How to recover a Catalyst9300 switch to boot from its IOS

[Hannibal]

Hi Dear Cisco Community,

The best of Internet Support..

Let me open this new thread to request help on a problem we are currently having.

We have a Catalyst 9300-48P Switch that we have restarted with the small surprise that now its IOS does not boot. Just enter "switch:" mode:

We get next output with the next commands we enter:

switch: dir
usage:
dir <path-to-directory>
supported filesystem(s):
flash: ro flash
bootflash: ro system partition
usbflash0: rw front-panel USB
usbflash1: rw back-panel USB

switch: dir flash:
media drive flash: not present.

switch: dir sda9:
media drive sda9: not present.

switch: dir sda8:
media drive sda8: not present.

switch: dir bootflash:
media drive bootflash: not present.

This looks like the flash memory:, the Bootflash memory: and all the physical means to recover the switch have been damaged.

Because no physical flash media is present, all boot commands fail.

Has anyone in the community had experience with this type of recovery?

Some procedure to follow?

Thank you in advance

With my best regards

Hans

[balaji.bandi]

Looks like Flash got damaged in your case.

if you have image in your stored location, Copy in to USB and boot from USB.

and try to access bootflash and try format and load ?

if this is still not working - then raise TAC case RMA.

[Hannibal]

Dear BB

However, we enter the following command and it appears that there is no physical damage inthe memory

switch: meminfo

Current DDR SDRAM info:

SPD PROM slot 0 contents (hex):
*** SLOT IS EMPTY ***

SPD PROM slot 1 contents (hex):
*** SLOT IS EMPTY ***

SPD PROM slot 2 contents (hex):
*** SLOT IS EMPTY ***

SPD PROM slot 3 contents (hex):
*** SLOT IS EMPTY ***

Main memory size: 8192 MB

NVRAM size: 64 KB

switch:

Thank you in advance

My best regards

Hans

[balaji.bandi · Accepted solution]

Looking at your messages looks for me storage damaged, contact TAC for RMA.

[Hannibal]

Hi my friend BB

Thank you for your fast response... Yes, we did that and no work

see the output:

switch: boot usbflash0:cat9k_iosxe.16.12.04.SPA.bin
boot: attempting to boot from [usbflash0:cat9k_iosxe.16.12.04.SPA.bin]
boot: reading file cat9k_iosxe.16.12.04.SPA.bin
############################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################
Validate packages: SHA-1 hash:
calculated 8107050C:9D37851A:AE2D3320:DDA4A090:3309EFA6
expected 8107050C:9D37851A:AE2D3320:DDA4A090:3309EFA6

Initializing Hardware...

System Bootstrap, Version 16.9.1r [FC2], RELEASE SOFTWARE (P)
Compiled Tue 05/29/2018 14:59:59.99 by rel

Current ROMMON image : Primary
Last reset cause : SoftwareReload
C9300-48P platform with 8388608 Kbytes of main memory

media drive sda8: not present.
boot: attempting to boot from [flash:packages.conf]
media drive flash: not present.
ERROR: failed to boot from flash:packages.conf (Not Found)
Please wait while the system restarts.

Initializing Hardware...

System Bootstrap, Version 16.9.1r [FC2], RELEASE SOFTWARE (P)
Compiled Tue 05/29/2018 14:59:59.99 by rel

Current ROMMON image : Primary
Last reset cause : SoftwareReload
C9300-48P platform with 8388608 Kbytes of main memory

media drive sda8: not present.
WARNING: Bootable URL's in BOOT variable not found or exhausted.
Please check the ROMMON configuration or boot command usage.
switch:

It appears that the switch has been damaged and needs to be replaced, right?

Thank you in advance and my best regards

Hans