Upgrading the Firmware of a Three-Rack Ring MCT Pair in Small Data Center

  1. The firmware on the MCT leaf is downloaded.

  2. Enabling maintenance mode on one of the leafs in a three-rack ring MCT leaf pair follows the same behavior as the MCT leaf pair in a Clos topology. The only difference is the iBGP Layer 3 backup link between MCT leaf pairs. Maintenance mode results in the traffic being redirected to the peer MCT leaf.

  3. The running-configuration is saved on the first MCT leaf to preserve all current configurations including the maintenance mode enable configuration.

  4. The device is rebooted for firmware activation without traffic loss.

  5. After the firmware is upgraded, the maintenance mode is disabled to allow traffic again through the upgraded MCT leaf.

  6. The running-config is saved again to ensure the maintenance mode config remains disabled.

    The same process can be carried out on the second MCT leaf to upgrade the firmware without traffic loss.

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    Three-rack ring first MCT leaf firmware upgrade with maintenance mode
    Three rack ring first MCT leaf firmware upgrade with maintenance mode
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    Three-rack ring second MCT leaf firmware upgrade with maintenance mode
    Three rack ring second MCT leaf firmware upgrade with maintenance mode