IOS upgrades for remote routers

[karl.jones]

Hi All,

I have a around 30 remote sites using 2500 routers over 64k frame-relay connections. I was just wondering if anyone knows if it is possible to upgrade the IOS software on these routers remotely. We are currently on rel 11.1 and I want to get these up to 12.x. I tried this at my desk using ISDN but when I came to downloading the image, it was not possible because it had to clear the Isdn connection. Any advice here would be much appreciated - I dont fancy travelling.

Regards

Karl

[mmikhail]

I don't know why you couldn't do it through an isdn. It shouldn't "clear" the line till you reload.

You can do it remotely. It is much less risky if you have enough flash space to hold the new image in addition to existing (just in case). Copy the new image to flash. Change conf to try boot the new first, then if fail, boot the old (multiple boot system flash:filename commands). Reload and verify running version (show ver). When satisfied, maybe after few days, delete the old, and squeeze. Good luck.

[karl.jones]

Thanks Mike,

Just one question, there isnt enough room in flash on the 2500's. If i copy the file across and it deletes the existing IOS and copies the new one and something goes wrong, what will happen to the router and is there any way of recovering the IOS on the router... any way of getting it back on the router if you know what I mean!. Any comment would be appreciated.

Thankyou

[karl.jones]

ROUTER#copy ftp flash

**** NOTICE ****

Flash load helper v1.0

This process will accept the copy options and then terminate

the current system image to use the ROM based image for the copy.

When I do a "copy ftp flash" , I get this message below which will essentially disables routing functionality; further to my last message; any way around this. Any advice appreciated.

Routing functionality will not be available during that time.

If you are logged in via telnet, this connection will terminate.

Users with console access can see the results of the copy operation.

---- ******** ----

[There are active users logged into the system]

[mmikhail]

You're right. I just tried it, and it seems that the 2500's are different.

The only way I know off to recover a corrupt system image is using the console port and rommonitor mode to tftp an image, or use Zmodem. That's hard in remote situations!!! Remotely you can access the console port by having another router acting as a terminal server using an async (or AUX port), and reverse telnet.

[karl.jones]

Thanks Mike for your advice,

Just one thing - remote routers are on 11.2 and we are using eigrp. I think it is definelty a good idea to upgrade for stub features etc but what do you think. Every thing is working ok at the moment but we have a mixture of 12.x and 11.2, and I thought it would be worth upgrading for consistency. Also most of my remote 2500's have 8mb flash 8mb ram, I have noticed that IP 12.2 requires 16mb flash & 10mb ram,

Do you think it is worth upgrading the hardware as well on these models, or should I settle for 12.1 for now. Your advice is appreciated

Best regards

[mmikhail]

2500's are pretty limited in their processing speed. I don't know about your situation, I'm maxing out on memory on about a dozen 2511 workhorses, but still wouldn't pay that much to add memory! I don't know also if 12.2 would make any difference for you than 12.1. Image memory requirements are also different between different feature packs (e.g IP vs. IP Plus).

[karl.jones]

I have about 15 2500's on ver 11.2, is it worth upgrading to 12.1?

Regards

[karl.jones]

Hi,

Just to verify, on the 2500's, even though routing is disabled, I could copy the IOS file from an FTP server on a local lan segment via the ethernet port. This would work ok wouldnt it?

Thanks

[Erick Bergquist]

Hi,

Usually, the flash on the 2500 is read-only when it is up and running. If you enough DRAM and a compressed image (mz) then it may load all into DRAM and not run from the flash. If it's able to load the image into DRAM then the flash will be read-write. 'show ver' will say if flash is read or read/write.

If its read-only, then you can't do anything with the flash unless you go to rommon mode, or reload the router. When you do a 'copy tftp flash' on the 2500 it stops the routing function/reloads and goes to rommon basically and downloads file to flash.

You could put a TFTP server on the local LAN, and put 2 'boot system' commands in the config. The first one would boot new image from TFTP server and 2nd entry would point to image on flash incase the new image from TFTP couldn't load for some reason.

HTH, Erick

[karl.jones]

Thanks Erick, I understand.

Best Regards