Cisco iOS upgrade via TFTP server

  1. Connect via ssh to cisco switch.
  2. Enter ‘enabled‘ and provide password.
  3. Delete all files except: config.text, startup-config.bak, vlan.dat, multiple-fs, private-config.text
  4. Delete all folders except: dc_profile_dir
  5. Enter ‘delete /force /recursive flash:NAME OF FILE OR FOLDER HERE‘
  6. Download the application Tftpd32 on your PC.  The file can be found here: http://tftpd32.jounin.net/
  7. Start TFTP server application with IOS/firmware file in server’s root directory
  8. Enter ‘archive download-sw /overwrite /allow-feature-upgrade tftp://IPADDRESS/CISCO_IOS_FILE‘ Check capitalization!!!  This step will take some time as it extracts all the files.  Note that file ends in ‘tar‘.  If this fails, drop the ‘/allow-feature-upgrade‘ from the command.  The /allow-feature-upgrade option allows installation of an image with a different feature set (for example, upgrade from the IP base image to the IP services image).
  9. Keep in mind there’s ssh timeout so you should hit ‘space‘ or any other key several times.
  10. You should get the message ‘All software images installed.‘ if everything went ok. Do not interrupt the process, wait for the ‘All software images installed.‘ message.
  11. Enter ‘sh flash‘ and you will see the new contents of the flash directory.  Hopefully with your new IOS listed.
  12. Enter ‘sh boot‘ and you will see the new ISO listed in the BOOT path-list field.
  13. Enter ‘wr‘ to save changes and reload the switch.  It will say ‘Building configuration…‘ and then say ‘[OK]‘
  14. Enter ‘reload‘ and confirm to reboot the switch.
  15. After switch finished rebooting, enter ‘sh ver‘ to display version and confirm switch is running with correct/new firmware.
  16. Congratulations!  You are finished.

Source: http://jhigham.blogspot.ch/2013/04/update-cisco-catalyst-switch-firmware.html