Cisco 200, 300 and 500 series pre v1.3.5 upgrade procedure via CLI

There are plenty of guides for upgrading Cisco Small Business Managed Switches using the webGUI. Put down the browser and break out the COM9! We start with an antiquated version:

switch7acbdf#sh ver
SW version    1.1.2.0 ( date  12-Nov-2011 time  23:34:26 )
Boot version    1.1.0.6 ( date  11-May-2011 time  18:31:00 )
HW version    V02

There is only one boot image on the switch, so copy from TFTP and overwrite it and reload:

switch7acbdf#copy tftp://10.2.3.1/sx300_boot-13506.rfb boot
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
12-Nov-2011 23:59:19 %COPY-I-FILECPY: Files Copy - source URL tftp://10.2.3.1/sx300_boot-13506.rfb destination URL flash://BOOT, aggregated (1)
12-Nov-2011 23:59:27 %COPY-N-TRAP: The copy operation was completed successfully
Copy: 393232 bytes copied in 00:00:08 [hh:mm:ss]
switch7acbdf#
switch7acbdf#reload

Now check that the Boot file has been upgraded (v1.3.5.06). At this stage you can still not upgrade to an image higher than v1.3.5.x , so lets upgrade that next:

switch7acbdf#sh ver
SW version    1.1.2.0 ( date  12-Nov-2011 time  23:34:26 )
Boot version    1.3.5.06 ( date  21-Jul-2013 time  15:12:10 )
HW version    V02
switch7acbdf#
switch7acbdf#copy tftp://10.2.3.1/sx300_fw-13558.ros image
12-Nov-2011 23:40:07 %COPY-I-FILECPY: Files Copy - source URL tftp://10.2.3.1/sx300_fw-1476.ros destination URL flash://image, aggregated (2)
12-Nov-2011 23:40:29 %COPY-I-FILECPY: Files Copy - source URL tftp://10.2.3.1/sx300_fw-13558.ros destination URL flash://image
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
12-Nov-2011 23:42:44 %COPY-N-TRAP: The copy operation was completed successfully
Copy: 6976867 bytes copied in 00:02:15 [hh:mm:ss]
switch7acbdf#

Confirm that the new image (v1.3.5.58) has been written to the backup image (image-2) and boot it:

switch7acbdf#sh bootv
Image  Filename   Version     Date                    Status
-----  ---------  ---------   ---------------------   -----------
1      image-1    1.1.2.0     12-Nov-2011  23:34:26   Active*
2      image-2    1.3.5.58    10-Oct-2013  17:15:41   Not active

"*" designates that the image was selected for the next boot


switch7acbdf#boot system image-2
switch7acbdf#reload

Once reloaded, we can upgrade to the latest image (v1.4.76):

switch7acbdf#copy tftp://10.2.3.1/sx300_fw-1476.ros image
10-Oct-2013 17:20:35 %LINK-I-Up:  Vlan 400, aggregated (1)
10-Oct-2013 17:20:41 %COPY-I-FILECPY: Files Copy - source URL tftp://10.2.3.1/sx300_fw-1476.ros destination URL flash://image
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!10-Oct-2013 17:23:05 %COPY-N-TRAP: The copy operation was completed successfully
!
Copy: 7393968 bytes copied in 00:02:24 [hh:mm:ss]

switch7acbdf#
switch7acbdf#sh bootv
Image  Filename   Version     Date                    Status
-----  ---------  ---------   ---------------------   -----------
1      image-1    1.3.5.58    10-Oct-2013  17:15:41   Active*
2      image-2    1.4.7.6     07-Dec-2016  18:37:03   Not active

"*" designates that the image was selected for the next boot

switch7acbdf#boot system image-2
switch7acbdf#reload

After the reload confirm that new version is running:

switch7acbdf#sh ver
SW version    1.4.7.6 ( date  07-Dec-2016 time  18:37:03 )
Boot version    1.3.5.06 ( date  21-Jul-2013 time  15:12:10 )
HW version    V02

Job done.