Downgrade the Software

Perform this procedure to downgrade the switch from the current trusted version to a previous release.

Important

MACsec connectivity association (CA) configurations fail during downgrade. If you plan to downgrade MACsec to an earlier version, delete the MACsec CA entries, perform the downgrade, and then reconfigure the MACsec CA entries. This applies to both 2AN and 4AN modes.

Before you begin

Ensure that you have a previous version uploaded to the switch.
Ensure you have a compatible configuration file if you downgrade to an earlier release. New releases contain significant enhancements, which cannot be used in previous software versions.

About this task

Note

The image file name is switch dependent. See Fabric Engine Release Notes for information about file names.

Procedure

Enter Privileged EXEC mode:

enable
Extract the release distribution files to the /intflash/release/ directory:

software add WORD<1-99> [-y]

After you enter this command, the switch verifies it has sufficient space to install the new image. If space is not insufficient, the switch checks the total space of the log files. If the total log file space is sufficient for the new image, the switch prompts you to remove log files.

Note

The image file is removed after the software add command runs.
Optional: Respond if you see the following prompt:

Log files need to be removed to have enough space to install the new image.

Do you want to remove all log files except the current one?

If your response is affirmative, the switch removes all log files except the currently active file and displays the following message for each file removed: Log file %s was removed
Activate a prior version of the software:

software activate WORD<1-99>
Restart the switch:

reset

Important

After you restart the system, you have the amount of time configured for the commit timer to verify the software change and commit the software to gold. If you do not commit the software to gold and auto-commit is not enabled, the system restarts with the last known working version after the commit timer expires. This feature ensures you can regain control of the system if an upgrade fails. By default, auto-commit is enabled.
Commit the software change:

software commit

Important

If you disable the auto-commit feature, you must run the software commit command manually before the commit timer expires to commit the new software version, otherwise the system restarts automatically to the previous (committed) version. By default, auto-commit is enabled.
Verify the downgrade:
- Check for alarms or unexpected errors using the show logging file tail command.
- Verify all modules and slots are online using the show sys-info command.
Optional: Remove unused software:

software remove WORD<1-99>

Variable Definitions

The following table defines parameters for the software command.


Variable	Value
activate `WORD<1-99>`	Copies the software version to the boot flash file. When you use the software activate command, the system checks for hardware dependencies and prevents a downgrade if it detects a dependency. For example, if a hardware component has a minimum software version dependency, you cannot downgrade to an incompatible software version or install the hardware component in a chassis that runs an incompatible software version.
add `WORD<1-99>`	Unpacks a software release <version>. After you enter this command, the switch verifies it has sufficient space to install the new image. If space is not insufficient, the switch checks the total space of the log files. If the total log file space is sufficient for the new image, the switch prompts you to remove all log files except the currently active file. If your response is affirmative, the switch displays the following message for each file removed: `Log file %s was removed`
remove WORD<1-99>	Specifies the path and version of the compressed software release archive file to remove.
-y Note: Exception: not supported on 5520 Series.	Suppresses the confirmation message to automatically overwrite the non-primary image. If you omit this parameter, you must confirm the action to overwrite the non-primary image.