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6500 dram upgrade

newbie
Level 1
Level 1

Is any kind of firmware upgrade required when upgrading the 2 dram chips that are at the front part of the sup7203B. I am taking out the 2 that are in there now and installing 2 1g chips. I know that a firmware upgrade is required when upgrading the sup-bootflash: but how about the msfc3 dram?

4 Accepted Solutions

Accepted Solutions

Hi,

I really don't know why do we have to disagree at all, below are 2 separate documents explaining both:

Here you are the DRAM DIMMs "Removing and Installing the DRAM DIMMs":

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps708/products_release_and_installation_notes09186a008017ef3e.html#wp34951

SP and RP DRAM DIMMs near the front.

Here you are the BOOTFLASH DIMMs "Installing the CompactFlash Adapter":

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps708/products_installation_and_configuration_guide09186a0080537ae3.html#wp38181

SP and RP BOOTFLASH DIMMs near the back.

NOTE: Both DRAM and BOOTFLASH are physically DIMMs (dual in-line memory module).

HTH,

Mohammed Mahmoud.

View solution in original post

hi,

When issuing the show version the memory shows two values, separated by a slash, are given for DRAM:

The first value tells you how DRAM is available for system processing, and the second value tells you how much DRAM is being used for Packet memory.

The first value, Main Processor Memory, is either:

- The amount of DRAM available for the processor, or

- The total amount of DRAM installed on the system.

The second value, Packet Memory, is either:

- The total physical input/output (I/O) memory (or ?Fast memory?) installed on the router (Cisco 4000, 4500, 4700, and 7500 series), or

- The amount of ?Shared memory? used for packet buffering. In the shared memory scheme (Cisco 2500, 2600, 3600, and 7200 Series), a percentage of DRAM is used for packet buffering by the router's network interfaces.

NOTE: The terms ?I/O Memory? or ?iomem?; ?shared memory?; ?Fast Memory? and ?PCI memory? all refer to ?Packet Memory?. Packet Memory is either a separate physical RAM stick/module (?), or shared DRAM.

HTH, please rate if it does help,

Mohammed Mahmoud.

View solution in original post

Hi,

I hope that everything is going fine with you, here you are a nice link on how to configure the online diagnostics on the Catalyst 6500 series switches:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps708/products_configuration_guide_chapter09186a008017c10f.html

HTH, please do rate all helpful replies,

Mohammed Mahmoud.

View solution in original post

Hi there,

I hope you are fine, complete these steps to simulate a break key sequence to enter the rommon:

1.Connect to the router with these terminal settings:

1200 baud rate

No parity

8 data bits

1 stop bit

No flow control

You no longer see any output on your screen, and this is normal.

2.Power cycle (switch off and then on) the switch and press the SPACEBAR for 10-15 seconds in order to generate a signal similar to the break sequence.

3.Disconnect your terminal, and reconnect with a 9600 baud rate. You enter the ROM Monitor mode.

HTH, please do rate all helpful posts,

Mohammed Mahmoud.

View solution in original post

32 Replies 32

mohammedmahmoud
Level 11
Level 11

Hi,

WS-SUP720-3B supports 512MB of DRAM for the route processor and 512 MB for the switch processor, upgradeable to 1GB each, and according to these 2 documents, the memory upgrade won't need any rommon or IOS upgrade while upgrading the sub-bootflash required.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps708/prod_bulletin0900aecd8058b34f.html

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/modules/ps2797/products_data_sheet09186a0080159856.html

HTH, please rate if it does help,

Mohammed Mahmoud.

The dram dimms not bootflash. Check out this page and see figure 3. the dram dimms up front.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps708/products_release_and_installation_notes09186a008017ef3e.html

Hi,

I can't follow you !!! See the part "Upgrading DRAM for Existing Cisco Catalyst 6500 Supervisor Engine 32 from 256 MB

to 512 MB" in the first document i sent you, its the same for 720.

HTH,

Mohammed Mahmoud.

I am getting confused then because if you look at figure 3 from the site I sent you have dram dimms up at the front and to the left of the sup720. Then what are the 2 chips in the back of the board. Diagrams say the left id sp and the right is rp sup-bootflash. I am then not understanding what are the 2 up front.

