Cisco Catalyst 9300 with no files in flash

[KMNRuser]

Community,

i was working on one of my switches in a remote office today and was very surprised to find the following 

when i issued a "dir flash:" command..see below:

0019300STK01#dir flash:
Directory of flash:/

No files in directory

11353194496 bytes total (8405921792 bytes free)
0019300STK01#

I was checking to see if certain files were in there.  

None of my other 9300's give me that output.

I am getting ready to upgrade the IOS XE on this switch next week.

What does this mean when it tells me there are not any files in flash.  that seems illogical..

Thanks,

Kevin

[balaji.bandi]

Can you post below output

show switch

dir

try dir flash0:  or flash1:

[KMNRuser]

Balaji,

Here is the requested output:

0019300STK01#sho switch
Switch/Stack Mac Address : 7486.0bc4.8d80 - Local Mac Address
Mac persistency wait time: Indefinite
H/W Current
Switch# Role Mac Address Priority Version State
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*1 Active 7486.0bc4.8d80 1 V01 Ready

0019300STK01#dir
Directory of flash:/

No files in directory

11353194496 bytes total (8405921792 bytes free)
0019300STK01#dir flash0:
^
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.

0019300STK01#dir flash1:
^
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.

0019300STK01#

[Leo Laohoo]

Means someone has completely wiped the switch. 

Enter the command "wr" and then issue the command "dir".  See if the config, vlan.dat and stby-vlan.dat files gets generated or not.

[Casp]

"Means someone has completely wiped the switch."
In this case I'm not so sure, in the output provided by KMelton we can see that although no files are seen, the space is being used:

11353194496 bytes total (8405921792 bytes free)
(almost 3GB used)

I see the same issue on one switch member on a stack of four (C9300 running on 16.12.4).

SWITCH#dir flash-3:
Directory of flash-3:/

188418 -rw- 2097152 Apr 2 2023 07:53:19 +00:00 nvram_config
188419 -rwx 2097152 Dec 5 2018 22:48:51 +00:00 nvram_config_bkup
188453 -rw- 7560 Oct 26 2022 09:38:01 +00:00 packages.conf
237569 drwx 4096 Oct 26 2022 09:52:22 +00:00 .installer
188431 -rw- 259 Oct 26 2022 09:52:24 +00:00 bootloader_evt_handle.log
245761 drwx 4096 Dec 5 2018 22:30:55 +00:00 core
253953 drwx 4096 Oct 26 2022 09:55:48 +00:00 .prst_sync
270337 drwx 4096 Oct 26 2022 09:38:21 +00:00 .rollback_timer
278529 drwx 4096 Dec 5 2018 22:27:16 +00:00 gs_script
286721 drwx 4096 Oct 26 2022 09:40:03 +00:00 tech_support
286725 drwx 4096 Oct 26 2022 09:52:28 +00:00 dc_profile_dir
188429 -rw- 395 Oct 26 2022 09:52:29 +00:00 boothelper.log
188433 -rw- 132108 Oct 26 2022 09:52:46 +00:00 memleak.tcl
188434 -rw- 390 Oct 26 2022 09:24:02 +00:00 tam_client_app.log
294913 drwx 4096 Dec 5 2018 22:33:02 +00:00 .dbpersist
303105 drwx 4096 Dec 5 2018 22:30:36 +00:00 onep
188436 -rw- 34 Dec 5 2018 22:31:28 +00:00 pnp-tech-time
188437 -rw- 51877 Dec 5 2018 22:31:30 +00:00 pnp-tech-discovery-summary
188432 -rwx 1953 Oct 26 2022 09:52:46 +00:00 svl_ipc.tcl
188438 -rw- 1096 Oct 26 2022 10:04:56 +00:00 vlan.dat
188443 -rw- 14464008 Oct 26 2022 09:27:22 +00:00 cat9k-cc_srdriver.16.12.04.SPA.pkg
188444 -rw- 89134084 Oct 26 2022 09:27:25 +00:00 cat9k-espbase.16.12.04.SPA.pkg
188445 -rw- 1684484 Oct 26 2022 09:27:25 +00:00 cat9k-guestshell.16.12.04.SPA.pkg
188446 -rw- 531063808 Oct 26 2022 09:27:41 +00:00 cat9k-rpbase.16.12.04.SPA.pkg
188452 -rw- 41799673 Oct 26 2022 09:28:08 +00:00 cat9k-rpboot.16.12.04.SPA.pkg
188447 -rw- 31478788 Oct 26 2022 09:27:41 +00:00 cat9k-sipbase.16.12.04.SPA.pkg
188448 -rw- 60392448 Oct 26 2022 09:27:43 +00:00 cat9k-sipspa.16.12.04.SPA.pkg
188449 -rw- 23217156 Oct 26 2022 09:27:44 +00:00 cat9k-srdriver.16.12.04.SPA.pkg
188450 -rw- 12907520 Oct 26 2022 09:27:44 +00:00 cat9k-webui.16.12.04.SPA.pkg
188451 -rw- 9216 Oct 26 2022 09:27:44 +00:00 cat9k-wlc.16.12.04.SPA.pkg
188455 -rw- 89 Oct 26 2022 09:53:55 +00:00 rdope.log
188440 -rw- 988 Oct 26 2022 09:38:34 +00:00 .packages.verify.log
188454 -rw- 16090 Oct 26 2022 09:53:56 +00:00 rdope_out.txt
188456 -rw- 0 Oct 26 2022 09:53:56 +00:00 dope_hist

