When upgrading a Nexus 7000 to NX-OS version 5.2 (using more than 1 VDC) or to NX-OS v6+, Cisco claims the need to upgrade the system memory to 8Gb.
Note I have run on v5.2 using only 4Gb per SUP using 2 VDCs and it has worked just fine, but I should mention that the box was not under heavy load.
See how much memory your N7K has on a SUP by using the following command:
N7K# show system resources Load average: 1 minute: 0.47 5 minutes: 0.24 15 minutes: 0.15 Processes : 959 total, 1 running CPU states : 3.0% user, 3.5% kernel, 93.5% idle Memory usage: 4115776K total, 2793428K used, 1322348K free
The upgrade per SUP would need the Cisco Bundle upgrade package (Product code: N7K-SUP1-8GBUPG=). One package has one 4Gb module. (see picture below) If you have two SUPs you would need two bundles. Notice the 8Gb sticker on module in the red block.
How to upgrade
During a scheduled change window, make sure to save you configuration.
If you only have one SUP, it would be best to power the box down completely before yanking out the only SUP to upgrade the memory.
If you have multiple SUPs in one chassis and running multiple VDCs, although default configuration confirm the VDCs are set to ‘dual-sup ha switchover’:
N7K# sh vdc detail vdc id: 1 vdc name: system-vdc vdc state: active vdc mac address: 00:26:98:0c:c3:c1 vdc ha policy: RELOAD vdc dual-sup ha policy: SWITCHOVER vdc boot Order: 1 vdc create time: Tue Aug 2 00:05:50 2011 vdc reload count: 0 vdc restart count: 0 vdc type: Ethernet vdc supported linecards: m1 f1 m1xl vdc id: 2 vdc name: data-vdc vdc state: active vdc mac address: 00:26:98:0c:c3:c2 vdc ha policy: RESTART vdc dual-sup ha policy: SWITCHOVER vdc boot Order: 1 vdc create time: Tue Aug 2 00:06:46 2011
Pull the HA-Standby* module (as seen with “show module”) half-way out. The picture shows where the module should be inserted. Before inserting the 4Gb module pull of the sticker and place it on the front of the SUP.
Once inserted it should look like this:
Push the SUP back in and give the upgraded SUP about 8-10 minutes to boot up and be in HA-Standby* state again. Once in HA-Standby* state, issue the switchover on the primary SUP to switchover to the upgraded SUP:
N7K# system switchover
Connect the console to the SUP that has been upgraded and confirm all services are functioning as required.
Confirm the memory upgrade reflects on the upgraded SUP:
N7K# show system resources Load average: 1 minute: 5.45 5 minutes: 3.39 15 minutes: 1.53 Processes : 562 total, 3 running CPU states : 7.5% user, 20.0% kernel, 72.5% idle Memory usage: 8260968K total, 2078940K used, 6182028K free
Then do to upgrade the last SUP by repeating the above process, with the following ending result.
Routing-Bits 
Good explanation. I wasn’t yet in the position to do such upgrade, but it’s always good to know how. Thanks!
Thank you for the information! I have developed 2 vdc and the default one with 5.2(3a) and It doesnt has any problems so far! Although the traffic that passes through is about 7-8Gb and the load is small!
I performed this the other night, the first standby sup upgraded and rebooted, when I upgraded the second ( originally active sup ) and reinserted the active sup rebooted. This chassis was part of a vPV and the other chassis ( not yet upgraded ) took down the peer link and svi’s and uplinks. Unfortunately we lost Tacacs and even more unfortunately someone had written the local username/password down wrong, a long night that was.
We still haven’t found out why this happened but any help appreciated. NXOS = 5.1.3
We were trying to go to 5.2.1, then 6.0.3 so we could configure OTV.
Mark
I know of a bug that sounds similar to your problem on v 5.1.3.
When the Switchover between SUP are initiated and in progress, at some point the new active SUP gets confused and reloads.
I cant remember that bug-id for it, but it should not be to hard to find.
Alternatively 5.2.1 does not have this bug, and for the most part with all my testing 5.2.1 seems stable.
hth
Ruhann,
Thanks for the reply. We found bug CSCto47841, which is’nt exactly what happened but could be related. Your reply seems more like our scenario. The unfortunate thing for us was after inserting the second, upgraded sup, it never booted, it just flashed red at the status led. We’ve replaced it and sent it to a lab, along with the memory, to be tested before we attempt the memory upgrade again. Once upgraded, we’re going to upgrade the NXOS to 5.2.1 and then 6.0.3 for our OTV implementation.
Regards Mark.
Hi,
We are planning to upgrade the memory in nexus 7k with 2 Sup. but I have order only 1 8gb bundle. thinking that I will use 4GB memory of standby supervisor to active supervisor.
Although I am not sure whether we single 4GB memory or 2 ( 2GB+2GB).
Please let me know is that possible.
Regards
Dev