Copying new Image on 2621

[c.armentor]

Good morning!

I have a quick, probably easy question for someone. I am copying a new IOS Image to a 2621, during the copy process I get explanation points, on occassion I get periods instead. What exactly do the periods mean? If I get periods do I need to do the transfer again? I am assuming that if it the image transfers with periods and does not error out the transfer should be successful. I have a couple of remote sites to upgrade and I am getting a couple of periods. I don't want to reload the devices if the image is corrupt. Thanks for the help!

Colin

[leonvd79]

While the Router copies the configuration to the remote host, it displays a series of exclamation points (! ! !) or periods (. . .). The ! ! ! and [ok] indicate that the operation is successful. A display of . . . [timed out] or [failed] indicates a failure, which would probably be due to a network fault or the lack of a writable, readable file on the remote file server.

[c.armentor]

Leonvd79,

Thanks for the quick response. I want to make sure that I am understanding correctly... If I transfer an image and I get all ! with one or two periods (.) as long as it shows (ok) at the end of the transfer it should be successful regardless of the periods.

Thanks,

Colin

[spremkumar]

Hi

once you copy the ios code onto the other flash device you can very well checkup the size also using verify flash:iosfilename to check for checksum and error..

do check this for more info on the same..

http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/software/ios120/12cgcr/fun_r/frprt2/frimages.htm#1018124

regds

[Richard Burts · Accepted solution]

Colin

I assume that you are using tftp to do the transfer. As the router attempts to trasfer blocks of data it provides feedback on the process. The exclamation point ! indicates successful transfer of data. The period . indicates that a timeout took place. I feel that the explanation from Leon gives the impression that if the transfer had a string of periods (or a few periods) that the transfer failed and needs to be redone. The tftp protocol can recover from a few timeouts and complete successfully. When tftp experiences a timeout it will retransmit that block of data. So if you get a few periods it may indicate that there were some dropped packets but it does not necessarily mean that the transfer failed.

I believe that Leon is right when he says to look at the end of the transfer and see whether the router is indicating ok (then the transfer is good) or is indicating failure (the transfer was not good and you need to do it over again).

If you are concerned about the transfer and if some of the routers are remote (or if the image file is large) then I might suggest that you consider using FTP to do the transfer rather than TFTP. The FTP protocol will transfer the file more quickly and in my experience is better able to deal with connections where there are likely to be dropped packets.

HTH

Rick

[c.armentor]

Thanks everyone!

I appreciate the quick feedback from everyone.

Have a good one,

Colin