Thanks jon,

Is there a step by step procedure (maybe one someone has done themselves) that I could use to upgrade the 7206?

I have a new 7206 and thought of saving existing image, downgrading it and then upgrading to original image to try it a couple of time and maybe document what works well, but I am not sure the exact procedure.

It makes me nervous to do something on a production router or switch.

Richard

I understand your nervousness but it is quite simple to upgrade. It is basically a question of

1) download a new image to either the onboard flash or the compact flash via tftp

2) Ideally if possible you want to keep the old image in case you need to revert to that one. If you have to delete the old image to load the new one then you don't need to do step 3.

3) Once you have your new image you can then set the "boot sytem flash.." variable eg. lets say you have just downloaded a new image onto disk0:

7206(config)# boot system flash disk0:c7200-js-mz.123-14.T4.bin

Double check to make sure you have entered the image name correctly, wr mem and then reload the router.

You may get some warning messages on reboot about certain commands not being compatable with your new IOS image but you can usually just ignore them.

4) When the router has reloaded do "wr mem" and you will get a warning about the config you are about save being with a previous IOS image. It's fine to just save the new config.

Jon

Thanks jon,

what are the commands to copy the image to the compact flash?

and how do I do the format to recover the disdk spaceas stated below?

what is the procedure to swap out for a larger flash card and can it be done while the router is online?

"5) Get a bigger compact flash card or delete some of the existing files if it just a lack of available space."

BTW: Often different formatting options exist for flash. Using the older ("erase"), deleting files doesn't recover space. Using the newer ("format") does reuse space.

PS:

As Jon correctly notes, flash is most commonly used for containing the IOS image, but it can be used for other functions, such as add on features, e.g. SDM, or TFTP server, etc.

What is the procedure to delete the existing files?

What if the boot image is the only large file on the flash?

You cannot delete the image that is running on the router can you?

Richard,

See the response(s) inline.

""What is the procedure to delete the existing files?""

delete disk0: (follow the prompt to delete the files that you no longer want) You may have to issue the squeeze command to free up the space if the router doesn't free up the memory space even after you delete the image.

""What if the boot image is the only large file on the flash?""

see the next response.

""You cannot delete the image that is running on the router can you?""

If you can delete any unwanted files in disk0 and make enough room for the new image that would be the way to go. However, if you have delete the actual IOS image to make room then technically you should be able to delete the IOS image on disk0 even if the router is currently using it. However, after you delete the image but you haven't loaded the new image the router reboots then it would fail to boot and go into rommon mode. So just be careful there and not let the router reboot before new image is loaded and boot system command is pointed to the new image.

HTH

Sundar

Thanks Sundar,

I have a new 7206 and wanted to try this procedure a few times.

Is there a safe way to downgrade the router to an earlier image, save the existing image and go throught the upgrade process afew times?

Also, what are your thoughts on upgrading IOS images?

Do you upgrade as soon as the latest revision comes out?

An as far as the T train,GD, LD ED releases,

Is the GD always more desirable that the ED relaease?

Do you have to always put a T train on a T train relase?

No problem Richard.

Here's a CCO link that should help you go through the upgrade process.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/routers/ps133/products_tech_note09186a0080094c07.shtml

Since you want to downgrade the code the new (older) code mightn't accept some commands if it doesn't support those features. Make sure the downgrade code that you pick supports all the features that you are currently using. Use the Feature Navigator tool to pick the correct IOS image you need based on the features you are using. Here's the link for the Feature Navigator.

http://tools.cisco.com/ITDIT/CFN/jsp/index.jsp

GD code is considered more stable code. T code supports newer features that you mayn't find with GD code of the same version. If you can find a GD code that supports all the features you are looking for then go with GD code. If you end up picking the T code then go with the highest release in the T code. I have responded to the other post about upgrading the IOS.

HTH

Sundar

You are the man duder!!

Thanks Sundar

"delete disk0: (follow the prompt to delete the files that you no longer want) You may have to issue the squeeze command to free up the space if the router doesn't free up the memory space even after you delete the image."

