Upgrading IOS on FWSM

[Nachiappan Nachiappan]

Hi,

I am not much familar with FWSM. My main area of work is with routers and switches.

I need to upgrade the IOS on FWSM. Please clarify my question

·         When I did a “show boot device” on 6509 I don’t see any boot variable. Is that means, by default the FWSM boots from the cf:4 application partition  and we can upgrade the software to the current application partition ? [No need to use maintenance partition]

Helen#show boot device

Firewall Module [Mod: 2]:

·         Do we just copy the image from tftp/ftp to the device flash and reload the module ? if I do a show flash on the FWSM, it’s not showing the current software version.

fwsm# sh flash

flash file system:  version:3  magic:0x12345679

file 0: origin:       0 length:6390272

file 1: origin: 6390272 length:11490496

file 2: origin:17881088 length:40

file 3: origin:17881600 length:2863

file 4: origin:21085696 length:280

Where is the software version is stored on the FWSM.

Thanks

Nachi

[Jennifer Halim · Accepted solution]

Yes, by default it boots from cf:4

What version of FWSM are you currently running and what are you going to upgrade it to?

You don't have to use the Maintenance partition to upgrade the FWSM, you can upgrade the FWSM from the FWSM console itself.

From the 6500 switch, please session into the FWSM, and you can check the version via "show version".

To upgrade the FWSM from the FWSM session itself:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/security/fwsm/fwsm32/configuration/guide/swcnfg_f.html#wp1042136

(Note: please kindly be advised that FWSM can only hold 1 image, so when you upload the FWSM image to the FWSM on flash, please name it "image", it will overwrite the existing image, and once you reload the FWSM, it will boot the newly uploaded image).

Eg: copy tftp flash:image

Hope this helps.

[Nachiappan Nachiappan]

Thanks for your prompt response.

Please find the sh ver details below:

fwsm# sh ver

FWSM Firewall Version 4.0(3)
Device Manager Version 6.1(5)F

Compiled on Sun 19-Oct-08 02:53 by fwsmbld

fwsm up 23 days 15 hours

Hardware:   WS-SVC-FWM-1, 1024 MB RAM, CPU Pentium III 1000 MHz
Flash TOSHIBA THNCF128MBA @ 0xc321, 20MB

0: Int: Not licensed        : irq 5
1: Int: Not licensed        : irq 7
2: Int: Not licensed        : irq 11
........

I am upgrading to the version "c6svc-fwm-k9.4-0-15.bin" due to the bugs with the existing version.

Thanks

[Jennifer Halim · Accepted solution]

OK, great, just upgrade it directly from the FWSM itself.

copy tftp flash:image

Source file would be c6svc-fwm-k9.4-0-15.bin

Destination file would be image

[Nachiappan Nachiappan]

Is it possible to do MD5 check on FWSM as we do for routers and switches ?

Thanks

Nachi

[Jennifer Halim · Accepted solution]

No, there is no feature to check the MD5 check on FWSM.

The FWSM will automatically check to ensure the image is OK.

[Nachiappan Nachiappan]

Thanks Jennifer.

[Jennifer Halim · Accepted solution]

Thanks, please kindly mark the post as answered if you have no further question. Thank you.