In this tutorial we will be upgrading the IOS on a Cisco Catalyst 3750 v2 Series switch from IPBASE IOS 12 to IP SERVICES IOS 15.

For this tutorial we will need the following.
1x Cisco Catalyst 3750 v2 Series switch
1x Physical or virtual machine doesn't matter as long as it can communicate with the switch.

The IOS image that we will be using in this tutorial is c3750-ipservicesk9-tar.150-2.SE11.tar - IP SERVICES WITH WEB BASED DEV MGR
In addition to including the IOS the tar file also includes the necessary files to enable the web based interface.

To Download the IOS, you must Log In and have a valid service contract with cisco.
IOS Download

Checksums - Always hash check you IOS file before upgrading
c3750-ipservicesk9-tar.150-2.SE11.tar
MD5 Checksum: da601d8c9cbb441cde1044924343f2f5
SHA512 Checksum:4c36f331410eb66f2905a0643f1920c8777bf48a7ad4b61b11d120c7f83056f883c4e8f901ba5763845c6d0a1be54800f32743aa315c6a70cd743e4b3b6dfe63

We first need to set an IP address on the switch to allow the transfer of the new IOS image.
In this tutorial we are setting the IP address of vlan 1 to 172.16.0.1 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.128 /25

SW1>enable 
SW1#configure terminal
SW1(config)#interface vlan 1
SW1(config-if)#ip address 172.16.0.1 255.255.255.128
SW1(config-if)#no shutdown 
SW1(config-if)#end

The archive command supports the following protocols for remote file downloads.

ftp:                    File Transfer Protocol
http:                   Hypertext Transfer Protocol
https:                  Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure
rcp:                    Remote copy
scp:                    OpenSSH secure file copy
tftp:                   Trivial File Transfer Protocol

The server setup for the listed protocols is outside the scope of this tutorial.
It's assumed that you should have the knowledge on how to configure at least one of these protocols.

The following arguments will be used when we invoke the archive command.

download-sw             Download a new copy of software from a server
/allow-feature-upgrade  Allow installation of image with different feature - i.e upgrade from IPBASE to IP SERVICES
/force-reload           Unconditionally reload system after successful sw upgrade
/overwrite              OK to overwrite an existing image

In this example I will be upgrading the IOS using an http server running on 172.16.0.2

archive download-sw /allow-feature-upgrade /force-reload /overwrite http:172.16.0.2/c3750-ipservicesk9-tar.150-2.SE11.tar

Time to grab a cup of coffee or two…this is going to take some time.

extracting info (110 bytes)!!!!
Loading http:///172.16.0.2/c3750-ipservicesk9-tar.150-2.SE11.tar !
extracting c3750-ipservicesk9-mz.150-2.SE11/info (698 bytes)!!!!

extracting info (110 bytes)!!!!

Stacking Version Number: 1.49

System Type:             0x00000000
  Ios Image File Size:   0x01171200
  Total Image File Size: 0x0157C200
  Minimum Dram required: 0x08000000
  Image Suffix:          ipservicesk9-150-2.SE11
  Image Directory:       c3750-ipservicesk9-mz.150-2.SE11
  Image Name:            c3750-ipservicesk9-mz.150-2.SE11.bin
  Image Feature:         IP|LAYER_3|PLUS|SSH|3DES|MIN_DRAM_MEG=128

Old image for switch 1: flash:/c3750-ipbasek9-mz.122-55.SE
  Old image will be deleted before download.

Deleting `flash:/c3750-ipbasek9-mz.122-55.SE' to create required space
Extracting images from archive into flash...
Loading http:///172.16.0.2/c3750-ipservicesk9-tar.150-2.SE11.tar 
c3750-ipservicesk9-mz.150-2.SE11/ (directory)!
extracting c3750-ipservicesk9-mz.150-2.SE11/info (698 bytes)!
extracting c3750-ipservicesk9-mz.150-2.SE11/dc_default_profiles.txt (68774 bytes)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
c3750-ipservicesk9-mz.150-2.SE11/html/ (directory)
extracting c3750-ipservicesk9-mz.150-2.SE11/html/ip.js (3500 bytes)!!!
extracting c3750-ipservicesk9-mz.150-2.SE11/html/graph.js (39650 bytes)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
extracting c3750-ipservicesk9-mz.150-2.SE11/html/smartports.js (171172 bytes)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
extracting c3750-ipservicesk9-mz.150-2.SE11/html/dashboard.shtml (139989 bytes)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
extracting c3750-ipservicesk9-mz.150-2.SE11/html/title.js (577 bytes)!
c3750-ipservicesk9-mz.150-2.SE11/html/ja/ (directory)
extracting c3750-ipservicesk9-mz.150-2.SE11/html/ja/re_portset.js (2765 bytes)!!!

extracting info (110 bytes)!!!!

Installing (renaming): `flash:update/c3750-ipservicesk9-mz.150-2.SE11' ->
                                       `flash:/c3750-ipservicesk9-mz.150-2.SE11'
New software image installed in flash:/c3750-ipservicesk9-mz.150-2.SE11


All software images installed.
Requested system reload in progress...

After your switch has restarted run the show version command to confirm that you are running the new IOS.

SW1#sh version 
Cisco IOS Software, C3750 Software (C3750-IPSERVICESK9-M), Version 15.0(2)SE11, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc3)
Technical Support: http://www.cisco.com/techsupport
Copyright (c) 1986-2017 by Cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Sat 19-Aug-17 09:28 by prod_rel_team

Congratulations you have successfully upgraded your IOS.

When executing the archive command you may receive the following error.

Unable to create temp dir "flash:update"

If this happens run the following command and try again

delete /f /r flash:update

If you find that you still have the same error message you may need to run a fsck on the flash system.

fsck flash:

An interesting note about IOS licencing for the Cisco Catalyst 3750 v2 Series switches.
Software activation is not supported.
What does this mean?
No activation is required, so if you have an IP SERVICES image running you will have the IP SERVICES feature set enabled. (Perfect for lab use)

SW1#sh license 
% License not supported on this device