Re: UC520 issue with 1GB CF card

J_Vansen_S · ‎03-20-2011

Hi All;

My UC520 box came with a Cisco 128mb flash card; unfortunately it is insufficient for the latest 15.0version and its CUE.

Thus, we bought a 3rd party CF card its the 1gb Transcend 133x

I am having trouble booting it from flash.

I have copied whatever that is on the 128mb and transfered it to the 1gb.

Error msg i received:

boot: cannot open "flash:"
boot: cannot determine first file name on device "flash:"

It brought me to ROMMON.

rommon 1 > dir flash:
dir: cannot open device "flash:"

Tried another way to format it

UC520#format flash:
Format operation may take a while. Continue? [confirm]
Format operation will destroy all data in "flash:". Continue? [confirm]
Enter volume ID (up to 64 chars)[default flash:]:

Primary Partition created...Size 857 MB
Extended Partition created...Size 1893244928 MB

Drive communication & 1st Sector Write OK...

Extended Partition entry 1 created...Size 1893244928 MB
Extended Partition Table 1 Write OK...

%Error formatting flash: (Didn't find 55AA signature in System Sector)

What could be the problem? I have used 3rd party CF card on ISR routers all along without fail.

Please advise

David Trad · ‎03-20-2011

Hi J,

I know that certain cards are not supported with the UC-520 and as far as I am aware is that the largest card they can support is a 512MB, but I have heard of people getting a 1GB card working, but I think it is the old models not the latest ones.

If you have a 512MB one could you try that? You really do not need a 1GB unless you plan on running a website on the machine...

Cheers,

David.

Cheers, David Trad. **When you rate a persons post, you are indicating a thank you or that it helped, but at the same time you are also helping to maintain the community spirit - You don't have to rate posts and you wont be looked down upon :) *

J_Vansen_S · ‎03-20-2011

Thanks for the info; how can one tell from old CF cards with New types?

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Leo Laohoo · ‎03-20-2011

Alternatively if you have a media card reader, you can format the card from your PC using FAT16 as a standard.

J_Vansen_S · ‎03-20-2011

Yes that's what I did; format it witha card reader at FAT. Hmm I guess I'll need to get another 512mb card to test out. So many brands out there n you don't really know which one will work sigh"

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David Harper · ‎03-20-2011

This reply shouldn't be taken as implying any sort of support from Cisco for the card, but I think you find you need to format the card on a UC500 and not on a PC. Part of the format process involves installing a MONLIB file on the card that is required for the device to boot. If you format the card on a PC, you will not have the MONLIB. You can still use a PC to copy files onto the card, but it needs to be formatted in the UC500 first.

I can't say for sure that the UC500 does use this process, but older platforms that predate the UC500 certainly did, and I would be surprised if the UC500 does not use the same mechanism.

Cheers,

Dave.

David Harper · ‎03-20-2011

Sorry, just realised I hadn't read the whole post. I see now you did try and format on the UC500. What IOS was it running? I'm a little surprised this didn't work.

Cheers,

Dave.

David Trad · ‎03-20-2011

Hi J,

I also forgot to mention that if you are copying from one card to another you really need to show hidden files as well, and even then you should click in a blank spot of the directory and press "CTRL+A" which does the select all command, I have found doing it this way ensures you copy over all required files inclusive of ones hidden.

Give that a try...

Cheers,

David.

Cheers, David Trad. **When you rate a persons post, you are indicating a thank you or that it helped, but at the same time you are also helping to maintain the community spirit - You don't have to rate posts and you wont be looked down upon :) *

J_Vansen_S · ‎03-21-2011

Hi all; I have some findings"

I use the same 1GB Transcend CF card on an ISR2821 apparently it works!

