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Cisco 3845 and 4 GB Sandisk USB drive - supported or not

astanislaus
Level 2
Level 2

http://www.malcomwireless.com/wireless/store/productdetail.asp?productid=48028

Please see the above link for the USB drive our customer is using.

Problem description:

===============

Customer has 100s of these Cisco 3845 routers. He wants to upgrade the IOS. He cannot copy the new IOS to the Compact Flash due to lack of space. He doesn't want to delete the IOS from the compact flash before upgrading thr compact flash with the new version. So he asks the remote person at the 3845 router site to stick in a 4GB USB Sandisk drive. Then he tftp's the new IOS to this USB drive. When he does that he finds the tftp is very very very slow and after a few minutes times out and never completes. Then there is no way out to recover from this sluggish router but to ask someone on site to reload the router.

This has happened on 3 out of 10 sites so far. All Cisco 3845 router sites.

Questions:

========

1. Has anyone seen this problem before?

2. Is 4 GB or any 3rd party SanDisksupported on these routers if not what USB is supported. Does Cisco supply USB disks like they supply Compact Flash. Somewhere I seem to remember that only 2 GB USB drives are supported on these router. Is that right?

3. Is it mandatory to format the USB drive before the tftp, but no Cisco documentation says that you must. Customer doesn't believe that it must be formatted, because he then asks the question - Why should the tftp compelete on an unformatted USB drive successfully after the relaod of the router.

Any documentation pointing to the correct use and restrictions of the USB drive in 3845 is much appreciated.

Alphonse

3 Accepted Solutions

Accepted Solutions

Leo Laohoo
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame

For a ISR G1, maximum size supported is 2Gb (un-documented) and 1Gb (documented).

IF you want to enable boot via USB, you need to upgrade the bootstrap to 12.4(13r)Txx or later.

Please don't forget to rate useful posts.  Thanks.

View solution in original post

Thanks for the rating.

ISR G1 are the 1800, 2800 and 3800 routers.

When I say "documented" I also meant that you can buy from Cisco a 1Gb CF.  You're also right that the document states that the ISR G1 will support up to 256mb CF.

This is from my router:

Router##dir
Directory of flash:/

1  -rw-    56505908   Sep 3 2010 16:08:20 +10:00  c2800nm-spservicesk9-mz.151-2.T1.bin
2  -rw-    55160764   May 7 2010 09:56:36 +10:00  c2800nm-spservicesk9-mz.151-1.T.bin

2016968704 bytes total (1905262592 bytes free)
WOSH-VG-01#

View solution in original post

Mea culpa.  I didn't specify.  The output is from a 2821 router with PVDM2.

I have tested both 2Gb CF and 2GB USB extensively on the ISR G1s (1800, 2800 and 3800) and I'm confident about my post (I'm not being arrogant to anyone reading this).  I've also successfully been able to prove that I can boot an ISR G1 using USB (2Gb).

There are some Cisco employees who are regular in this forum who would agree with my findings but will put a disclaimer that this setup is and will not be supported by TAC. 

I have tried with mixed result trying to use anything larger than 2Gb (both CF and USB).

According to Cisco, the reason why they can't confirm the 2Gb maximum size for CF and USB is because they didn't have the time to test these media before the hardware was released to the market.

By the way, I'm also using 2Gb CF on our Sup32 and Sup720.

The new ISR G2s (1900, 2900 and 3900 routers) and the 3560X, 3750X and 2960S, however, are a different matter.  Undocumented, the ISR G2s will support up to 8GB.  The switches will also support 8Gb USB.  To boot anyone of the switches and ISR G2s on USB, you don't need to perform anything else other than stick the USB into the slot and change the boot statement.

Just as a side note and a warning:  NOT all CF and/or USB are supported.  (I tried inserting a 2Gb USB stick from F5 and caused the 2960S to crash in spectacular fashion!)  So buy one and test them first before buying in bulk.

View solution in original post

7 Replies 7

Leo Laohoo
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame

For a ISR G1, maximum size supported is 2Gb (un-documented) and 1Gb (documented).

IF you want to enable boot via USB, you need to upgrade the bootstrap to 12.4(13r)Txx or later.

Please don't forget to rate useful posts.  Thanks.

Leo,

The document I am looking at says only Cisco USB Flash and only a maximum of 256 MB is supported. Can you point me to teh link that says only 1 GB is support. You said there is a document.

The document I am looking at is

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/partner/prod/collateral/modules/ps6247/prod_qas0900aecd80232483.html

and this says only Cisco USB Flash and only a maximum of 256 MB is supported

By the way what is "G1". You mentioned "G1" in your reply.

Thanks for the rating.

ISR G1 are the 1800, 2800 and 3800 routers.

When I say "documented" I also meant that you can buy from Cisco a 1Gb CF.  You're also right that the document states that the ISR G1 will support up to 256mb CF.

This is from my router:

Router##dir
Directory of flash:/

1  -rw-    56505908   Sep 3 2010 16:08:20 +10:00  c2800nm-spservicesk9-mz.151-2.T1.bin
2  -rw-    55160764   May 7 2010 09:56:36 +10:00  c2800nm-spservicesk9-mz.151-1.T.bin

2016968704 bytes total (1905262592 bytes free)
WOSH-VG-01#

Thanks Leo.

Yes I saw that 1GB USB Flash but according to a few links I saw I thought it was only for ASR1000 series routers and not for 3845. For 3845 I thought it was only a maxm of 256 MB USB flash.

But I can see your router is working with 1 GB.

Thanks again.

Sorry I can see 2 GB on your roeuter. IS that a ASR1000 or 3845 router.

Mea culpa.  I didn't specify.  The output is from a 2821 router with PVDM2.

I have tested both 2Gb CF and 2GB USB extensively on the ISR G1s (1800, 2800 and 3800) and I'm confident about my post (I'm not being arrogant to anyone reading this).  I've also successfully been able to prove that I can boot an ISR G1 using USB (2Gb).

There are some Cisco employees who are regular in this forum who would agree with my findings but will put a disclaimer that this setup is and will not be supported by TAC. 

I have tried with mixed result trying to use anything larger than 2Gb (both CF and USB).

According to Cisco, the reason why they can't confirm the 2Gb maximum size for CF and USB is because they didn't have the time to test these media before the hardware was released to the market.

By the way, I'm also using 2Gb CF on our Sup32 and Sup720.

The new ISR G2s (1900, 2900 and 3900 routers) and the 3560X, 3750X and 2960S, however, are a different matter.  Undocumented, the ISR G2s will support up to 8GB.  The switches will also support 8Gb USB.  To boot anyone of the switches and ISR G2s on USB, you don't need to perform anything else other than stick the USB into the slot and change the boot statement.

Just as a side note and a warning:  NOT all CF and/or USB are supported.  (I tried inserting a 2Gb USB stick from F5 and caused the 2960S to crash in spectacular fashion!)  So buy one and test them first before buying in bulk.

Leo Laohoo
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame

Nuts.  I also forgot to mention that aside from the ISR G1s, the c2690 and the 3700 will also support up to 2Gb CF.

Thanks for the ratings.

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