Memory upgrade - advice

qwerty_faceqwerty_face Member Posts: 32 ■■□□□□□□□□
in CCNA & CCENT
Hi all,

I want to price up memory for my 2620XM, 2621XM and 2610XM.

I was wondering what the max amount of memory each model can hold is (I'd guess it's all the same being the same series?) and whether I can get 12.4T running on them all? Would this require following some procedure regarding the bootstrapper? Is there a good how-to guide lying about somewhere?

Also, would I require anything else for the two 2950 switches?

Thanks (Y)
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  • xenodamusxenodamus Member Posts: 758
    I bookmarked this thread a while back because it has the names of a few ebay sellers that other people have had success with.

    http://www.techexams.net/forums/ccvp/56750-hows-quality-those-ebay-10-128m-memory.html

    I'm not sure about the max memory for each of those. I think you need 128MB to run 12.4, though. My 2620XM had to anyway.
    CISSP | CCNA:R&S/Security | MCSA 2003 | A+ S+ | VCP6-DTM | CCA-V CCP-V
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  • fly351fly351 Member Posts: 360
    Check that out for memory max's:

    2600 XM Series Routers

    I am running 12.1(22)EA11 on my 2950T's.. works great.
    CCNP :study:
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  • brewdbrewd Member Posts: 56 ■■■□□□□□□□
    I just recently purchased four sticks of the 128 MB RAM from keystronllc on ebay. All four work like a charm. I have them in my 2620XMs and am running the latest IOS (256 MB each). You could probably get away with less honestly, but for only $8.80 each, I went ahead and maxed them out.
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  • qwerty_faceqwerty_face Member Posts: 32 ■■□□□□□□□□
    brewd wrote: »
    I just recently purchased four sticks of the 128 MB RAM from keystronllc on ebay. All four work like a charm. I have them in my 2620XMs and am running the latest IOS (256 MB each). You could probably get away with less honestly, but for only $8.80 each, I went ahead and maxed them out.

    They're a nice price. Didn't you need to upgrade the bootROM to max out though?
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  • brewdbrewd Member Posts: 56 ■■■□□□□□□□
    There were some kits out there that included Flash, RAM & ROM upgrades, but I have no need for a larger ROM, if it was any larger for that matter. It holds the bootstrap, mini-ios and post, none of which I need more space for.

    Even the 32 MB flash memory is large enough for the latest IOS on my 2620xm's, so no need to even upgrade that to 48 MB at this point for what I'm using it for.
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  • tierstentiersten Member Posts: 4,505
    brewd wrote: »
    There were some kits out there that included Flash, RAM & ROM upgrades, but I have no need for a larger ROM, if it was any larger for that matter. It holds the bootstrap, mini-ios and post, none of which I need more space for.
    The newer boot ROM isn't larger. You need it to be able to initialise 2x128MB RAM. Only 12.4 (and late versions of 12.3T) even supports > 128MB memory. Earlier versions will ignore everything past 128MB.
    brewd wrote: »
    Even the 32 MB flash memory is large enough for the latest IOS on my 2620xm's, so no need to even upgrade that to 48 MB at this point for what I'm using it for.
    The adv ent services 12.4T releases don't fit in 32MB so you need 48MB flash.
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  • tierstentiersten Member Posts: 4,505
    qwerty_face wrote: »
    I was wondering what the max amount of memory each model can hold is (I'd guess it's all the same being the same series?)
    2x128MB RAM if you have the latest boot ROM (see below) and 1x32MB Flash which together with the 16MB on the router itself gives you 48MB Flash in total.

    I just checked and 128+MB is supported in late versions of 12.3T so anything 12.4 and above including 12.4T will work.
    qwerty_face wrote: »
    whether I can get 12.4T running on them all?
    Yes. You'll need the full 48MB Flash if you want to use the larger versions of 12.4T like advanced enterprise services.
    qwerty_face wrote: »
    Would this require following some procedure regarding the bootstrapper?
    You need the 12.2(8r) boot ROM if you want 2x128MB. It will say what version of the boot ROM you have when you do "show version" or read the initial ROMMON text when it is booting.
    qwerty_face wrote: »
    Is there a good how-to guide lying about somewhere?
    Not really necessary. You swap the boot ROM chip if you need to upgrade it and install the RAM and Flash the usual way. Read this for instructions and diagrams
    qwerty_face wrote: »
    Also, would I require anything else for the two 2950 switches?
    No. You can't upgrade those. The memory and flash is fixed in all of them and the same.
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  • qwerty_faceqwerty_face Member Posts: 32 ■■□□□□□□□□
    Pretty definitive reply, tiersten.

