Downgrade the Software

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

Important

In VOSS 4.2 and later, the encryption modules are included in the image file. Therefore, the load-encryption command and the software add-module command is present but no longer applicable to the current release. You do not require a CLI command to add or load the encryption module. Use the software add-module command only if you downgrade to a release earlier than VOSS 4.2.

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 installed.

About this task

Note

The image file name is switch dependent. See Release Notes for VOSS 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>
Extract the module files to the /intflash/release directory:

Software add-module [software version] [modules file name]

Note

This step applies to downgrades to a software version earlier than VOSS 4.2.
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>	Specifies the name of the software release image.
add WORD<1-99>	Specifies the path and version of the compressed software release archive file.
remove WORD<1-99>	Specifies the path and version of the compressed software release archive file.