Updated and Rebooting
- Error: <specific error message>
Firmware management tasks:
There are three firmware tasks, which are accessible from the device-level dashboard, the Overflow Menu and the Context Menu. Please see this article for help and information on undertaking these tasks.
- Firmware Backup - This uses the transfer method to copy the running firmware to the transfer folder (before Entuity v20.0 P02)/firmware repository (after Entuity v20.0 P02). This task provides a warning to the user before proceeding. Failure during the pre-update checks will cancel this update.
- Firmware Upload - This task checks and prepare the device for upload, then use a transfer method to copy the image to the device. This opens the Parameters form, wherein you can specify the parameters of your preferred firmware. The fields in this form are as follows:
- Apply Regex filter to imageName - If On, filtered images will appear in the Firmware Image. This is Off by default.
- imageName (Filename) - A list in the dropdown field from which you can select a firmware images in the Firmware Repository. By default this will be filtered based on the selected devices' type (e.g. Router) and model. If multiple devices are selected then the filters will need to apply to them all.
- Firmware Update - This task requires Firmware Upload as a prerequisite and will fail if the previous Firmware Upload task was not run. This provides a warning to the user before proceeding. After successfully updating the firmware, the device will reboot.
Steps:
If any of the following steps fail, the entire task is cancelled for that device and an event is generated.
Firmware Backup:
Copies the running firmware to the transfer server.
- Gets the location of the firmware running on the device.
- Copies that firmware to the transfer server.
Firmware Upload Checks:
Performs checks before starting the upload.
- Checks that the target image exists.
- Checks that the device has sufficient storage space for the target image.
- This step will fail if the device lacks storage space.
Firmware Upload Image:
Uploads the target image to the device.
- Copies the target image to the transfer folder.
- Upload the target image.
- Verifies the target image using MD5 hash.
- Verifies the target image using Cisco-specific variety.
Firmware Update Checks:
- Verifies the target image using MD5 hash.
- Verifies the configuration register.
- Verifies the boot variable.
Firmware Configure and Reboot:
- Saves the configuration of the new image.
- Reboots the device. If not logged out already, will log out.
To manage the directory of IOS images and view firmware subfolders:
You can manage a directory of IOS images hosted on the current server via the Firmware tab under the Configuration Management page.
This page displays the IOS files that have been registered in your specified repositiory folder on the local machine or on a network share. The folder will be scanned and its properties modified. You can specify the firmware folder in the [lcm] section of entuity.cfg.
From Entuity v21.0 P02 upwards, you can view the contents any specified subfolders via the navigation tree on the left of the page. You can specify whether to enable the scanning of subfolders of target folders in the [lcm] section of entuity.cfg.
Note, only one level of subfolders is currently supported, therefore subfolders within subfolders are not displayed. No folders will be selected when you navigate to this page, and so you will need to first select a folder in order to view information in the table on the right of the window.
Creating a new subfolder, uploading a file to a subfolder, or moving files between subfolders will need to be performed on the file system directly.
The file table on the right of this tab consists of the following columns:
Column Name | Column Description |
---|---|
Name | file name. |
Description | user-set description (for search). |
Filepath | filepath of the file. |
Size | size of the file (in bytes). |
Version | user-specified version (from 'Cisco IOS Upgrade Planner tool'). |
Type Filter | regex filter for allowed devices' type. |
Model Filter | regex filter for allowed devices' model. |
Required MD5 |
user-specified MD5 hash. |
Generated MD5 |
MD5 hash of the file. Generated on file retrieval. |
Last Modified |
When this file was last modified. |
From this page, you can view, upload, edit or delete an image. Please see this article for help and information on how to do this.
Incidents and events:
The following incidents and events can be raised for firmware issues:
Incident:
- Firmware Task Failed - raised if the Firmware Update Failed event is sent.
Events:
- Firmware Task Failed - raised if a firmware update fails. The description will contain the step where it failed, and its cause.
- Firmware Task Success - raised if a firmware update succeeds. This event is raised whenever an image is successfully uploaded onto a device, or a device has been updated to use the target image.
- Firmware Task Warning - raised if a firmware update encountered a non-critical error but was able to continue. This event is raised when a verify command fails, which can happen when an uploaded image is missing verification data.
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