APIC Controller /Firmware folder Almost full

[hurricane05]

We were in the middle of uploading the APIC Controller .iso file in prep to update to latest version and noticed on the node we were uploading the .iso file to repository got to 95% full and complaining. So we stopped the upload process.

• What actually happens when the /Firmware folder gets to 100%? Does any adverse affect occur with the specific APIC controller itself such as crash or reboot?
• The specific APIC Controller is now sitting at 98% full because we cancelled the upload process that had been sitting for a while at uploading.
• How do we fix the 98% as we don't see the specific .iso file in the show firmware repository output from the cli
  • Do we just reboot the specific APIC controller?
  • We have already removed old files from the repository that were listed in the GUI. 

Thx in advance for any assistance given.

[Robert Burns]

The firmware partition is finite in space.  Should you fill it, you simply wouldn't be able to upload additional firmware bundles to APIC, but it would not impact other functions of the controller outside of upload/upgrades.

After you delete the images from the APIC GUI/CLI, it should sync across all cluster controllers and reduce the Used space in the firmware partition.  This may take 15-30mins.  If beyond this, the firmware partition hasn't reduced in used space, I'd suggest you contact TAC so they can take a look.  They may need to go in as root and do some additional cleanup should there be some corrupt files/garbage such as old/failed installer logs which can consume a huge amount of the partition.

Robert

[hurricane05]

Thx for the response. One quick question, does the current version of APIC software (we are running 4.2(6h)) have to remain in the repository location? Reason I ask is while on phone with TAC, same said that because the original switch and controller images that were listed in the repository were removed and if you reboot the APIC controller, that it could possibly fail to boot up because it needs the original/current version running that is running which doesn't make since. We were under the impression 

Thx in advance for any help provided.

[Robert Burns · Accepted solution]

It's always a best practice to leave the current and last version on the APIC at all times for easy rollback if/when needed.  There's more than enough storage to keep a few versions of each software. When an APIC is upgraded, it copies the image from the firmware repository to a bootflash partition, so removing it should not impact it - unless something changed in the process since I last dug deep into this.  When you first setup APIC, you probably would have noticed the Firmware repository is empty for both controller & switch images.  If this was the case, after first installation you wouldn't be able to reboot the controller, which isn't the case.

Robert