NCS 1010 boot failure recovery | Setup and upgrade troubleshooting | System Setup and Software Installation Guide for Cisco NCS 1010, IOS XR Releases

This section provides details about recovering Cisco NCS 1010 from boot failure. Use it to review recovery methods for nonresponsive systems during setup or upgrade troubleshooting.

Use this reference to review recover NCS 1010 from boot failure.

The following information supports recover NCS 1010 from boot failure:

If the command line interface is not accessible, you can recover the NCS 1010 from a boot failure using one of these recovery methods.

Boot the NCS 1010 using USB drive

Use this task to boot the NCS 1010 using USB drive.

Problem:

After installing the hardware, you boot the NCS 1010 after connecting to the console port and powering ON the NCS 1010. The NCS 1010 initiates the boot process using the pre-installed operating system (OS) image. But the NCS 1010 fails to boot, times out or stops responding after the boot process initializes.

Cause:

The NCS 1010 does not boot if an install image is not present on the NCS 1010 or the image is corrupt.

Solution:

Boot the NCS 1010 using a bootable USB flash drive.

The bootable USB flash drive is used to reimage the NCS 1010 during system upgrade or boot the NCS 1010 in case of boot failure. During the USB boot process, the NCS 1010 is re-imaged with the version available on the USB flash drive.

To boot the NCS 1010 using a USB flash drive, you need the following devices:

A local machine (Windows, Linux, or MAC) with USB Type-A.
USB flash drive with a storage capacity that is between 8GB (min) and 32 GB (max). USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 are supported.

Note

USB Type-C is not supported.

Before you begin

Follow these steps to boot the NCS 1010 using USB drive.

Procedure

Create a bootable USB flash drive from your local machine (Windows or MAC):

Connect the USB flash drive to your local machine and format it with File Allocation Table (FAT) 32 file system using the Windows Operating System or Apple MAC Disk Utility. Formatting the USB drive to FAT creates addressable sectors that ensures that each piece of information in the file can be found by the computer.

After formatting the USB flash drive, right-click on the USB disk and view the properties.
On the Software Download page, navigate to the required Cisco IOS XR product and release. The USB boot image is available in the format <platform>-usb-<version>.zip compressed file. For example, the USB boot image for Cisco NCS 1010s for release 24.3.1 is 1010-x64-usb-24.3.1.zip ASR9K-x64-usb-24.3.1.zip file.
Download the compressed USB boot image from the Software Download page to your host computer.
Verify that the copy operation is successful. To verify, compare the file size on the Software Download page and the copied file on your computer. You can also verify the MD5 checksum value. This value ensures that the copied file is valid and untampered.
Unzip the file to extract the content of the compressed boot file inside the USB flash drive. This converts the USB flash drive to a bootable drive.

Note

The content of the zipped file (
EFI
and
boot
directories) should be extracted directly into the root of the USB flash drive. If the unzipping application places the extracted files in a new folder, move the
EFI
and
boot
directories to the root folder of the USB flash drive.
Remove the USB flash drive from your computer.

The USB flash drive is ready to be used as a bootable disk to install and boot the Cisco IOS XR image.

Boot the NCS 1010 using the bootable USB flash drive.

Example:

RP/0/RP0/CPU0:ios#show media location all
Fri Jan 27 08:29:00.808 UTC

Media Info for Location: node0_RP0_CPU0
Partition         Size           Used          Percent        Avail
--------------------------------------------------------------------
rootfs:           54.4G          16.5G          30%           38G
data:             77.3G          20.5G          27%           56.8G
disk0:            3.9G           12M            1%            3.6G
/var/lib/docker   6.6G           17M            1%            6.2G
disk2:            15G            6.1G           42%           8.6G
log:              5.3G           572M           12%           4.4G
harddisk:         61G            19G            32%           39G

Use this procedure only on active RP; the standby RP must either be powered OFF or removed from the chassis. After the active RP is installed with images from USB, insert or power ON the standby RP as appropriate.
Connect to the console.
Insert the USB flash drive in the USB Port Type-A on the NCS 1010.

Ensure that the NCS 1010 is powered ON. When the USB bootable drive is plugged into an operational NCS 1010, the device is detected as disk2:. Verify using show media location all command.

