Cisco ASA 5510 - IOS Upgrade from 7.0 Failing. No BIOS Flash Found

[nishesh3003]

Hello Everyone

I have a Cisco ASA 5510 in a lab environment with no configurations what so ever.

Objective: Upgrade the existing IOS from version 7.0(8) to 7.1.1 (eventually upgrade to 8.2 until memory upgrade on the ASA from 256 MB to 1 GB and then upgrade to the latest supported IOS version from 8.2).

Output from Show Version Attached.

Output from Show Flash Attached.

asa711-k8.bin is the file that has been copied from a TFTP Server onto flash.

The following commands were executed in order to upgrade the IOS

ciscoasa(config)# boot system flash:/asa711-k8.bin
INFO: Converting flash:/asa711-k8.bin to disk0:/asa711-k8.bin
ciscoasa(config)#
ciscoasa(config)# end
ciscoasa# write memory
Cryptochecksum: aaaa08ce ccde38f2 19c42e08 dea24cbd
2713 bytes copied in 1.450 secs (2713 bytes/sec)
[OK]
ciscoasa# reload

PROBLEM: Upon reload the ASA device goes into an infinite loop (keeps rebooting). Following is the console message:

Booting system, please wait...

CISCO SYSTEMS
Embedded BIOS Version 1.0(11)5 08/28/08 15:11:51.82
Low Memory: 631 KB
High Memory: 256 MB
PCI Device Table.
Bus Dev Func VendID DevID Class Irq
00 00 00 8086 2578 Host Bridge
00 01 00 8086 2579 PCI-to-PCI Bridge
00 03 00 8086 257B PCI-to-PCI Bridge
00 1C 00 8086 25AE PCI-to-PCI Bridge
00 1D 00 8086 25A9 Serial Bus 11
00 1D 01 8086 25AA Serial Bus 10
00 1D 04 8086 25AB System
00 1D 05 8086 25AC IRQ Controller
00 1D 07 8086 25AD Serial Bus 9
00 1E 00 8086 244E PCI-to-PCI Bridge
00 1F 00 8086 25A1 ISA Bridge
00 1F 02 8086 25A3 IDE Controller 11
00 1F 03 8086 25A4 Serial Bus 5
00 1F 05 8086 25A6 Audio 5
02 01 00 8086 1075 Ethernet 11
03 01 00 177D 0003 Encrypt/Decrypt 9
03 02 00 8086 1079 Ethernet 9
03 02 01 8086 1079 Ethernet 9
03 03 00 8086 1079 Ethernet 9
03 03 01 8086 1079 Ethernet 9
04 02 00 8086 1209 Ethernet 11
04 03 00 8086 1209 Ethernet 5
Evaluating BIOS Options ...
Launch BIOS Extension to setup ROMMON
Cisco Systems ROMMON Version (1.0(11)5) #0: Thu Aug 28 15:23:50 PDT 2008
Platform ASA5510
Use BREAK or ESC to interrupt boot.
Use SPACE to begin boot immediately.
Launching BootLoader...
Boot configuration file contains 1 entry.

Loading disk0:/asa711-k8.bin... Booting...

256MB RAM
Total SSMs found: 0
Total NICs found: 7
mcwa i82557 Ethernet at irq 11 MAC: 0024.974a.65af
mcwa i82557 Ethernet at irq 5 MAC: 0000.0001.0001
No BIOS flash found.
Rebooting....

The only way for me to get things back to normal is if I BREAK the boot sequence using ESC and enter the ROMMON mode. I then issue a boot command for the ASA to boot with the default IOS Image 7.0(8).

Can somebody please explain what is the problem here ?

Apologies if I am missing something obvious as I am not an ASA expert.

[Akshay Rastogi · Accepted solution]

It looks like the ASA is hitting a Field Notice :fn62378 . As per the FN, it is because of incompatible Hardware and software version. Please upgrade to version 7.1.2 instead of 7.1.1. If you are planning to move to 8.2. then instead of going to 7.1.2, you could go to 7.2.5(recommanded) and then 8.2.5

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/field-notices/620/fn62378.html

Hope it helps.

Regards,

Akshay Rastogi

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[nishesh3003]

Hi Akshay

I used the upgrade path you recommended and it worked fine.

Current ASA Version is 8.2.5 ED and ASDM Version is 7.5.2.

Can you please advise how did you reach the conclusion relating to Field Notice :fn62378 ?

[Akshay Rastogi]

Hi,

Little bit of googling and reading of articles that came out as a result.

I searched for the uncommon thing which was 'no bios flash found' in the output. and the read the results which came out for it. when all the version and symtoms were matching your current issue, then i got to know that this is FN your ASA is hitting.

Hope it would help you finding solutions quickly next time. :)

Regards,

Akshay Rastogi