ROMMON Release Notes for WS-X45-SUP8-E, WS-X45-SUP8L-E, and WS-X45-SUP9-E

ROMMON Release Notes for WS-X45-SUP8-E, WS-X45-SUP8L-E, and WS-X45-SUP9-E

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Current Release: 15.1(1r)SG18—March 14, 2019

Prior Releases: 15.1(1r)SG17—October 8, 2018, 15.1(1r)SG14—August 08, 2017, 15.1(1r)SG10—May 09 2017, 15.1(1r)SG8—November 28th 2016, 15.1(1r)SG7—August 11th 2016, 15.1(1r)SG6—November 04th 2015, 15.1(1r)SG5—November 03rd 2014

This publication describes the new ROMMON image on WS-X45-SUP8-E, WS-X45-SUP8L-E, and WS-X45-SUP9-E.

This document consists of these sections:

• ROMMON Image Overview
• Caveats
• Guidelines for Upgrading the ROMMON
• Upgrading the Supervisor Engine ROMMON from the Console
• Upgrading the Supervisor Engine ROMMON with Telnet
• Network Booting from ROMMON
• Related Documentation

ROMMON Image Overview

The ROMMON image discussed here consists of new ROMMON software and FPGA images, which are supported only on WS-X45-SUP8-E, WS-X45-SUP8L-E and WS-X45-SUP9-E.

ROMMON IOS Version 15.1(1r)SG4

For Supervisor Engine 8-E—You must upgrade to ROMMON 15.1(1r)SG4 before upgrading the IOS-XE image to 3.6.xE.

ROMMON IOS Version 15.1(1r)SG6

Beginning with Cisco IOS XE Release 3.8.1E, Supervisor Engine 8L-E is available with ROMMON 15.1(1r)SG6.

ROMMON IOS Versions 15.1(1r)SG7

Supports the Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) feature, also called PXE boot—A network boot loader that enables the switch to retrieve the software image and other files from a remote server, during the initial deployment, without requiring end-user intervention (Zero-Touch Provisioning).

You can specify a remote TFTP server to download the software image and other files.

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Note If you are not using the PXE boot feature, you do not have to upgrade to ROMMON IOS Version 15.1(1r)SG7.

ROMMON IOS Version 15.1(1r)SG8

Starting with ROMMON IOS Version 15.1(1r)SG8, you can use the PXE boot feature to specify a remote TFTP or HTTP server.

With this ROMMON IOS version, the factory default setting for the configuration register value is 0x2106 (boot field 06). This is also the recommended setting if you are using an existing device and upgrading to this version.

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Note If you are not using the PXE boot feature, you do not have to upgrade to ROMMON IOS Version 15.1(1r)SG8.

ROMMON IOS Version 15.1(1r)SG14

Beginning with Cisco IOS XE Release 3.10.0E, Supervisor Engine 9-E is available with ROMMON 15.1(1r)SG14. The Cisco IOS image bootup time is increased by 5 minutes, to ensure there is sufficient time for the standby Supervisor to come up in SSO. The time delay occurs only when upgrading the ROMMON on Supervisor Engine 9-E.

ROMMON IOS Version 15.1(1r)SG17

For information about enhancements in ROMMON IOS Version 15.1(1r)SG17, see Caveats.

ROMMON IOS Version 15.1(1r)SG18

For information about enhancements in ROMMON IOS Version 15.1(1r)SG18, see Caveats.

Caveats

The following caveat is fixed in ROMMON IOS Version 15.1(1r)SG18:

• In a Cisco Catalyst 4500 redundant chassis with dual supervisor (WS-X45-SUP8-E, WS-X45-SUP8L-E, and WS-X45-SUP9-E), during hardware failure on standby supervisor, active supervisor continues to function in redundant mode assuming that the standby supervisor is up and running Cisco IOS software.