11353980928 bytes total (9936306176 bytes free)

SWITCH#dir flash-4:
Directory of flash-4:/

No files in directory

11353980928 bytes total (8464105472 bytes free)

And files seem to be there, just not visible?

SWITCH#copy flash-3:nvram_config flash-4:
Destination filename [nvram_config]?
%Warning:There is a file already existing with this name
Do you want to over write? [confirm]n

[balaji.bandi]

@Casp  are you the owner of orginal poster ? the problem looks different compare to OP,

we suggest post with new thread and also that thread was 2022

Other suggestion 16.12.X  has many bugs, so suggest to upgrade 17.6.X or 17.9.X if possible

[Leo Laohoo]

Or an IOS-XE bug.  The stack, after all, is running on 16.12.4.  And I know, from experience, 16.12.4 is a buggy version.  

[Casp]

@balaji.bandi, the problem looks related to OPs (I'm not OP but I'm sharing my findings here)

0019300STK01#dir flash:
Directory of flash:/

No files in directory

11353194496 bytes total (8405921792 bytes free)

SWITCH#dir flash-4:
Directory of flash-4:/

No files in directory

11353980928 bytes total (8464105472 bytes free)

However for me it resolved after upgrading the stack from 16.12.4 to 17.06.04, files are now visible:

SWITCH#dir flash-4:
Directory of flash-4:/

98305 drwx 4096 Apr 2 2023 11:04:26 +00:00 .prst_sync
32770 -rw- 2097152 Apr 2 2023 11:03:14 +00:00 nvram_config
32809 -rw- 0 Apr 2 2023 11:02:34 +00:00 dope_hist
32795 -rw- 16953 Apr 2 2023 11:02:34 +00:00 rdope_out.txt
32796 -rw- 89 Apr 2 2023 11:02:33 +00:00 rdope.log
32790 -rw- 1096 Apr 2 2023 11:02:24 +00:00 vlan.dat
139265 drwx 4096 Apr 2 2023 11:02:12 +00:00 .dbpersist
81921 drwx 4096 Apr 2 2023 11:02:03 +00:00 .installer
32794 -rw- 5242880 Apr 2 2023 11:01:56 +00:00 ssd
(and so on)

So for me the issue is resolved and looks to be another bug in 16.12.4.

Thank you all.

[balaji.bandi]

The OP has Lost other switches not able to view them - he can only view one switch. you able to view other switches and files are missing that could be bug as mentioned version, hence our suggestion to upgrade 17.6.X 

Other suggestion 16.12.X  has many bugs, so suggest to upgrade 17.6.X or 17.9.X if possible

Glad our suggestion makes you able to resolve the issue.

Note : in the Future open a new thread mentioning the old thread information, so every problem may be different.