Solved: 6500 IOS to CAT OS Conversion

amaiale · ‎09-21-2007

Hi,

I have a Cisco 6500 w/ sup32 running Native IOS and want to convert it to CAT OS. I am using Cisoc information from http://www.cisco.com/en/US/customer/products/hw/switches/ps700/products_tech_note09186a00801350b8.shtml.

Basically, I am not able to get these directions to work for the RP. At step 14 for sup32 (after the SP is converted to CAT): it states that I should be able to boot from bootflash: however the device no longer is able to view any of the files/software that I preloaded on bootdisk/bootflash. Also, it no longer gives me the option to boot from disk0: only slot0: I preloaded all of the software/files on the disk0: card too.

I greatly appreciate any help that you can offer.

Thanks,

Tony

JORGE RODRIGUEZ · ‎09-25-2007

Hi Tony, this is great.

There should be a boot image for your msfc3, for example I have sup2-1a with msfc2

( old card ), last I upgraded the msfc2 I was able to download from cisco two images the complete code and a boot image and added two boot statements in my config, but since you got through these issues you do not need to Xmodem but it is goot to have a handy small image in case.

for example these are current codes notice the boot image is smaller

14185568 bytes (0xd87460) 0x41c484f2 c6msfc2-dsv-mz.121-27b.E1.bin

1577680 bytes (0x1812d0) 0xd7e7bae6 c6msfc2-boot-mz.121-2.E

in your case you went from native to CATOS therefore you converted to hybrid, you would need to go into IOS images for 6500 hybrid platform and download IOS code for router cards.

go to this link and download cisco IOS for router cards, however, I did look briefly and did not see boot images for msfc3 cards if that is what you have, perhaps they do not have boot images for these doughter cards.

http://www.cisco.com/kobayashi/sw-center/lan/cat6000.shtml

Rgds

Jorge

Jorge Rodriguez

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JORGE RODRIGUEZ · ‎09-21-2007

Tony,are you saying when you issue "dir bootflash:" or "dir disk0: from rommon there is nothing there? can you verify this is the case, if you have the image in disk0 you can loaded from there .

if the case of not having anything in the bootflash and/or disk0 is empty

you will have to load a bootloader or ios image image via serial Xmodem from terminal emulator.

Follow instructions in Xmodem section, recovering from missing or currupted bootloader image or rROMmon mode.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/customer/products/hw/switches/ps700/products_tech_note09186a008015bfa1.shtml#xmodem

HTH

Jorge

Jorge Rodriguez

amaiale · ‎09-22-2007

Hi Jorge,

Thanks for your input.

Yes, when I get to RP ROMmon I am no longer able to see the software which I preloaded on the bootflash: and disk0: card. In both locations. Also, after I get to RP ROMmon mode, disk0: is no longer available. If I enter "dev," the RP displays, bootflash: and slot0: as devices available. Is slot0: the same as disk0:??

I don't understand why I can't load the image from either location, as the images are there; however, the RP won't read/see them from either location.

I can try to Xmodem a much smaller sized image (to try and reduce upload time) to see if that will work; however, I'm concerned that will have the same result, where the RP won't see the files anyway. Could there anything else causing this? When I remove disk0: flash card and install it on another switch, the images all there.

Thanks again for looking into this.

Tony

JORGE RODRIGUEZ · ‎09-22-2007

Hi Tony,

looking at the convertion steps it seems you followed it correctly and you got up to step 12 and 13 with no issues, at this point in these steps you can get to switch engine with a " console> (enable) ", but as you said , I do not know either why it would not read files in disk0, I would assume you should have a readable image in bootflash: internally you previously copied.. do again "dir bootflash: " to be sure is there.

Slot0: is read in SP and Disk0 is read RP and RP rommon.

what I would do is get a sub-set boot IOS image in the hybrid versions which are small and Xmodem it into boofflash in order to recover the msfc2a and bring it up online, then tftp the real IOS image.

HTH

Jorge

Jorge Rodriguez

amaiale · ‎09-22-2007

I will give it a try.

Thanks you Jorge!!

Tony

amaiale · ‎09-25-2007

I just wanted to let you know that I was not able to xmodem the msfc image per the link provided above. The switch kept terminating the connection and stopping the upload.

I tried to get the switch back to NATIVE IOS and now I can't boot anything and am stuck in rommon mode.

I am going to open a Cisco TAC case.

Thanks for trying to help.

Tony

JORGE RODRIGUEZ · ‎09-25-2007

Tony, thanks for the update, hmmm, it is unfortunate that you could not xmodem the code, at this stage you are doing the currect move in opening a TAC case..

Jorge

Jorge Rodriguez

amaiale · ‎09-25-2007

Jorge,

Thanks again for your input and help. I did find out through TAC that my image was on the SP bootdisk: flash and not on the RP bootflash:. Once I copied the image over to bootflash:, I was able to successfully continue the conversion.

I did want to follow up and ask you about using xmodem, as I have never used it until now. Is there a specific type of image that is to be used when using xmodem to put the router into (boot) mode?? The image that I attempted to xmodem was the full blown msfc IOS image. Using IP-Base the file size was over 17MB, which was the smallest of the images I could find and I think may have caused the problems with my xmodem, as the switch kept terminating the upload after approx 5 hours.

I could not find any other image type except for the standard full sized images. Are there special images for (boot) mode, like rommon images???

Thanks again,

Tony

JORGE RODRIGUEZ · ‎09-25-2007

Hi Tony, this is great.

There should be a boot image for your msfc3, for example I have sup2-1a with msfc2

( old card ), last I upgraded the msfc2 I was able to download from cisco two images the complete code and a boot image and added two boot statements in my config, but since you got through these issues you do not need to Xmodem but it is goot to have a handy small image in case.

for example these are current codes notice the boot image is smaller

14185568 bytes (0xd87460) 0x41c484f2 c6msfc2-dsv-mz.121-27b.E1.bin

1577680 bytes (0x1812d0) 0xd7e7bae6 c6msfc2-boot-mz.121-2.E

in your case you went from native to CATOS therefore you converted to hybrid, you would need to go into IOS images for 6500 hybrid platform and download IOS code for router cards.

go to this link and download cisco IOS for router cards, however, I did look briefly and did not see boot images for msfc3 cards if that is what you have, perhaps they do not have boot images for these doughter cards.

http://www.cisco.com/kobayashi/sw-center/lan/cat6000.shtml

Rgds

Jorge

Jorge Rodriguez