Workaround: None. CSCvn79974

The following caveats are fixed in ROMMON IOS Version 15.1(1r)SG17:

• Cisco Catalyst WS-C4510R+E with dual SUP 9-E experiences unexpected failover and loss of connectivity. CSCvj85816
• Cisco Catalyst WS-C4510R+E fails to bootup after ROMMON upgrade. CSCvm52676

The following caveat is fixed in ROMMON IOS Version 15.1(1r)SG10:

• The ROMMON upgrade process has been improved by

– Providing log messages that indicate failures in write processes, during an upgrade.

– Increasing the number of times the system retries (in case of a failure), to three retries.

CSCvd49800.

The following caveats are open for ROMMON IOS Version 15.1(1r)SG7:

• The PXE file download does not display accurate logs for ova download.

Workaround: None. CSCva41858

The following caveat is fixed in ROMMON Version 15.1(1r)SG6:

• A Catalyst 4500 Series switch with redundant Supervisor Engine 8-E may crash after a switchover - if there has been a ROMMON upgrade before the switchover.

Workaround : Perform a simultaneous upgrade on both supervisor engine. CSCuu14223

The following caveat is fixed in ROMMON Version 15.1(1r)SG5:

• Fixed the root-cause of PoE reset on the WS-X4248 and WS-X4548 modules on Supervisor Engine 8-E. CSCuq16235

The following caveat is fixed for ROMMON Version 15.1(1r)SG4:

• A switch using a config-register ending in 0x2 may drop into ROMMON if a powercycle interrupts the bootup.

Workaround: Use config-register 0x2101. CSCue19458

The following caveats are open for ROMMON Version 15.1(1r)SG4:

• No persistent record exists for kernel panics (like kernel software caveats, Layer 2 hardware glitches, and DDR parity errors), making [their] debugging impossible.

Workaround: Connect the system console to a device that records the output. CSCtj80874

• ROMMON prints R*E instead of R+E or R-E chassis type in the output of the version command in ROMMON.

Workaround: None. CSCul23608.

The following caveat is open for ROMMON Version 15.1(1r)SG.

• With IOS Release XE 3.3.0XE (15.1.(1)XO), ROMMON supports the Fa1 management interface at 10/100/1000Mbps full duplex mode only; 10/100/1000Mbps half-duplex is not supported. This prevents the FA1 management interface from operating when connected to a hub.

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Note Only ROMMON version 15.1(1r)SG works on Supervisor Engine 8-E. However, the latest ROMMON version 15.1(1r)SG6 is backward compatible; we can boot IOS XE 3.3.0XE (15.1.(1)XO) images with the 15.1(1r)SG6 ROMMON.

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Note This release also supports up to 4 Gigabytes of memory and a maximum length of the ROMMON command line from 128 to 256 bytes.

Guidelines for Upgrading the ROMMON

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The following [error] messages might be observed if IOS XE 3.6.0XE images are booted with older ROMMON images:

 

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Note Do not perform a ROMMON upgrade and a system software (IOS) upgrade together, if it involves an RPR failover. After such an upgrade, one of the supervisor’s interface configurations are lost (CSCvu66041).

Upgrading the Supervisor Engine ROMMON from the Console

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Note The examples in this section use the programmable read-only memory (PROM) upgrade IOS Version 15.1(1r)SG4 and Cisco IOS Release 15.2(2)E. For other releases, replace the ROMMON release and Cisco IOS software release with the appropriate releases and filenames. This document describes the procedure for a single supervisor system. You must perform the process on each supervisor in a dual supervisor system.

Follow this procedure to upgrade your supervisor engine ROMMON:

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Step 1 Directly connect a serial cable to the console port of the supervisor engine.

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Note This section assumes that the console baud rate is set to 9600 (default). If you want to use a different baud rate, change the configuration register value for your switch.

Step 2 Download the cat4500-e-ios-promupgrade-151-1r-SG4 program from Cisco.com, and place it on a TFTP server in a directory that is accessible from the switch that is upgraded.

