On 2/26/23 16:44, Tarko Tikan via cisco-nsp wrote:
Well, not so in practice.
You can't issue install from http:// or any other remote URL.
You have to sit around and issue "install apply" after "install
replace" is finished. Replace is async so you have to sit around and
poll the process.
After reboot you have to reconnect to device and issue "install commit".
In some cases direct upgrades from version X to Y fail so you have to
go through this whole process twice (X to Z to Y) that takes around 2
hours on NCS540.
In some other X to Y cases there is not sufficient diskspace to
complete "install replace".
We personally have automated the whole install process via netconf and
can workaround the quirks relevant for our platforms and versions.
Many people can't do that or can't justify the expense (when they have
small number of devices).
Some other issues have been solved by Cisco in latest releases, I
belive install replace can now be sync operation, maybe not on NCS540
but on larger platforms (IOS-XR consistency between platforms is an
issue itself).
So I totally get what Mark and Gert are saying. IOS-XR is currently
worst NOS operational experience from all large NOSes out there.
Oh gosh - it's such a shame that it's 2023 and we still have to put up
with shoddy software maintenance processes, just because a vendor
insists that their next generation OS core is worth the daily-use pain.
I could be okay with doing for this for about 10 - 20 nodes in the core.
But even with some level of automation (because you have to baby-sit the
automation, especially when the vendor changes things in a bid to
"improve" life with their OS), trying to manage this on 100's - 1,000's
of nodes in the Metro (or anywhere, really) is just too much of a nightmare.
So you either end up with network gear running very old code because
operators can't be asked to spend 2hrs on upgrading a single device, or
simply tying up too many engineer hours at the expense of other projects.
Mark.
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