Hi,

See this document for the place of the bootflash:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps708/products_installation_and_configuration_guide09186a0080537ae3.html#wp38181

I think that what is confusing you is that both the RAM and Flash are DIMMs.

HTH, please do rate helpful posts,

Mohammed Mahmoud.

I think we will have to agree to disagree. I see figure 4 which points to sp and rp but I still want to know what are the 2 removable dimms up front in figure 4. they each have 3 small boxes on them. the ones that figue 3 in the link I sent you called them dram dimms.

Hi,

I really don't know why do we have to disagree at all, below are 2 separate documents explaining both:

Here you are the DRAM DIMMs "Removing and Installing the DRAM DIMMs":

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps708/products_release_and_installation_notes09186a008017ef3e.html#wp34951

SP and RP DRAM DIMMs near the front.

Here you are the BOOTFLASH DIMMs "Installing the CompactFlash Adapter":

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps708/products_installation_and_configuration_guide09186a0080537ae3.html#wp38181

SP and RP BOOTFLASH DIMMs near the back.

NOTE: Both DRAM and BOOTFLASH are physically DIMMs (dual in-line memory module).

HTH,

Mohammed Mahmoud.

My friend I totally agree with your last post to me. Now lets go one step more. When you replace or I should say upgrade the SP compact flash you first have to make sure you are running 8.4(2) version of rommon. If not you have to upgrade that. So that would be a firmware upgrade also. Now my original question was abou the DRAM Dimms, Is any kind of firmware/software upgrade required when you upgrade the dram dimms(Here you are the DRAM DIMMs "Removing and Installing the DRAM DIMMs).

Hi,

I didn't upgrade a 6500 to 2G before, but i can't find any Cisco document that says that you need to upgrade your firmware when upgrading the DRAM DIMMs (however the Cisco document i attached in my first post said that a firmware upgrade is a must for bootflash upgrade, but there is nothing about DRAM DIMMs upgrade).

HTH,

Mohammed Mahmoud.

I have also never seen anything saying that any firmware upgrade is necessary. One of my issues is that I have replaced the 2 dram dimms with 1gig ones. so i should see 2gig but i am not i am only seeing 1 gig when i do a show mem or a show ver. i figured I would see 2g. my sup card is a sup7203b. maybe it can't take 1g only the sup7203xl(thinks that is the name) can. this is what originally led me to think i needed to do some kind of firmware upgrade to see the whole 2 gig.

Hi,

NO, WS-SUP720-3B supports 512MB of DRAM for the route processor and 512 MB for the switch processor, upgradeable to 1GB each. Meaning that 1G is for the RP and the other 1G is for the SP.

Check this by doing both "show version" for the RP and "remote command switch show version" for the SP, to see that each of them is 1G.

I hope that i've been informative.

HTH, please rate helpful posts,

Mohammed Mahmoud.

Yes you have. I did some playing around with a spare 6500 and some memory chips I had and your above is correct. upon bootup you can see the amount of memory in the SP and a little later on it shows the memory of the RP. Just one question though. the RP memory output will say sometjing like 1046728/65444. what is the 65444? the first number I assume is showing that I now have my upgraded 1g but the other number I am not sure of. The SP mem does't have a number like this. It will just have something like 1046728. Also, are you familiar with WAAS.

hi,

When issuing the show version the memory shows two values, separated by a slash, are given for DRAM:

The first value tells you how DRAM is available for system processing, and the second value tells you how much DRAM is being used for Packet memory.

The first value, Main Processor Memory, is either:

- The amount of DRAM available for the processor, or

- The total amount of DRAM installed on the system.

The second value, Packet Memory, is either:

- The total physical input/output (I/O) memory (or ?Fast memory?) installed on the router (Cisco 4000, 4500, 4700, and 7500 series), or

- The amount of ?Shared memory? used for packet buffering. In the shared memory scheme (Cisco 2500, 2600, 3600, and 7200 Series), a percentage of DRAM is used for packet buffering by the router's network interfaces.

NOTE: The terms ?I/O Memory? or ?iomem?; ?shared memory?; ?Fast Memory? and ?PCI memory? all refer to ?Packet Memory?. Packet Memory is either a separate physical RAM stick/module (?), or shared DRAM.

HTH, please rate if it does help,

Mohammed Mahmoud.

You familiar with WAAS? Have you implemented it. We are not getting the modules but the box/appliance itself.

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