Upgrading the Nokia community SONiC release

Users can upgrade the Nokia community SONiC image on the Nokia hardware platform, including a user-compiled image.

Use the procedures described in this section to upgrade the Nokia community SONiC image provided on supported Nokia hardware platforms, or a user-compiled Nokia community SONiC image as described in Appendix A: Building Nokia community SONiC from the open-source repository.

Upgrading the Nokia community SONiC software image

Upgrade the Nokia community SONiC software to the latest supported image on your system.

The following are required to perform the Nokia community SONiC software upgrade on your hardware platform:

  • administrative access to the device CLI
  • reachable management interface (SCP or HTTP)
  • the correct Nokia community SONiC image for the target platform or variant
  • the correct filename for the platform; see the following table
Table 1. Image filename for Nokia products and platform architectures
Platform / ASIC Architecture Filename Nokia Product
Broadcom DNX x86-64 sonic-broadcom-dnx.bin 7250 IXR-X3b
Broadcom generic x86-64 sonic-broadcom.bin 7220 IXR-H4, 7220 IXR-H5
Broadcom generic (GB syncd) x86-64 sonic-broadcom-gbsyncd.bin 7220 IXR-D4
Marvell ARM64

sonic-marvell-arm64.bin

Applies to SONiC releases up to 202411

 7215 IXS-A1
Marvell Prestera ARM64

sonic-marvell-prestera-arm64.bin

Applies to SONiC releases 202505 and later

 7215 IXS-A1

You can upgrade the Nokia community SONiC image that is currently installed on the Nokia hardware platform. This applies to Nokia devices running either a preinstalled Nokia community SONiC image, or a custom-built image compiled from source, as described in Appendix A: Building Nokia community SONiC from the open-source repository.

Note: The examples in the following upgrade procedure use the image filename for the Marvell ARM64 7215 IXS-A1 product. Replace this with the filename corresponding to your specific hardware product as shown in the preceding table.

The examples in the following procedure show an upgrade from version 202311 to 202411.

  1. Verify the version of the Nokia community SONiC software that is currently running on your system.
    The Nokia community SONiC software version and commit ID identify the currently installed image. The following example shows output for a 7215 IXS-A1 platform.

    7215 IXS-A1 platform

    admin@router:~$ show version
SONiC Software Version: SONiC-OS-HEAD.677949-202311-bca46cc0
SONiC OS Version: 13
Distribution: Debian 13.1
Kernel: 6.12.41+deb13-sonic-armmp
Build commit: 95bc89dec
Build date: Fri Nov  7 18:51:44 UTC 2025
Built by: gitlab-runner@sonic-armv01
 
Platform: arm64-nokia_ixs7215_52xb-r0
HwSKU: Nokia-7215-A1
ASIC: marvell
ASIC Count: 1
Serial Number: 123460XXXX
Model Number: 3HE18723AAXXXX
Hardware Revision: 0
Uptime: 23:16:39 up 4 min, 1 user, load average: 4.73, 3.26, 1.38
Date: Fri 7 Nov 2025 23:16:39
  2. Display the current, available, and next software images.
    This information can be used to compare the results after the upgrade.
    admin@router:~$ sudo sonic-installer list
Current: SONiC-OS-HEAD.677949-202311-bca46cc0
Next: SONiC-OS-HEAD.677949-202311-bca46cc0
Available:
SONiC-OS-HEAD.677949-202311-bca46cc0
  3. Install the image using one of the following methods.
    Note: The following examples are for ARM64-based platforms; see the preceding table for the list of image filenames for the Nokia product platforms and architectures.
    • Copy the SCP image to the system you are upgrading.

      Example

      # scp sonic-marvell-arm64.bin admin@MGMT-IP:/tmp
admin@MGMT-IP's password:
sonic-marvell-arm64.                100%  877MB  24.7MB/s   00:35
    • Install the image directly from a URL.

      Example

      admin@router:~$ sudo sonic-installer install http://server-ip/path/to/sonic-marvell-arm64.bin
    • Install the image using a script with the -y option to avoid manual interactions.

      Example

      admin@router:~$ sudo sonic-installer install –y /tmp/sonic-marvell-arm64.bin
  4. Install the latest Nokia community SONiC image.
    The installer takes several minutes to verify and stage the image.

