cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
cancel
342
Views
0
Helpful
5
Replies

performance hit from ftp a file to switch?

linnea.wren
Level 1
Level 1

Hi,

I plan to ftp an image file onto a 6509 switch.

CPU history indicates the highest utilization in the 72 hour period is 20%.

The image file to be FTP'd is almost 80 MB.

Is it a bad idea to FTP a file of that size onto a production switch during normal operation hours?

(BTW - I wont be deleting the current image file - There is room for both.)

Thanks,

Linnea

5 Replies 5

Danilo Dy
VIP Alumni
VIP Alumni

Hi,

80MB is a small file to FTP'd to a 6509 switch. No, there's no problem FTP'd it during production - just make sure that the switch dram and flash conform to the minimum requirement for the new image. But there is a problem reloading the 6509 switch to use the new image file during production. Schedule a downtime for it as you might encounter problem during reload to a new image - don't over-promise the downtime, give some buffer for troubleshooting and fallback.

It's good that you can retain the old image in the switch, in case something wrong happens during the reload to a new image and you can't troubleshoot it, you can fallback to the old image quickly.

Richard Burts
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame

Linnea

I would think that FTP of the image would not be a problem. There are probably a couple of aspects of this to evaluate (if you think that my assumptions are questionable in your environment we can discuss further):

- bandwidth consumption. the FTP will consume some bandwidth, but I am assuming that the 6509 has enough capacity the the FTP will not be a serious impact. This is especially true of FTP (as compared to TFTP) since the TCP based protocol will back off if it detects congestion.

- CPU impact. receipt of the FTP packets and write to flash will take CPU cycles. probably most of the forwarding activity on the switch is done in hardware (or the fast switching path) and is not impacted by CPU consumption. And if the highest utilization was 20% I believe that you have plenty of capacity.

HTH

Rick

HTH

Rick

Thanks both...

I would definitely be scheduling downtime for the actual switchover, but thanks for your suggestions.

Rick - Will Ctrl/C or Ctrl/Z (or q?) break off the transfer? (just in case...)

Linnea

Linnea

It has been a long time since I tried to break off an image transfer and I do not remember clearly what (if anything) worked. If I get a chance to test tomorrow I will let you know. (or perhaps someone else knows this and will tell us)

HTH

Rick

HTH

Rick

linnea.wren
Level 1
Level 1

Rick, others -

I tested an ftp on a stackable.

I could not break off the transfer with Ctrl/C, Ctrl/Z, and q.

If anyone knows a key-combo that allows you to break off an ftp file transfer, I'd be glad to know of it, so I can back out if copying the 80 MB image onto the 6509 does something unacceptable to the network...

TIA

Getting Started

Find answers to your questions by entering keywords or phrases in the Search bar above. New here? Use these resources to familiarize yourself with the community:

Innovations in Cisco Full Stack Observability - A new webinar from Cisco