Question

A data center engineer must upgrade the NX-OS software on a pair of Nexus 9000 switches that forward critical production traffic. Management requires that data-plane forwarding continues uninterrupted during the upgrade of a single switch. Which upgrade method and condition must be satisfied to meet this requirement?

Accepted Answer

Perform an In-Service Software Upgrade (ISSU), ensuring the target release is a supported non-disruptive upgrade path and that features/topology support control-plane restart

Answer

Perform a disruptive 'install all' upgrade during a maintenance window because all NX-OS upgrades reload the data plane

Answer

Copy the new image to bootflash and change the boot variables, then power-cycle the switch to activate the software

Answer

Use a cold reload upgrade but pre-stage the configuration on the peer so vPC failover masks the reload