View the contents of the USB drive.

Example:

RP/0/RP0/CPU0:ios#dir disk2:

Initiate the reimage from the USB bootable drive.
Example:
```
RP/0/RP0/CPU0:ios#reload bootmedia usb noprompt
              
```
```
RP/0/RP0/CPU0:ios#hw-module location all bootmedia usb
              
```
Note

If the NCS 1010 was powered OFF, power ON the NCS 1010. Press the
Esc USB Flash Memory
option in the
Boot Manager
menu, and press the
Enter
key. The BIOS GRUB automatically detects the image from the USB flash drive, starts the installation, and displays the progress of the installation operation.

The NCS 1010 reboots after the reimage with new version available in the USB drive. After the installation is complete, the NCS 1010 reboots and enters the prompt to configure the root username and password.

Boot the NCS 1010 using iPXE

Use this task to boot the NCS 1010 using ipxe.

Problem:

You connect to the console port and power ON the NCS 1010. The NCS 1010 initiates the boot process using the pre-installed operating system (OS) image. But the NCS 1010 fails to boot, times out or stops responding after the boot process initializes.

Cause:

The NCS 1010 does not boot if an install image is not present on the NCS 1010 or the image is corrupt.

Solution:

Boot the NCS 1010 using the image from an iPXE server.

iPXE is a pre-boot execution environment that is included in the network card of the management interfaces. It works at the system firmware (UEFI) level of the NCS 1010. iPXE enables network boot for a NCS 1010 that is offline. The bootloader downloads and installs the ISO image located on an HTTP, FTP, or TFTP server. iPXE boot re-images the NCS 1010. iPXE acts as a boot loader and provides the flexibility to choose the image that the system will boot based on the Platform Identifier (PID), the serial number, or the management MAC address. iPXE must be defined in the DHCP server configuration file.

Before you begin

Follow these steps to boot the NCS 1010 using ipxe.

Procedure

Configure the DHCP server for IPv4, IPv6, or both communication protocols before you use the iPXE boot.

Example:

host <platform>
{
hardware ethernet <ncs1010-mac-address>;
if exists user-class and option user-class = "iPXE" {
	filename = "http://<httpserver-address>/<path-to-image>/<image>";
}

Ensure that the above configuration is successful.

host <platform> 
{
option dhcp-client-identifier "<ncs1010-serial-number>";
  filename "http://<IP-address>/<path-to-image>/<image>";
  fixed-address <IP-address>;
}

The serial number of the NCS 1010 is derived from the BIOS and is used as an identifier.

Create dhcpd.conf file in /etc/ or /etc/dhcp directory. This configuration file stores the network information such as the path to the script, location of the ISO install file, location of the provisioning configuration file, serial number, MAC address of the NCS 1010. The following example shows a sample dhcpd.conf file.

Example:

allow bootp;
allow booting;
ddns-update-style interim;
option domain-name "cisco.com";
option time-offset -8;
ignore client-updates;
default-lease-time 21600;
max-lease-time 43200;
option domain-name-servers <ip-address-server1>, <ip-address-server2>;
log-facility local0;
 :
subnet <subnet> netmask <netmask> {
  option ncs1010 <ip-address>;
  option subnet-mask <subnet-mask>;
  next-server <server-addr>;
}
  :
host <hostname> {
  hardware ethernet e4:c7:22:be:10:ba;
  fixed-address <address>;
  filename "http://<address>/<path>/<image.bin>";

Test the server once the DHCP server is running. For example, for IPv4 protocol:

Use the MAC address of the NCS 1010:
Note

Using the
host
statement provides a fixed address that is used for DNS, however, verify that option
77
is set to iPXE in the request. This option is used to provide the boot file to the system when required.
Use the serial number of the NCS 1010:

Recover the NCS 1010 using iPXE boot.