    Upgrading from SONiC 202311 to 202411

    admin@router:~$ sudo sonic-installer install /tmp/sonic-marvell-arm64.bin
New image will be installed, continue? [y/N]: y
Installing image SONiC-OS-HEAD.1086978-202411-ce988a8c and setting it as default...
Command: bash ./sonic-marvell-arm64.bin
Verifying image checksum ... OK.
Preparing image archive ... OK.
Installing SONiC in SONiC
ONIE Installer: platform: arm64-marvell-r0
onie_platform: arm64-nokia_ixs7215_52xb-r0
Preparing for installation ...
Intalling SONiC from sonic on Platform arm64-nokia_ixs7215_52xb-r0
/dev/mmcblk0
Selected mmc /dev/mmcblk0
Installing SONiC to /host/image-HEAD.1086978-202411-ce988a8c
 
<truncated>
 
ONIE_IMAGE_PART_SIZE=32768
EXTRA_CMDLINE_LINUX=
Sync up cache ...
Setting up U-Boot environment...
Using pre-configured uboot env
Installed SONiC base image SONiC-OS successfully
 
Command: config-setup backup
Taking backup of current configuration
 
<truncated>
 
Command: sync
 
Command: sleep 3
 
Done
  5. Display the software images and confirm the new version is available and selected as the next image to boot.
    The following example shows the new image has been installed and is set as the next boot, replacing the older version (shown in step 2). 
    admin@router:~$ sudo sonic-installer list
Current: SONiC-OS-HEAD.677949-202311-bca46cc0
Next: SONiC-OS-HEAD.1086978-202411-ce988a8c
Available:
SONiC-OS-HEAD.1086978-202411-ce988a8c
SONiC-OS-HEAD.677949-202311-bca46cc0
  6. Reboot the node.
    This process may take several minutes to complete.
    admin@router:~$ sudo reboot
requested COLD shutdown
/var/log: 221.7 MiB (232480768 bytes) trimmed on /dev/loop1
/host: 267.3 MiB (280330240 bytes) trimmed on /dev/mmcblk0p2
Thu 10 Jul 2025 08:35:02 PM UTC Rebooting with platform arm64-nokia_ixs7215_52xb-r0 specific tool ...
Fri 7 Nov 2025 08:35:04 PM UTC Platform specific reboot failed!
Fri 7 Nov 2025 08:35:04 PM UTC Issuing OS-level reboot ...
    The system reboots and applies the new load.
  7. Display the new version information and confirm that the Nokia community SONiC software version and the build commit match the expected new version. 
    admin@router:~$ show version
 
SONiC Software Version: SONiC.HEAD.1086978-202411-ce988a8c
SONiC OS Version: 13
Distribution: Debian 13.1
Kernel: 6.12.41+deb13-sonic-arm64
Build commit: ce988a8c
Build date: Fri Nov  7 11:55:35 UTC 2025
Built by: gitlab-runner@sonic-armv16
 
Platform: arm64-nokia_ixs7215_52xb-r0
HwSKU: Nokia-7215-A1
ASIC: marvell
ASIC Count: 1
Serial Number: 124080XXXX
Model Number: 3HE18723AAXXXX
Hardware Revision: 0
  8. Display the software loads and confirm that the current and next software load match the expected version. 
    admin@router:~$ sudo sonic-installer list
Current: SONiC-OS-HEAD.1086978-202411-ce988a8c
Next: SONiC-OS-HEAD.1086978-202411-ce988a8c
Available:
SONiC-OS-HEAD.1086978-202411-ce988a8c
SONiC-OS-HEAD.677949-202311-bca46cc0
You can optionally manage images after upgrading. See Managing Nokia community SONiC images. For deeper build and CLI topics, see Resources for Nokia community SONiC users.

Managing Nokia community SONiC images

Use the sonic-installer CLI commands to manage images after an upgrade. These commands are optional and supplemental to the main upgrade procedure.

admin@router:~$ sonic-installer --help
Usage: sonic-installer [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...
Commands:
  cleanup            Remove installed images which are not current and next
  install            Install image from local binary or URL
  remove             Uninstall image
  verify-next-image  Verify the next image for reboot