Field Notice: FN - 63838 - Catalyst 6800 Instant Access Client Switch Fails to Boot During Installation or Upgrade - Software Upgrade Recommended

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Updated:October 12, 2017
Document ID:FN63838

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Notice

THIS FIELD NOTICE IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS AND DOES NOT IMPLY ANY KIND OF GUARANTEE OR WARRANTY, INCLUDING THE WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY. YOUR USE OF THE INFORMATION ON THE FIELD NOTICE OR MATERIALS LINKED FROM THE FIELD NOTICE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. CISCO RESERVES THE RIGHT TO CHANGE OR UPDATE THIS FIELD NOTICE AT ANY TIME.

Revision History

Revision Publish Date Comments
1.0
11-May-15
Initial Release
10.0
12-Oct-17
Migration to new field notice system

Products Affected

Affected Product ID Comments
C6800IA-48FPD
C6800IA-48TD

Defect Information

Defect ID Headline
CSCun22356 6800 IA Client not booting up on installation/upgrade as no valid image

Problem Description

During the initial installation of a Cisco Catalyst 6800 Instant Access (IA) Client or during an Cisco IOS® software upgrade, if an image version mismatch is detected between the 6800IA Client and the Parent switch, the image download to the 6800IA Client may take an unexpectedly long time. The delay is noticeably longer when the client is a member of a stack. If the image download process does not successfully complete due to various reasons, the 6800IA Client might fail to boot permanently, where it will drop into boot loader and remain at the switch: prompt.

Background

The issue documented in this Field Notice is applicable to 6800IA Client switches that run Version c6800ia-universalk9-mz.150-2.EX5.bin and earlier and connect to a Cat6K IA Parent that runs IOS Versions 15.1(2)SY, 15.1(2)SY1, and 15.1(2)SY2 or later.

Problem Symptom

During initial installation of the 6800IA Client or during an IOS upgrade, if the image version mismatch is detected between the 6800IA Client and the Cat6K IA Parent, the image download procedure begins and takes about 20 minutes for a single 6800IA Client system, or about 35 minutes for a 6800IA Client stack system to successfully complete. If the 6800IA Client switch is power cycled or any of the uplinks are disconnected or flapped during the image download procedure, the image on the 6800IA Client may be corrupted or deleted and the 6800IA Client will not have a valid image to boot. If console access is used to access the 6800IA Client, it will be observed that the switch will drop into boot loader and remain at the switch: prompt. If console access is not used or is not available, then another symptom that might be observed is that the System LED will blink green for a long period of time.

Workaround/Solution

In order to resolve the issue that is described in this document, upgrade to the 15.1(2)SY3 IOS Release for the Cat6K IA Parent, which also upgrades the corresponding version on the 6800IA Client to c6800ia-universalk9-mz.150-2.EX6.bin. Once the IOS software is upgraded to Release 15.1(2)SY3 on the Cat6K IA Parent and the corresponding version on the 6800IA Client, there is no need to perform the workaround steps that are described in this section.

Workaround

The 6800IA image (c6800ia-universalk9-mz.150-2.EX5) is contained within the IA Parent IOS image (s2t54-adventerprisek9-mz.SPA.151-2.SY2) that runs in RAM. This image must be extracted from the IA Parent, copied via TFTP to the client, and then booted by the client in order to restore access. The following process describes the steps necessary to accomplish this. Image recovery requires direct access to the 6800IA Client switch console and network connectivity between the 6800IA Client (via Ethernet Management port) and a TFTP server or Cat6K IA Parent (as a TFTP Server).



  1. Extract the 6800IA Client switch image on the Cat6K IA Parent by executing the archive tar /xtract microcode:FEX bootdisk: command on the IA Parent. 

    IA-PARENT#archive tar /xtract microcode:FEX bootdisk:
c6800ia-universalk9-mz.150-2.EX5/ (directory)
extracting c6800ia-universalk9-mz.150-2.EX5/c6800ia-universalk9-mz.
    150-2.EX5.bin(15412864 bytes)
extracting c6800ia-universalk9-mz.150-2.EX5/info (803 bytes)
c6800ia-universalk9-mz.150-2.EX5/html/ (directory)
extracting c6800ia-universalk9-mz.150-2.EX5/html/foo.html (0 bytes)
extracting c6800ia-universalk9-mz.150-2.EX5/dc_default_profiles.txt (71241 bytes)
extracting info (112 bytes)
IA-PARENT#


  2. Identify the 6800IA Client switch image to use. It will have a .bin suffix in the directory created in Step 1. 
    IA-PARENT#dir bootdisk:c6800ia-universalk9-mz.150-2.EX5
    