Example:

BIOS Ver: 09.19 Date: xx/xx/xxxx 17:02:33

Press <DEL> or <ESC> to enter boot manager.                                     iPXE initialising devices...ok

iPXE 1.0.0+ (5fbe7) -- Open Source Network Boot Firmware -- http://ipxe.org
Features: DNS HTTP TFTP VLAN EFI ISO9660 NBI Menu
BootMode : 1
Trying net0...
net0: 00:00:01:1c:00:00 using i350-b on PCI01:00.0 (open)
  [Link:up, TX:0 TXE:0 RX:0 RXE:0]
Configuring (net0 00:00:01:1c:00:00).................. ok
net0: 203.0.113.1/255.255.255.0
net0: fe80::2a0:c9ff:fe00:0/64
net1: fe80::2a0:c9ff:fe00:1/64 (inaccessible)
net2: fe80::2a0:c9ff:fe00:2/64 (inaccessible)
net3: fe80::2a0:c9ff:fe00:3/64 (inaccessible)
net4: fe80::200:ff:fe00:4/64 (inaccessible)
net5: fe80::200:ff:fe00:5/64 (inaccessible)
net6: fe80::662:73ff:fe08:1dba/64 (inaccessible)
Next server: 203.0.113.17
Filename: http://203.0.113.15/system_image.iso
http://203.0.113.15/<image>... ok

RP/0/RP0/CPU0:ios# hw-module location all bootmedia network reload
Wed Dec 23 15:29:57.376 UTC
Reload hardware module ? [no,yes]

Connect to the console.
Power ON the NCS 1010.
Press Esc

Use the arrow key and navigate to the Built-in EFI iPXE option in the Boot Manager menu, and press the Enter key.

Example:

iPXE> ifstat
net0: 00:a0:c9:00:00:00 using i350-b on PCI01:00.0 (closed)
  [Link:up, TX:0 TXE:0 RX:0 RXE:0]
net1: 00:a0:c9:00:00:01 using i350-b on PCI01:00.1 (closed)
  [Link:up, TX:0 TXE:0 RX:0 RXE:0]
net2: 00:a0:c9:00:00:02 using i350-b on PCI01:00.2 (closed)
  [Link:down, TX:0 TXE:0 RX:0 RXE:0]
  [Link status: Down (http://ipxe.org/38086193)]
net3: 00:a0:c9:00:00:03 using i350-b on PCI01:00.3 (closed)
  [Link:down, TX:0 TXE:0 RX:0 RXE:0]
  [Link status: Down (http://ipxe.org/38086193)]
net4: 00:00:00:00:00:04 using dh8900cc on PCI02:00.1 (closed)
  [Link:down, TX:0 TXE:0 RX:0 RXE:0]
  [Link status: Down (http://ipxe.org/38086193)]
net5: 00:00:00:00:00:05 using dh8900cc on PCI02:00.2 (closed)
  [Link:down, TX:0 TXE:0 RX:0 RXE:0]
  [Link status: Down (http://ipxe.org/38086193)]
net6: 04:62:73:08:57:86 using dh8900cc on PCI02:00.3 (closed)
  [Link:up, TX:0 TXE:0 RX:0 RXE:0]

iPXE> set net6/ip 192.0.2.255
iPXE> set net6/netmask 255.255.255.0
iPXE> set net6/gateway 10.48.42.1
iPXE>
iPXE> ifopen net6

iPXE> ping 10.48.42.1
64 bytes from 10.48.42.1: seq=1
64 bytes from 10.48.42.1: seq=2
Finished: Operation canceled (http://ipxe.org/0b072095)

Boot the image using one of the following options:
- Option 1: Boot with ISO image. After the reimage is successful, add optional RPMs, bug fixes and update running configuration file.
- Option 2: [Preferred option] Boot with Golden ISO (GISO) image that contains the ISO image, optional RPMs, bug fixes and configuration file. Booting with GISO saves time by eleminating the need to update the files individually.

You must keep the standby RP in the BIOS while installing the image on the active RP.

The BIOS GRUB automatically detects the image from the iPXE server, starts the installation, and displays the progress of the installation operation. After the installation is complete, the NCS 1010 reboots and enters the prompt to configure the root username and password.

You can also boot the NCS 1010 from the iPXE server by using the hw-module location all bootmedia network reload command.

This command configures the NCS 1010 to perform a network-based boot across all modules in the NCS 1010 before a restart. Upon reload, the NCS 1010 attempts to load the operating system image from the specified iPXE server.