CCIE or Null!

Recently I tried updating the IOS of a Catalyst 2960 using it’s web interface (Why I don’t know), but like everything Cisco GUI related (SDM) I had trouble getting it to actually work. The page would just sit their and cycle. So I found myself unable to update the IOS using the GUI. So I extracted the files within the .tar file to flash, told to the switch to boot using the newer IOS then issued the reload command.

Start off by putting the .tar file on your tftp server like any normal IOS upgrade, the key difference here is you want to use the following command:

archive tar /xtract tftp://192.168.1.5/c2960-lanbasek9-tar.122-58.SE1.tar flash:

The variables here are the IP Address of the TFTP server and the IOS image file name.

Next you will see the switch extract the files within the .tar file

Extract tar file in flash

The last thing you can see is the .bin IOS file. Now I issue the boot system command:

boot system flash:/c2960-lanbasek9-mz.122-58.SE1/c2960-lanbasek9-mz.122-58.SE1.bin

Note: The contents on the .tar file are extracted into a folder

This tells the switch to boot this particular IOS file. Then after you issue the reload command and the switch boots up you will see the switch loads with the new IOS version.

IOS Version loaded by switch