Going from 12.1 to 12.2 on 6500 with Supervisor II and updating boot image

johnnylingo · ‎09-13-2006

I have a 6500 switch with a Supervisor II card I'd like to upgrade from 12.1(26)E to 12.2(18)SXD

I notice it currently has a boot image and a main IOS image, i.e.

boot system flash sup-bootflash:c6sup22-po3sv-mz.121-26.E3.bin

boot bootldr bootflash:c6msfc2-boot-mz.121-26.4.E

However on the 12.2 download page, there are no boot images listed for the CAT6000-MSFC2. Do I still need a separate boot image for 12.2, or is only main IOS image all that I need to worry about?

gpulos · ‎09-13-2006

you will need the main IOS image and a boot image.

(the boot image does not have to be the exact same version as the main IOS image; same major train should be fine; in your case you can leave the bootldr as is; 12.1(26)4E)

the boot image provides the basic functionality for the device to enable a user to add ip, gw, etc. in order to get the system to boot from the network/tftp server for the main IOS image.

NOTE: also, 12.2(18)SXD has been deferred. you may want to look into 12.2(18)SXD7 for your new image.

you should be able to upgrade the main IOS to 12.2(18)SXD7 or above without needing to upgrade the boot image.

(actually, i cannot find any new boot images for the msfc2 on cco so you have no choice)

gavin.mckee · ‎09-13-2006

This issue interests me also....

I want to move from Hybrid mode on a Cat 6509 to native mode.

We have 2 MSFC2 cards for redundancy. My question is how do I go about getting an IOS image for the 6509? Will it support the 2 MSFC cards (high availability). I have bought 256MB chips for the MSFC2 cards so that they can run an IOS image.

Can you offer any suggestions?

Gav

johnnylingo · ‎09-13-2006

Yes, I'll be using 12.2(18) SXD7

The interesting thing is I've upgraded some 6500s with Supervior 720 cards from 12.2(17d)SXB to 12.2(18)SXD7, and they've done just fine without using any boot image at all. But with the Supervisor II's, I'm not sure if this is the case.

jackyoung · ‎09-13-2006

The boot image provides the basic function. If you upgrade a device and the release note does not require an updated boot image then it is fine to upgrade the image only. IOS require minimum ver. of the boot image, so it may require to be upgraded first for boot up the IOS.

Hope this helps.

johnnylingo · ‎09-14-2006

Here's the release notes covering the Sup 720 and 32. Is there anything specifically for the Sup 2?

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/customer/products/hw/switches/ps700/products_configuration_example09186a0080116ff0.shtml#maintask2