The cat4500-e-ios-promupgrade-151-1r-SG4 program is available on Cisco.com at the same location from which Catalyst 4500 system images are downloaded.

Step 3 Use the dir bootflash: command to ensure that sufficient space exists in Flash memory to store the PROM upgrade image. If you are using an SD card, replace bootflash: with slot0:

Step 4 Download the cat4500-e-ios-promupgrade-151-1r-SG4 program into Flash memory using the copy tftp command.

The following example shows how to download the PROM upgrade image cat4500-e-promupgrade-150_1r_SG2 from the remote host 198.51.100.1 to bootflash:

Step 5 On a dual-supervisor system, copy the same ROMMON image to the standby supervisor engine with the copy bootflash: cat4500-e-ios-promupgrade-151-1r-SG4 slavebootflash command.

Step 6 Enter the reload command to reset the switch, press Ctrl-C to stop the boot process, then re-enter ROMMON mode.

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Note On a redundant system, this action causes a switchover.

The following example shows the output after a reset into ROMMON:

Step 7 Run the PROM upgrade program by entering this command:?boot bootflash:cat4500-e-ios-promupgrade-151-1r-SG4

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The following example shows the output from a successful upgrade, followed by a system reset:

The following example shows the output from a successful upgrade to 15.1(1r)SG17 on a WS-C4507R+E switch with Supervisor 9-E., followed by a system reset:

Step 8 Boot the Cisco IOS software image. This may happen automatically if the system is configured to auto-boot.

Step 9 On a redundant system, hook up a console to the now-active supervisor engine. After the system achieves an SSO state, repeat steps 6-8.

Step 10 Use the show module command to verify that you have upgraded the ROMMON:

 

The following example shows the output of the show module command after upgrading the ROMMON version to 15.1(1r)SG17 on a WS-C4507R+E switch with Supervisor 9-E.

Step 11 Use the delete command on the active supervisor to delete the PROM upgrade program from bootflash.

The following example shows how to delete cat4500-e-ios-promupgrade-151-1r-SG4 image from bootflash:

Step 12 On a redundant system, also delete the upgrade file from the standby supervisor engine.

 

The ROMMON has now been upgraded.

Upgrading the Supervisor Engine ROMMON with Telnet

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Follow this procedure to upgrade your supervisor engine ROMMON to Release 15.0(1r)SG2. This procedure can be used when console access is not available and when the ROMMON upgrade must be performed remotely.

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Note In the following section, use the PROM upgrade version bootflash:cat4500-e-ios-promupgrade-150-1r-SG2.

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Step 1 Establish a Telnet session to the supervisor engine.

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Note In the following discussion, we assume that at least one IP address has been assigned to either an SVI or a routed port.

Step 2 Download the bootflash:cat4500-e-ios-promupgrade-150-1r-SG2 program from Cisco.com, and place it on a TFTP server in a directory that is accessible from the switch to be upgraded.

The bootflash:cat4500-e-ios-promupgrade-150-1r-SG2 programs are available on Cisco.com at the same location from which you download Catalyst 4500 system images.

Step 3 Use the dir bootflash: command to ensure that there is sufficient space in Flash memory to store the PROM upgrade image. If there is insufficient space, delete one or more images.

If you are using an SD card, replace bootflash: with slot0:.

Step 4 Download the bootflash:cat4500-e-ios-promupgrade-150-1r-SG2 program into Flash memory using the copy tftp command.

The following example shows how to download the PROM upgrade image bootflash:cat4500-e-ios-promupgrade-150-1r-SG2 from the remote host 198.51.100.1 to bootflash:

Step 5 Use the no boot system flash bootflash: file_name command to clear all BOOT variable commands in the configuration file. In this example, the BOOT variable was set to boot the image cat4500e-universal.SPA.03.02.00.SG.150-2.SG.bin from bootflash:

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Note For a successful ROMMON upgrade, the config-register must be set to enable reading the boot system commands (i.e. the last digit of the configuration register is set to 2; for example, 0x0102.)