Directory of bootdisk:/c6800ia-universalk9-mz.150-2.EX5/

   84  -rw-    15412864  Apr 29 2014 10:12:30 +00:00  c6800ia-universalk9-mz.
                   150-2.EX5.bin
   85  -rw-         803  Apr 29 2014 10:12:32 +00:00  info
   86  drw-           0  Apr 29 2014 10:12:32 +00:00  html
   88  -rw-       71241  Apr 29 2014 10:12:32 +00:00  dc_default_profiles.txt

1024557056 bytes total (221413376 bytes free)
IA-PARENT#


  3. Set up a TFTP server. There are two options for setting up a TFTP server:

    Option 1:

    Copy the 6800IA Client switch image to a TFTP Server:

    IA-PARENT#copy bootdisk:/c6800ia-universalk9-mz.150-2.EX5/c6800ia-universalk9-mz.
    150-2.EX5.bin tftp:c6800ia-image.bin

    
Address or name of remote host []? 10.10.0.1
Destination filename [c6800ia-universalk9-mz.150-2.EX5.bin]? 
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
15412864 bytes copied in 31.820 secs (484377 bytes/sec)

    Option 2:

    (a) Use the Cat6K IA Parent as the TFTP server by copying the file from the original directory to the bootdisk: root directory using a different file name. Please note that the image name CANNOT be c6800ia-universalk9-mz.150-2.EX5.bin. In this example, we will use c6800ia-image.bin.

    IA-PARENT#copy bootdisk:c6800ia-universalk9-mz.150-2.EX5/c6800ia-universalk9-mz.
    150-2.EX5.bin bootdisk:c6800ia-image.bin
    
Destination filename [c6800ia-image.bin]? 
Copy in progress...CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
15412864 bytes copied in 9.972 secs (1545614 bytes/sec)
IA-PARENT#

    (b) Configure the Cat6K IA Parent as the TFTP Server.

    tftp-server bootdisk:c6800ia-image.bin

    Copy this image to the 6800IA Client switch.

  4. Configure an IP Address on the 6800IA Client by performing the following:

    (a) Connect the 6800IA Client switch Ethernet Management port (for TFTP) to any ethernet interface on the Cat6K IA Parent.

    (b) Set up the IP ADDRESS and GATEWAY on the 6800IA Client switch from a console. 

    switch: IP_ADDR=10.10.8.19/255.255.0.0
    (Based on the connection to tftp network) 
    switch: DEFAULT_ROUTER=10.10.0.1
    (The IP address of the gateway must reach the tftp-server or the IP address on the TFTP Server)


  5. Check the reachability to the TFTP server. 
    switch: ping 10.10.0.1
ping 10.10.0.1 with 32 bytes of data ...
Host 10.10.0.1  is alive.


  6. Copy the image to the 6800IA Client switch. 
    switch: copy tftp://10.10.0.1/c6800ia-image.bin flash:c6800ia-image.bin


  7. Create a directory (with the same name as created by the extract command in step 1) in the 6800IA Client flash: 
    switch: copy flash:/c6800ia-image.bin flash:/c6800ia-universalk9-mz.150-2.EX5
 /c6800ia-universalk9-mz.150-2.EX5.bin


  8. Copy the image from step 6 into the newly created directory and rename it to the original file name when it was extracted. 
    switch: copy flash:/c6800ia-image.bin flash:/c6800ia-universalk9-mz.150-2.EX5/c6800ia-universalk9-mz.150-2.EX5.bin


  9. Delete the image copied during step 6 from the 6800IA flash 
    switch: del flash:/c6800ia-image.bin


  10. Set the boot variable on the 6800IA Client switch. 
    switch: BOOT=flash/c6800ia-universalk9-mz.150-2.EX5/c6800ia-universalk9-mz.150-2.EX5.bin


  11. Enable auto-boot on 6800IA Client switch.
    switch: MANUAL_BOOT=no


  12. Boot the 6800IA Client switch. 
    switch: boot

After you perform these steps, the 6800IA Client switch should boot up successfully with the correct image and, if configured, associate to the Cat6K IA Parent. If additional assistance is needed, capture the output of this command and contact Cisco TAC.

IA-PARENT #show fex image bundle version bundled version of 
'c6800ia-universalk9-mz.150-2.EX5.bin' image - 15.0(2)EX5

For More Information

If you require further assistance, or if you have any further questions regarding this field notice, please contact the Cisco Systems Technical Assistance Center (TAC) by one of the following methods:

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