Cisco Systems 4.1 Managing Software Images Using Software Management

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12-1

User Guide for Resource Manager Essentials 4.1

OL-11714-01

Managing Software Images Using Software

Manually upgrading your devices to the latest software version can be an error-prone, and

time-consuming process. To ensure rapid, reliable software upgrades, Software Management automates

the steps associated with upgrade planning, scheduling, downloading, and monitoring.

Using Software Management, you can:

• Set up your Software Management preferences.

You can specify information such as, the directory where images are stored, the pathname of the

user-supplied script to run before and after each device software upgrade, etc.

You can enable and define the protocol order for Software Management tasks. You can also enable

the Job Based Password option for Software Management tasks.

You can specify if the images on Cisco.com should be included during image recommendation of

the device. Also specify the Cisco.com filters so that only the images that match the filter criteria

are selected.

See Viewing/Editing Preferences for further details.

• Analyze software upgrades

You can generate Upgrade Analysis reports that help you determine prerequisites for a new software

deployment.

These reports analyze the proposed images to determine the hardware upgrades (device access, boot

ROM, Flash memory, RAM, and NVRAM and boot Flash, if applicable) required before you can

perform the upgrade.

See Upgrade Analysis for further details.

• Import images into the software repository

You can determine the images missing from your repository and import them into the software

repository.

You can also keep the repository up-to-date and periodically synchronize the repository with the

images running on your network devices.

You can also schedule an image import for a later, more convenient time.

See Adding Images to the Software Repository for further details.

• Distribute software images to groups of devices

Depending on system complexity, you can configure upgrades for groups of devices to the same

software image or to different software images.