Swap Drive

Swap Drive

Swap Drive feature is a disaster recovery mechanism that allows you to replace a failed switch by transferring an external secure digital (SD) card or USB drive containing a backup of the original switch to a new switch. It

  • restores the same image and configuration to the new switch as the original switch minimizing downtime

  • requires prior synchronization of the original switch with the SD card or USB drive, and

  • supports SD cards formatted with DOSFS and USB 2.0 drives and does not support third-party SD or SDHC cards.

Switch recovery with Swap Drive


Note

Install Cisco IOS XE Cupertino 17.9.1 on both the original and replacement switches to enable the swap drive feature.

Starting from release Cisco IOS XE Cupertino 17.9.1, the swap drive feature is available for Cisco Catalyst IE9300 Rugged Series Switches.

Each Cisco Catalyst IE9300 Rugged Series Switch has a SD card slot and a USB-A port.

For information about the switch SD card slot and USB port, refer to the Cisco Catalyst IE9300 Rugged Series Switch Hardware Installation Guide

Although synchronization can be done manually at any time, it is recommended to configure automatic synchronization at set times. When you request synchronization either manually or automatically, the switch checks for discrepancies between the internal flash drive and the SD card.


Note
To restore settings to the new switch, you must have previously synchronized the original switch with the SD card or USB drive.

Swap Drive procedures and CLI commands

For Swap Drive instructions, refer to the Swap the External Drive .

For CLI commands, refer to the Swap Drive CLI Commands .

Guidelines for using SD cards and USB drives

  • The switch uses the Disk Operating System Filing System (DOSFS) to format SD cards.

  • The switch supports only Cisco-approved SD cards and excludes third-party SD cards or SD High Capacity (SDHC) cards.

  • The switch reads data from a write-protected SD card during the boot process but prevents any updates to it.

  • You can use a USB 2.0 drive as an alternative to an SD card for the swap drive feature.

How Swap Drive works

This process ensures that system images and configurations are preserved and can be easily transferred between devices, facilitating efficient switch replacement or deployment.

Summary

Swap drives enable the migration of system images and configurations between switches by utilizing external storage media. The key components involved in the process are:

  • Switch: The source or target device for system data.

  • External storage: An SD card or USB drive that stores the system image and configuration.

Workflow

The process involves these stages:

  1. Backup: Duplicates the entire system to the external SD card or USB drive. You can trigger it by a CLI command for one-time or periodic syncs. If the switch has already been backed up, only changes since the last backup are duplicated in the external drive.
  2. Recovery: Restore: Occurs automatically when the external drive is inserted into the new switch and powered on. The switch scans for an SD card with image and configuration.
    • If image and configuration are present in SD card, the switch then copies them to internal flash and comes up with the image and configuration of the original system.
    • If an SD card is not present or doesn't have the original switch's image and configuration, switch checks the USB drive.
    • If image and configuration are present on the USB drive, the switch comes up with the original switch's image and configuration.
  3. Initial configuration: If the image and configuration are not present either in SD card or USB, the system prompts the user to continue with initial configuration.

Swap the external drive

You can remove the SD card from the failed switch, insert it into the new switch, and power on the new switch, A new switch has no startup configuration file because it has never been deployed.

Before you begin

Power off the switch, transfer the SD card or USB drive, and connect the network cables.

Procedure

Step 1

On the failed switch, remove the SD card or USB drive.

Note

 

The SD card and USB drive are hot-swappable, but do not remove it from the switch while sdflash write is in progress.

Step 2

On the new switch, ensure that the SD card or USB drive is oriented properly, and then press it into the slot on the switch until it is seated.

Step 3

Power on the new switch.

The image and configuration of the failed switch are transferred to the new one.

Swap Drive commands


Note

Perform all auto sync commands in configuration mode.

Table 1. Swap Drive commands and their descriptions

Command

Description

  • sync sdflash:

  • sync usbflash1:

Syncs the switch image and configuration files from internal flash to the SD or USB drive.

  • sync sdflash: ios-image

  • sync usbflash1: ios-image

Syncs the switch image from the internal flash to the SD or USB drive.

  • sync sdflash:skip config

  • sync usbflash1: skip config

Syncs the switch image from the internal flash to the SD or USB drive but does not sync the configuration.

  • sync sdflash:skip ios-image

  • sync usbflash1: skip ios-image

Syncs the configuration files from the internal flash to the SD or USB drive but does not sync the image.

sync restore-bundle

Copies the bundle image in the new switch instead of installing it during restore.

[no] auto sync enable

Enables or disables the auto sync feature.

Note

 

Auto sync is disabled by default. Unless you enable it, you cannot use other options for the feature.

auto sync config [usbflash1|sdflash]:

Sets the configuration to run during the sync.

[no] auto sync run time: [hh:mm:ss]

The time when sync is performed. The default is 00:00:00.

show sync status

Displays the last sync time and status.

Note

 

If a type-6 password is configured, the status shows the configuration as out of sync with the message that type-6 passwords are not synced.

show auto sync configuration

Displays all the configuration settings.

show auto sync status

Displays the last auto sync time and status.