Graceful removal of linecard module from Cisco 4507R switch

[phamlinh]

Greetings,

I've been searching a bit, but did not find any documentation on how to -gracefully- remove a network linecard module from a Cisco 4507R switch.

I know that the 4500 is OIR capable, and that there is a command to power on/off the module (that I have not tested yet myself).

What I have been looking for is to remove the related config of that module from running conf without rebooting the switch.

Also, we have Nagios who runs SNMP check on the consistancy of the modules, and I suspects that online removal would trigger an alarm.

Is there any proper way to -kind of- unprovision the module first before actually removing it from the chassis?

Cheers

[balaji.bandi]

best approach, on NMS, put the device in unmanage or maintenace mode. Once the card removed, repoll with the new resources.

Powering Down a Module

If your system does not have enough power for all modules installed in the switch, you can power down a module, and place it in low-power mode. To power down a module, perform this task:

Command	Purpose
Switch(config)# no hw-module module num power	Turns power down to the specified module by placing it in low power mode.

To power on a module that has been powered down, perform this task:

Command	Purpose
Switch(config)# hw-module module num power	Turns power on to the specified module.

This example shows how to power down module 6:

Switch# configure terminal

Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.

Switch(config)# no hw-module module 6 power

Switch(config)# end

Switch#

Note :

After you enter no hw-mod mod x power command and OIR the linecard, the configuration persists and is valid for any slot in the chassis it is applied to. You observe the same behavior in the active and standby supervisor engines

[Reza Sharifi]

Hi,

Just save the config and back it up before removing the module. As for a proper way, there is really none. You just take the bad module out and put in the new one. I also advise doing it during a maintenance window, as you never know what can go wrong.

HTH

[phamlinh]

Thank you for your replies.

I'm aware of the existence of command "hw-module module num power", but I do not think it applies to the need.

The aim is not to replace the module but to decommision it. That's why we also want to clean up the config along with the removal.

With my colleagues, we have searched and also suspected that there is no good way to do that properly, but maybe there is still someone who has the idea.

A reboot would surely make the switch come up with a clean running config, but that would be last resort option. We might eventually live with the residual config without reboot.

And yes, the removal will be done during a maintenance window.

Cheers

[Reza Sharifi]

Depending on the version of IOS-XE you are running the "hw-module module" command is available, but the main purpose of that command is to reduce to amount of power the switch is using when the switch does not have a large enough PSU to power up the whole chassis with all the modules installed, and not so much for OIR.

See page-12-20 in this document:

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/lan/catalyst4500/15-1/XE_330SG/configuration/guide/config/pwr_envr.pdf

HTH   

[mlund]

Hi

In my mind, I recall that if you remove a module, the running config will also be changed automatic. So the interfaces will not be in the running config anymore, just in the startup config.

If so, you just have to do copy run start, and the startup will also be without the interface config.

/Mikael

[balaji.bandi]

as per i know and i recall - if you remove the module, you expect some alerts and you will not see any config change - you need to observe the outcome

[phamlinh]

Hello,

A quick update as we finally got a time window to remove the module. We have just moved some remaining connections there to another card, shut down all the ports, and then removed it from the switch.

There is no need to unprovision the module, the switch removed the related ports configuration itself (maybe with a little delay, I was informed only some minutes after the removal). This surprised me a bit because if we had wanted to replace the module, we would have lost its config.

Thanks again for your inputs.

Regards,

Linh

[mlund]

Hi

That was the behavior I was expected. It removes the config from running, because there are no corresponding ports anymore.

However, if You had replaced the module with an module of same sort, the config had been restored to it's previous values. Because those where still in the startup config.

/Mikael