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Upgrading IOS on 6506-E

klambert1218
Level 1
Level 1

While making preparations for upgrading the IOS on our 6506-E, I discovered that the IOS image to which I am going to upgrade is larger (76 MB) than the bootflash directory (62.5 MB). I have plenty of room on disk0:, so my question is, can I tftp the image directly to disk0:? I realize that this is not best practice. Or is there a better solution to my dilemma?

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klambert1218 wrote:

Jon,

We meet again . The question really didn't lay with the TFTP aspect of it, as much as it was to the destination. In so many of these forums, it seems that everyone suggests copy tftp bootflash: , but I never really ran across anyone suggesting this practice. I guess the big thing I fear is that if someone wanted to be devious, they could take the CF out of the machine, and if it were to reload, it might fail. Of course, I guess I could add another boot statement that would point to the previous IOS image.

We used to copy straight to disk0 or disk1 all the time. You are right about the CF being removed, it would indeed fail if it was then reloaded. This is where physical security comes in ie. only authorised people should be allowed access to the switches.

Jon

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9 Replies 9

Jon Marshall
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame

klambert1218 wrote:

While making preparations for upgrading the IOS on our 6506-E, I discovered that the IOS image to which I am going to upgrade is larger (76 MB) than the bootflash directory (62.5 MB). I have plenty of room on disk0:, so my question is, can I tftp the image directly to disk0:? I realize that this is not best practice. Or is there a better solution to my dilemma?

Yes you can tftp straight to the disk. In fact not sure why you think it's not best practice as such since if it's too big for the bootflash anyway tftp is the most efficient way to get it on there. Or were you thinking you should ftp ?

Anyway, yes it will work.

Jon

Jon,

We meet again . The question really didn't lay with the TFTP aspect of it, as much as it was to the destination. In so many of these forums, it seems that everyone suggests copy tftp bootflash: , but I never really ran across anyone suggesting this practice. I guess the big thing I fear is that if someone wanted to be devious, they could take the CF out of the machine, and if it were to reload, it might fail. Of course, I guess I could add another boot statement that would point to the previous IOS image.

klambert1218 wrote:

Jon,

We meet again . The question really didn't lay with the TFTP aspect of it, as much as it was to the destination. In so many of these forums, it seems that everyone suggests copy tftp bootflash: , but I never really ran across anyone suggesting this practice. I guess the big thing I fear is that if someone wanted to be devious, they could take the CF out of the machine, and if it were to reload, it might fail. Of course, I guess I could add another boot statement that would point to the previous IOS image.

We used to copy straight to disk0 or disk1 all the time. You are right about the CF being removed, it would indeed fail if it was then reloaded. This is where physical security comes in ie. only authorised people should be allowed access to the switches.

Jon

As usual, thank you very much for your boundless knowledge and advice.

There is always that risk right? What Cisco has done in their new product lines (2900 and 3900) is that they have covered CF with a face plate and on it it says "do not remove during operation". If you want to remove the CF, you have get a screwdriver and take out the face plate to get to the CF.

On Sup-720 there is small lock that partiolly blocks it, but still visible.

Reza

Reza Sharifi
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame

In addition to what Jon already wrote, make sure to change your boot variable so it boot from disk0

boot system disk0:

Yes, the latest IOS for 6500 (SXI3) is about 155MB

HTH

Reza

Reza,

You bring me to another question. If I am running 12.2(18)SXF9, can I still upgrade to SXI3? I thought that you had to stay within the same trains, but you would know more than I.

klambert1218 wrote:

Reza,

You bring me to another question. If I am running 12.2(18)SXF9, can I still upgrade to SXI3? I thought that you had to stay within the same trains, but you would know more than I.

There is nothing to stop you upgrading to SXI3 other than -

1) you need to make sure all your current modules are supported, this can change betweentrains

2) you have to pay to go to a new train

Jon

Yes, you can go directly to SXI3 which is the latest on CCO. It was released about 2 months ago and it is defiantly much better then SXI2. (junk)

We had so many issues with SXI2 that I had to force Cisco to give us an engineering code with bug fixes.

I am runnng SXI3 it in the lab right now and so far so good.

HTH

Reza

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