BTW:

Good point about usage of squeeze command. However, I recall squeeze command wasn't supported on some of the older devices/images. Shouldn't be an issue on a 7200. Further, hopefully the flash is already in the newer format that doesn't require squeeze to reclaim space.

[edit]

PS:

Another point that might have been missed, bootvar only needs to be set if not having it doesn't select the image you desire. (The default is the first acceptable[?] IOS image on the default boot device.) Further, I believe, bootvar can point to just a device, where it will also select the first image on that device.

Thanks for the information, from the below taken from a 6509 switch, would this be a good assumption:

I can copy an upgrade image to the compact flash disk. It shows nothing on it and should be plenty of space. This will also allow me to keep the existing image in place.I could then change the bootvar to point to the compact disk image.

If I run into trouble, remove the bootvar command and reload, this will boot back to the original image.

Does all of that sould like a working plan?

Also, is there anything else that needs to be done?

This also means that I could copy the new image at any time I want?

6509#dir all

Directory of system:/

2 dr-x 0 memory

1 -rw- 135584 running-config

12 dr-x 0 vfiles

No space information available

Directory of tmpsys:/

6 drw- 0 eem_lib_system

5 drw- 0 eem_lib_user

4 drw- 0 eem_policy

1 dr-- 0 lib

No space information available

Directory of flexwan-fpd:/

0 dr--

No space information available

Directory of disk0:/

No files in directory

63840256 bytes total (63840256 bytes free)

Directory of sup-bootflash:/

1 -rwx 41860100 Oct 14 2006 02:47:22 -04:00 s72033-ipservicesk9-mz.122

-18.SXF5.bin

65536000 bytes total (23675772 bytes free)

Directory of sup-microcode:/

0 dr--

1 -r-- 18353238 DRACO2_MP

2 -r-- 6168850 CHEVYS-LC

3 -r-- 7402166 C2LC

4 -r-- 315100 LCP_LX10100

5 -r-- 376572 LCP_LX1000

6 -r-- 309342 LCP_AX1000

7 -r-- 375196 LCP_AX10100

8 -r-- 356782 LCP_CPFAB

9 -r-- 692510 LCP_CPGBIT

10 -r-- 681982 LCP_CP10G

11 -r-- 746718 LCP_CPMBIT2

12 -r-- 846046 LCP_CPMBIT

13 -r-- 1009326 LCP_CPXBIT

14 -r-- 65318 LCP_ABOOT

15 -r-- 60490 LCP_BOOT

37759636 bytes total (0 bytes free)

Directory of const_nvram:/

1 -rw- 4636 vlan.dat

129004 bytes total (124368 bytes free)

Directory of nvram:/

1918 -rw- 135540 startup-config

1919 ---- 24 private-config

1920 -rw- 135540 underlying-config

1 ---- 4 rf_cold_starts

2 ---- 35 persistent-data

3 -rw- 0 ifIndex-table

1964024 bytes total (1825336 bytes free)

Directory of bootflash:/

1 -rw- 17891428 Apr 17 2004 00:25:52 -04:00 c6msfc3-pk9sv-mz.122-17a.S

X2.bin

2 -rw- 351438 Jan 31 2006 14:43:43 -05:00 crashinfo_20060131-194343

3 -rw- 346449 Sep 24 2006 01:07:36 -04:00 crashinfo_20060924-050736

4 -rw- 348970 Sep 24 2006 00:12:46 -04:00 crashinfo_20060924-041246

65536000 bytes total (45181192 bytes free)

Richard

Yes you can place the new image in disk0: and then set the "boot system flash disk0:

Bear in mind that you can enter multiple "boot system flash .." commands into the running-config and they will appear in the running-config in the order you add them on the command line.

Jon

Jon,

What would I do without you guys?

One last question on this,

What would be the reason to put mutliple entries of "boot system flash"?

The switch would always boot to the image which is first in the config correct?

And what would be the result with no entry in the bootvar?