Upgrading ROMMON in redundant Sup-IV

Hi all,

I've just replaced a failed SupIV in a 4507R and now I want to bring
the IOS on it up to a more recent level. It's the Standby Supervisor
in a RPR configuration, so a software upgrade should be quite easy.

But, it needs a ROMMON upgrade first. The site is about 150 miles from
home, so I'd prefer not to go there if possible.

I've copied the ROMMON upgrade program into slavebootflash: - question
is, if I reload the peer now, what will it do? There's an existing IOS
image in slavebootflash:, so will it just boot that instead? As I
understand it, the boot variable is automatically updated from Active
to Standby supervisor (so in effect, the boot var is system-wide), so
I can't specifiy the ROMMON upgrade program as the bootable image.
What if I delete the old IOS from slavebootflash: and reload peer -
will that cause it to do the ROMMON upgrade?

Any help will be gratefully received, as I don't have much experience
with these 4507-Rs.

TIA

Steve

 

Hello, Steve!
You wrote on Wed, 01 Dec 2004 15:43:41 GMT:

S> I've just replaced a failed SupIV in a 4507R and now I want to
S> bring the IOS on it up to a more recent level. It's the Standby
S> Supervisor in a RPR configuration, so a software upgrade should be
S> quite easy.

S> But, it needs a ROMMON upgrade first. The site is about 150 miles
S> from home, so I'd prefer not to go there if possible.

S> I've copied the ROMMON upgrade program into slavebootflash: - question
S> is, if I reload the peer now, what will it do? There's an existing
S> IOS image in slavebootflash:, so will it just boot that instead? As I
S> understand it, the boot variable is automatically updated from
S> Active to Standby supervisor (so in effect, the boot var is
S> system-wide), so I can't specifiy the ROMMON upgrade program as
S> the bootable image. What if I delete the old IOS from slavebootflash: and
reload
S> peer - will that cause it to do the ROMMON upgrade?

I haven't done it myself, since I only have 6500 with redundant Sup's, but here
is Cisco doc on software upgrade on 4507R -

http://cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/..._guide_chapter09186a00802c3052.html#wp1104060

I would put ROMMON upgrade filename on step 3, reboot standby Sup, skip step 10,
put correct boot image name and reboot standby again.

With best regards,
Andrey.

 

Hi Andrey,

First off, many thanks for taking the time to look at this, and for
your suggestion.

I'm trying to make sure that I'm understanding thoroughly the boot
process of these things. Am I right in thinking that the boot variable
is effectively system-wide?
Assuming that's correct, is it true, then, that whichever Supervisor
is rebooting for whatever reason (eg command line, system power on
etc), it reads the boot variable to find out what image to boot, then
boots it?
Presumably, I'd be vulnerable in case of power interruption causing
the Active Supervisor to reboot as well, again booting the ROMMON
upgrade program instead of IOS? (This particular chassis is UPS backed
anyway, so I'd have to be really unlucky for this to happen!)

One other question - how will I know that the Standby Supervisor has
finished the ROMMON upgrade? Presumably, as it's not running an IOS
image, I won't see it come available as a Standby Supervisor?

At the end of the day, if I tell my customer that his SupIV can be
ROMMON upgraded remotely by me without disrupting service, then that
needs to be true, as the site is at least 3-hours' drive from home.

Cheers
Steve

 

Hello, Steve!
You wrote on Thu, 02 Dec 2004 11:56:05 GMT:

S> I'm trying to make sure that I'm understanding thoroughly the boot
S> process of these things. Am I right in thinking that the boot
S> variable is effectively system-wide?

Looks like this is the case.

S> Assuming that's correct, is it true, then, that whichever
S> Supervisor is rebooting for whatever reason (eg command line,
S> system power on etc), it reads the boot variable to find out what
S> image to boot, then boots it?

Depends on config register. It's possible to force Sup to ignore boot variable
and just load first image it could find.

S> Presumably, I'd be vulnerable in case of power interruption
S> causing the Active Supervisor to reboot as well, again booting the
S> ROMMON upgrade program instead of IOS? (This particular chassis is
S> UPS backed anyway, so I'd have to be really unlucky for this to
S> happen!)

Yes, there is a risk. On the other hand exposure window is quite small - I would
expect standby Sup to be back online in a couple minutes. After that you can
change boot variable back to correct image.

S> One other question - how will I know that the Standby Supervisor
S> has finished the ROMMON upgrade? Presumably, as it's not running
S> an IOS image, I won't see it come available as a Standby
S> Supervisor?

It should show up in "show module" and in "show redundancy states"

S> At the end of the day, if I tell my customer that his SupIV can
S> be ROMMON upgraded remotely by me without disrupting service, then
S> that needs to be true, as the site is at least 3-hours' drive from
S> home.

Do you have a spare 4507R to play with?

With best regards,
Andrey.