Migrate flash cards

[SamMooreIT]

Hello,

I need to upgrade the compact flash of my ASA 5510 from 256MB to 512MB. A friend's recommendation was to buy a card reader, copy all of the data from the existing card and paste it to the new compact flash. I have a hard time believing that it's that straight forward.

Any suggestions for a safer, more foolproof way of migrating between flash cards?

Thanks in advance.

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[Anu M Chacko]

Hi Josh,

Though i've heard that you can use a card reader to transfer all data, I suggest you transfer this data using a TFTP server to your PC and from there you can upload it to your new flash card.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Anu

P.S. Please mark this question as answered if it has been resolved. Do rate helpful posts. Thanks!

[SamMooreIT]

OK. I understand using TFTP to do this, but, how will I write to the flash card without a card reader? If I need to buy one, which one should I be looking for?

Once I have all that, do I need to do a sh run or just a straight copy to my TFTP server to get all of my configurations/features backed up?

Thanks.

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[varrao]

Hi Josh,

Just the same way, you can use the TFTP server to load the data into the new flash card as well.

You would need to use the following comman

ASA5510#copy tftp disk0:

Address or name of remote host []? 
Source filename []? 
Destination filename [filename]?
Accessing tftp://172.16.31.1/filename...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Writing file disk0:/filename...
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
8312832 bytes copied in 163.350 secs (50998 bytes/sec)

This is how it would look.

Hope this helps

Thanks,
Varun

[Anu M Chacko]

Hi Josh,

Instead of a card reader, you can use a TFTP server to copy all the files in your flash to the server and then from there to your new flash, as mentioned in the above post. I may not be the right person to tell which card reader to use, but I suggest that you don't use it, since it might cause issues.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Anu

[SamMooreIT]

All of this info is helpful, but, I still have no way of writing to the flash card unless it's in some sort of card reader. Any recommendations?

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[Anu M Chacko · Accepted solution]

Hi Josh,

You don't need a card reader. Just install a TFTP server application on your PC. Access the ASA using command line and use "copy flash: tftp" to transfer contents of the flash to the TFTP server on your PC. Now, replace your old flash card with the new one and use "copy tftp flash:" to copy all content from the TFTP server to the new flash.

Hope this is clear.

Regards,

Anu

P.S. Please mark this question as answered if it has been resolved. Do rate helpful posts. Thanks!

[SamMooreIT]

The reason I was beating the "card reader" drum is because I want to minimize downtime. If I do it the way you have suggested, how much downtime can I expect to see from power off to power on?

Thank you for all of your help.

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[Anu M Chacko]

Hi Josh,

About 15-30 minutes at the max.

Regards,

Anu