Had a 3650 switch stack I needed to upgrade from IOS 16.6.5 to 16.6.8.  The software upgrade procedure is quite different from the 3550/3560/3750s I’d done in the past.

First step is simply download the .bin file to the first switch’s onboard flash drive:

Switch# copy http://mysite/cat3k_caa-universalk9.16.06.08.SPA.bin flash:

I then verify the signature:

Switch#verify flash:cat3k_caa-universalk9.16.06.08.SPA.bin
Starting image verification
Digital signature successfully verified in package cat3k_caa-rpbase.16.06.08.SPA.pkg
Digital signature successfully verified in package cat3k_caa-srdriver.16.06.08.SPA.pkg
Digital signature successfully verified in package cat3k_caa-webui.16.06.08.SPA.pkg
Digital signature successfully verified in package cat3k_caa-rpcore.16.06.08.SPA.pkg
Digital signature successfully verified in package cat3k_caa-guestshell.16.06.08.SPA.pkg
Digital signature successfully verified in file flash:cat3k_caa-universalk9.16.06.08.SPA.bin

The actual command to start the upgrade is quite a mouthful:

Switch#request platform software package install switch all file flash:cat3k_caa-universalk9.16.06.08.SPA.bin new auto-copy

--- Starting install local lock acquisition on switch 1 ---
Finished install local lock acquisition on switch 1
....
SUCCESS: Software provisioned. New software will load on reboot.
[2]: Finished install successful on switch 2
Checking status of install on [1 2]
[1 2]: Finished install in switch 1 2
SUCCESS: Finished install: Success on [1 2]

This distributes the software as .pkg files on each stack member.

To proceed with the actual upgrade I simply rebooted the entire stack. Ideally I would have done a rolling upgrade similar to how I did 3750s a few years ago, but could not determine if this is supported on the 3650/3850

Other useful commands:

To copy the image on the fly during the upgrade process:

Switch# request platform software package expand switch all file http://mysite.com/mypath/cat3k_caa-universalk9.16.12.04.SPA.bin to flash: auto-copy

To clean up old packages to free up disk space:

Switch# request platform software package clean switch all file flash: