I think you need to be on at least 9.5 to punch through to higher releases. 

The 9.3 to 9.5 with system manager is very manageable. Even if you were to start the upgrade with the cli you can still go to the gui upgrade page and watch the progress. 

I only end up at the cli in the event of an issue. 
cluster image show-update-progress
Is your friend. 

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From: Philbert Rupkins <philbertrupkins@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, September 20, 2021 4:46:19 PM
To: Tim McCarthy <tmacmd@gmail.com>
Cc: Douglas Siggins <siggins@gmail.com>; Toasters <toasters@teaparty.net>
Subject: Re: Upgrade from 9.3 to 9.7
 
Going to resurrect this thread from the ashes.   A couple of questions:

Just a quick poll - how many of you are performing rolling ANDU upgrades via System Manager?  I see it is documented as the "preferred" ANDU method despite Upgrade Avisor walking through the CLI based steps. 

"You can also perform an automated upgrade using the command line interface (CLI); however,
using ONTAP System Manager is preferred."

https://library.netapp.com/ecm/ecm_download_file/ECMLP2876872

Also, is the System Manager method available if performing the double/direct upgrade from 9.3->9.7?

Thanks,
Phil


On Sat, Aug 14, 2021 at 11:10 AM Tim McCarthy <tmacmd@gmail.com> wrote:
Always reboot those sp/bmc before attempting any upgrade. It usually solves the SP update process from failing !

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From: Toasters <toasters-bounces@teaparty.net> on behalf of Douglas Siggins <siggins@gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, August 14, 2021 11:28:53 AM
To: Philbert Rupkins <philbertrupkins@gmail.com>
Cc: Toasters <toasters@teaparty.net>
Subject: Re: Upgrade from 9.3 to 9.7
 
Works well check your cluster switch firmware versions, and upgrade your SPs directly prior if supported. I've seen many instances of SP hangs when we went through that process over a year ago (hundreds of nodes). Overall 9.7 is a great stable version.

On Fri, Aug 13, 2021 at 3:05 PM Philbert Rupkins <philbertrupkins@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello Toasters,

Anybody have experience, positive or negative,  upgrading from 9.3 to 9.7?

It is a supported automated upgrade path but requires packages for
both 9.5 and 9.7.   My understanding is each node will be upgraded
twice (once to 9.5 then to 9.7) but otherwise should follow the
typical automated upgrade routine.

Thank You
Phil
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