SNS-36x5 server and ISE 3.x re-image issue

[girish_gavandi]

Symptoms

For ISE 3.1 software images which are more than 10GB in size, below re-image options seem to fail.

1. Re-image using KVM console (mapping vDVD), fails
2. Re-image using CIMC (mapping vDVD), fails
3. Using bootable USB flash created using LiveCDCreator tool, fails.
4. Re-image using HTTP by mapping the vmedia fails.
5. Re-image using CIFS by mapping the vmedia fails.

Diagnosis

Reason for this failure is currently not known. However, below BIOS and BMC/CIMC versions seem is help a bit.

BIOS version "SNS-36xx-BIOS-4-0-4q-0_ISE.cap"

BMC/CIMC version "upd-pkg-SNS-36xx-cimc.full.4.0.4m.bin".

use of any new version while re-image might give you "Pane is dead" error message.

Solution

Quick solution is to re-image using NFS share method by mapping the vmedia works. Takes approx. 2 hours to re-image. Below are the detailed steps,

Configure NFS server on windows 10 machine.

Download WinNFSd.exe from the link below,

https://github.com/winnfsd/winnfsd/releases/download/2.4.0/WinNFSd.exe

WinNFSd is a Network File System V3 (NFS) server for Windows. it is much faster than shared folders.

1. Copy the file into a folder, C:\NFS\WinNFSd.exe
2. Create new folder (NFS share folder) with any name. (eg ISE)
3. Copy the ISE .iso image in the share folder.
4. Connect the laptop NIC card directly to CIMC port and assign IP address to laptop NIC in the same subnet as the server CIMC.
5. Open PowerShell
6. You need to bind the WinNFSd to specific windows machine ip address, PS C:\NFS> .\WinNFSd.exe -addr <server-ip-addr> C:\nfs\ise\ /ise
7. If prompted, allow the NFS server port and IP through the windows firewall.
8. Server will start and listen on configured ip address.

Login to CIMC

Click on Navigation icon -> Compute -> Remote Management -> Virtual Media

Under Current Mappings, Click on Add New Mapping. Fill in the details as below,

Volume: image (any name)

Mount Type: NFS

Remote Share: (server-ip:/share-name)

Remote File: <ise iso image.iso>

Mount Option: nolock (default, don’t change)

Click Save.

Click Save.

Launch KVM

Power Cycle (warm reboot server)

Press F6 for boot options.

Select Cisco CIMC-Mapped vDVD1.24

Installation starts.

Optionally, ssh into the server CIMC ip address.

Login

Scope sol

Connect host

This will give you details installation steps.