Is it possible to perform a "Clean Install" of AsyncOS on my c100 ESA?

[RumbleBeeAL]

after decommissioning this c100, both Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) were removed, reformatted, and reinstalled in the ESA by the IT Group.

Is there a method to reload the AsyncOS on this appliance?  Or do I now have a clean "brick"?

Please help.

Regards

[Tze Tai Mak]

Yes, you get a clean 'brick' C100 now.

Indeed, you can use the command 'diagnostic'-'reload' to clean up your IronPort unit to factory default although it is not running disk wipe using US DoD standard.

IronPort at most records down mail logs and stores some quarantined spams, virus infected messages and a few policy quarantined messages. You can just delete them before 'reload' and most likely those traces will be overwriten.

[RumbleBeeAL]

Thanks TzeTaiMak!

Is it not possible to order a preloaded replacement 80gb HDD from IronPort/Cisco, install the replacement preloaded HDD as SATA-0, then have it rebuild one of the two freshly wiped drives installed in the SATA-1 slot as in Raid-1/Mirrored config?

Or, I suppose I could install another OS such as Windows or Linux on the unit.  However, the video card is pretty weak and would likely want to install third party Video and Sound cards as well as increase the RAM.

Anyone have success with either of the two options listed above?

Regards

[RumbleBeeAL]

Is there a p/n for a CD/DVD of the AsyncOS operating system that can be used to restore the shipping functional image so that I can reinstall the OS and get this beast back up and running?

[Martin Eppler]

Hello Gordon,

I'm sorry but AsyncOS is not available on CD/DVD for a fresh install. All appliances are delivered with AsyncOS on it and they can upgrade either via our downloads server or using a local upgrade server. For the local upgrade server procedure (when internet connectivity for the appliance is not available for security reasons), you can download the AsyncOS upgrade package from an URL. But this requires that you have a) already an AsyncOS release on your appliance and b) a valid support contract is in place for the appliance serial number. So in your case the local upgrade server option would also not work as this requires that the appliance can run the 'upgrade' command.

So sad to say but without an replacement of the entire appliance via the sales team (as it is not a product malfunction support cannot help here) there is no way to get the C100 back online with an AsyncOS. But of course installing Windows OS or Linux (I can confirm that Debian is running on the hardware) would be a good reusage of the C100 in a different way.

Thanks and regards,

Martin

[RumbleBeeAL]

Martin - Thank you for the detailed response.

One last question before I take the plunge and install a new OS, am I correct in that the C100 has the following expansion slots:

  - 1ea. PCI Express x8 slot

  - 1ea. PCI-X 64-bit/133MHz slot

The reason I ask is that the integrated video card will likely not offer the resolution and performance of say an optional model.  Nor does the C100 have integrated sound card.  Therefore, to make a more enjoyable reuse solution, I'd need to find and install these two key components in the correct formfactor.

On a positive note, I did notice however, there is an extra USB port oddly hidden by the overlay on the back panel of my C100.  Interesting enough - a sharp utility knife will expose and permit use of the Double high USB stack on the rear face of the unit.  This quick mod will provide a total of 4ea. USB ports counting the ones on the front face.

Thank you again for the reponses received thus far.

[Martin Eppler]

Hello Gordon,

as the C100 is en-of-life and out-of-support I cannot open a C100 up in our lab for verification regarding the riser card. As we did not provide additional hardware for the C100 appliances to our customer, we have no details available regarding which riser card has been in use on this model or if the riser card has changed over the lifecycle of the appliance. Thee Dell 850

(which is the hardware platform of the C100) specifications lists two available riser card options:

"Choice of two I/O risers: A riser with two PCIe slots (x8 and x4) or, a riser with one 64-bit/133MHz PCI-X and one PCIe (x8) I/O slot"

Hope this helps. If not, please let us know.

Thanks and regards,

Martin