I need to know how to upgrade the IOS on CISCO 6500’s, So here is the outline along with a download of the official PDF from CISCO.

First confirm what IOS image is running, which supervisor is running as active and the redundancy mode that is active. This can be achieved with the following commands.

Router#show version
Router#show module
Router#show redundancy 

You should now know the current IOS version and the module numbers of the supervisor units and which one is active.
Now we need to set up the boot variable (so the correct IOS boots) and copy the new IOS over if necessary.

Router#show bootvar  (Find out the current IOS booting)

Router#copy start tftp (copy the current start up configuration to TFTP for safe keeping)

Router#copy tftp disk0:          (Copy the new IOS to the two supervisors)
Router#copy tftp slavedisk0:

Router#no boot system disk0:old_IOS.bin
Router#boot system disk0:new_IOS.bin   (set up the new boot variable on the active supervisor)

Router#copy run start  (syncs running configuration on both supervisor units)

Now the boot variables are set up and the new IOS images are on the supervisors we can upgrade each in turn, starting with the one currently set as the standby.

Router#hw-module module  reset  (chose standby supervisor to reset)

Standby supervisor will now reboot and restart running the new IOS image. During this time the redundancy mode will fall back to RPR mode due to the mismatch in IOS images running. You can see this by running the “show” commands above.

Once the standby is fully back up and running you can now update the active module, this is done by forcing the standby to become active, this will result in a reload of the current active supervisor.

Router#redundancy force-switchover (switches standby to become active and reloads current active)

(you will need to swap console cables over to the standby supervisor as only the currently active one can be consoled in to.)

Again use the above “show” commands to check the modules have reloaded correctly, both supervisors are running the same IOS version, and the correct redundancy method. Now the original active router will be the standby. If you wish you apply the last command above to force a second switch over back to the original.

And there it is, upgrade of IOS with out taking the switch off line. Although it is suggested it is done out of hours as there may be some minor traffic interruptions during the switch over.

Here is the CISCO PDF, with more detail and outputs of the commands..

DevilWAH