Step 6 Use the show bootvar command to verify the boot string. The BOOT variable in this example will first run the PROM upgrade to upgrade ROMMON. Then, the upgrade software will reload and the supervisor engine will load the Cisco IOS software image.

Step 7 Run the PROM upgrade program by issuing the reload command. Issuing this command will terminate your Telnet session.

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The following example shows the console port output from a successful ROMMON upgrade followed by a system reset. Your Telnet session is disconnected during the ROMMON upgrade, so you will not see this output. This step could take 2-3 minutes to complete. You will need to reconnect your Telnet session after 2-3 minutes when the Cisco IOS-XE software image and the interfaces are loaded.

Step 8 Use the no boot system flash bootflash: file_name command to clear the BOOT command used to upgrade the ROMMON.

Step 9 Use the show version command to verify that the ROMMON has been upgraded.

The following example shows the output of the show version command after upgrading the ROMMON version to 15.1(1r)SG17 on a WS-C4507R+E switch with Supervisor 9-E.

Step 10 Use the delete command to delete the PROM upgrade program from bootflash.

The following example shows how to delete the cat4500-e-ios-promupgrade-150-1r-SG2 image from bootflash and reclaim unused space:

Step 11 Use the show bootvar command to verify that the ROMMON upgrade program has been removed from the BOOT variable.

 

The ROMMON has now been upgraded.

Network Booting from ROMMON

Starting with ROMMON IOS Version 15.0(1r)SG7, you can use the PXE boot feature to specify a remote TFTP server to download the software image and other files.

Starting with ROMMON IOS Version 15.0(1r)SG8, you can use the PXE boot feature to specify a remote TFTP or HTTP server to download the software image and other files.

PXE boot requires the configuration of a DHCP server, and the boot field set to one of the autoboot options in the ROMMON.

For ROMMON IOS Versions before 15.0(1r)SG, network booting using a boot loader image is not supported. Instead, use one of the following options to boot an image:

1. Boot from an SD card by entering the following command:

2. Use ROMMON TFTP boot.

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Note To use ROMON tftp boot, the TFTP server must be accessible from the Ethernet management port on the supervisor engine.

To boot from ROMMON, perform the following tasks while in ROMMON mode:

a. Ensure that the Ethernet management port on the supervisor engine is physically connected to the network.

b. Set IP address of the Ethernet management port on the supervisor engine by entering the following command: set interface fa1 ip_address ip_mask

For example, to set the supervisor engine Ethernet port with an IP address 192.0.2.2 and IP mask 255.255.255.0, enter the following command:

c. Set default gateway for the Ethernet management port on the supervisor engine by entering the following command: set ip route default gateway_ip_address. The default gateway should be directly connected to the supervisor engine Ethernet management port subnet.

d. Ping the TFTP server to ensure that there is connectivity to the server from the Ethernet management port on the supervisor engine by entering the following command: ping tftp_server_ip_address.

e. Once the ping is successful, boot the image from the TFTP server by entering the following command: boot tftp:// tftp_server_ip_address / image_path_and_file_name

For example, to boot the Cisco IOS XE image cat4500es8-universalk9.03.01.00.SG.151-1.XO.bin located on the TFTP server 198.51.100.1, enter the following command:

Related Documentation

Although their Release Notes are unique, the 4 platforms (Catalyst 4500, Catalyst 4900, Catalyst ME 4900, and Catalyst 4900M) use the same Software Configuration Guide, Command Reference Guide, and System Message Guide. Refer to the following home page for additional information:

http://www.cisco.com//en/US/products/hw/switches/ps4324/prod_release_notes_list.html

Obtaining Documentation and Submitting a Service Request

For information on obtaining documentation, submitting a service request, and gathering additional information, see the monthly What’s New in Cisco Product Documentation, which also lists all new and revised Cisco technical documentation, at:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/general/whatsnew/whatsnew.html

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