According to UC520 datasheet it states that:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/voicesw/ps6788/vcallcon/ps7293/product_data_sheet0900aecd8061fb06.html

• Cisco IOS Software: 128 MB

• Voice messaging: 1 GB Compact Flash

So my guess is that it does support 1GB instead a limitation of 512mb

Fyi i am running uc500-advipservicesk9-mz.151-2.T2

Please advise

David Harper · ‎03-21-2011

The reference to 1G CF for voicemail is to an internal CF card that is not field replaceable. It is quite likely that the UC520 at least won't recognise a 1G flash card in the external slot. There is a reason why we say we only support the 128M flash card that ships with the unit, and that is because we never designed the platform to support a larger card and we don't test anything larger than 128M.

So, given the feedback from others on the community that they have found 512M cards working, you could go down that path, or you could reconsider your use of the storage space on the flash card and stick with the 128M card you have now. I do understand your frustration, and that is the reason the card sizes were increased in the UC540 and UC560 platforms, but I think it unlikely that we would start supporting larger flash cards on the UC520 at this stage in the product's lifecycle.

Cheers,

Dave.

J_Vansen_S · ‎03-21-2011

Thanks Dave; I will try to get hold of a 512mb.

Just so to clear my head, according to the data sheet cisco mentioned

DRAM 256 Cisco IOS software.

DRAM 512 Voice messaging.

Does the above means that there are separate DRAMs inside the box that cater for both IOS

David Trad · ‎03-21-2011

Hi J,

DRAM 256 Cisco IOS software.

Are you getting this mixed up with the Operational Memory to which the IOS resides during operation? Or are you referring to the flash card that resides in the media slot of the system?

256MN DRAM sounds about right for the UC-500 systems, although I would imagine the UC-560 has more due to how many DN's could be configured and other advanced features, I suspect the 560 would be 512MB but then again I would need to look at the specification sheet to verify my claim.

DRAM 512 Voice messaging.

The CUE module operates on a Compact Flash card which is considered the Hard Drive and it runs a Linux OS on it, this stores the running configuration and also the the storage of the Voice mail, however the UC-560 provides extra storage space for this with having 2 media slots.

In any event on the UC-500 series the DRAM for the CME side is not normally upgradable and highly unlikely you would ever need to upgrade this, although on some ISR such as the 2800 2900 series you would do this to expand its memory mapping.

I have heard of people swapping out the CUE Hard Drive for a 1GB flash card with the UC-520 but this was not supported by Cisco but some wanted larger storage space for Voice Mail, but again this is not supported by Cisco and with the current derivatives of the UC-500 this is not even needed as the systems are specked to according how they are sold.

Also 128MB should be enough for the UC-500 for the Flash, I suspect you just need CCA to format it and install only the phone loads required, installing all of them is just not required and a waste of space, CCA will also correct setup the directory structures, in the past things were just dumped onto the root directory, nowadays CCA creates a properly constructed directory structure.

In any event try and use Cisco supplied card as they are verified and tested to work with their systems, but if you have to use after market avoid high speed CF cards and stick to Transcend or Sandisk, these are the only ones I know work with the IOS.

Cheers,

David.

Cheers, David Trad. **When you rate a persons post, you are indicating a thank you or that it helped, but at the same time you are also helping to maintain the community spirit - You don't have to rate posts and you wont be looked down upon :) *

BRIAN SEKLECKI · ‎02-28-2016

I have the same problem with Transcend "Industrial" CF80 series TS512MCF80 512mb

[insert]
000070: Feb 28 13:00:50.366: %FILESYS-5-CF: External CompactFlash inserted

Flash card inserted in flash. Reading filesystem...
File system not supported.
Use format command to format the card as DOS File System.

[Attempt to format]

UC520#format flash:
Format operation may take a while. Continue? [confirm]
Format operation will destroy all data in "flash:".  Continue? [confirm]
Enter volume ID (up to 64 chars)[default flash:]: TRANSCEND

Primary Partition created...Size 18 MB
Extended Partition created...Size 262144 MB

Drive communication & 1st Sector Write OK...

Extended Partition entry 1 created...Size 262144 MB
Extended Partition Table 1 Write OK...

%Error formatting flash: (Didn't find 55AA signature in System Sector)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009VPFSW?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

cashmac0615 · ‎05-10-2020

HI J

Have you fixed the problem? I'd like to know how you repaired it. I have the same problem as you。

Thanks