    Thanks for all the contributions guys.
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  • qwerty_faceqwerty_face Member Posts: 32 ■■□□□□□□□□
    Btw, just to be sure, this is the memory kit that I am after, right?

    Max Memory 256D/32F/Boot-2600XM-256 Cisco 2600XM Router on eBay (end time 02-Oct-10 01:41:55 BST)
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  • tierstentiersten Member Posts: 4,505
    qwerty_face wrote: »
    Btw, just to be sure, this is the memory kit that I am after, right?

    Max Memory 256D/32F/Boot-2600XM-256 Cisco 2600XM Router on eBay (end time 02-Oct-10 01:41:55 BST)
    Yes. You sure you even need the boot ROM? Some of the 2600XMs came with it from the factory.
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  • qwerty_faceqwerty_face Member Posts: 32 ■■□□□□□□□□
    tiersten wrote: »
    Yes. You sure you even need the boot ROM? Some of the 2600XMs came with it from the factory.

    Damn, I've not checked that!

    Thanks for the heads up, you probably saved me some cash there. I will do that soon as I figure out how to get my USB-serial adapter working under Linux.

    Thanks.
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  • NetwurkNetwurk Member Posts: 1,155 ■■■■■□□□□□
    Just grabbed some 16MB sticks from Keystronllc to max out my 2500's that I'm using for Frame Relay. I had upgraded the flash and then found the IOS didn't liked 4MB RAM (no surprise).

    $7.50 a pop (plus free shipping) isn't bad

    The recommendations here helped me decide, hope you all are right

    :)
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  • qwerty_faceqwerty_face Member Posts: 32 ■■□□□□□□□□
    tiersten wrote: »
    You need the 12.2(8r) boot ROM if you want 2x128MB. It will say what version of the boot ROM you have when you do "show version" or read the initial ROMMON text when it is booting.

    I am having trouble (newbie here!) locating where it tells you the ROM version.

    I got this: 
    Cisco Internetwork Operating System Software 
 IOS (tm) C2600 Software (C2600-ADVIPSERVICESK9-M), Version 12.3(13), RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc2)
 Technical Support: http://www.cisco.com/techsupport
 Copyright (c) 1986
 -2005 by cisco Systems, Inc.
 Compiled Thu 10-Feb-05 02:12 by ssearch
    The 12.3(13) is the IOS right? Does any other this mean anything: 
    p, li { white-space: pre-wrap; }   ID      
       MEMORY_REQ                 TYPE
  00036A          0X000B3B80 C2610XM Single Fast Ethernet
                   0X00098670 public buffer pools
                  0X00211000 public particle pools
  TOTAL:          0X0035D1F0
    Could you help?
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  • qwerty_faceqwerty_face Member Posts: 32 ■■□□□□□□□□
    Actually, I just got it from my other router:
    p, li { white-space: pre-wrap; } System Bootstrap, Version 12.2(7r) [cmong 7r], RELEASE SOFTW
 ARE (fc1)
 Copyright (c) 2002 by cisco Systems, Inc.
    Straightforward. So that is one BootROM that I require then!

    Silly question, but where can you find out the size of the flash? If it's in bytes I guess a division by 1024 is required?

    Also, is 192MB enough memory for 12.4(T) and to install CDM? Thanks.
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  • NetwurkNetwurk Member Posts: 1,155 ■■■■■□□□□□
    qwerty_face wrote: »
    Also, is 192MB enough memory for 12.4(T) and to install CDM? Thanks.

    When I boot my 12.4(T) image I get "Using 4 percent iomem. [12Mb/256Mb]" for the IOS load.

    So with I think you have more than enough.

    :)

    Funny side note - the memory in a Cisco router or switch is in MB (megabytes) but the console message displays it (incorrectly) as Mb (megabits).
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  • tierstentiersten Member Posts: 4,505
    Netwurk wrote: »
    When I boot my 12.4(T) image I get "Using 4 percent iomem. [12Mb/256Mb]" for the IOS load.

    So with I think you have more than enough.
    All that tells you is that it is using 12MB out of 256MB for IO memory i.e. packet buffers. It doesn't say how much memory is used by the processes. The more features you enable, the more process memory it will take up. You need to run "show memory free" to see what it is actually using and how much is remaining.

    The 2600XM architecture is slightly quirky in regards to support for memory > 128MB. It will dedicate the first 128MB to process memory and the remaining to buffers. It can't allocate more than 128MB and it only works if you've got 12.4T+ and the newer boot ROM.
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  • tierstentiersten Member Posts: 4,505
    qwerty_face wrote: »
    Silly question, but where can you find out the size of the flash?
    show version
    show flash summary
    qwerty_face wrote: »
    If it's in bytes I guess a division by 1024 is required?
    Yes.

    1024 bytes = 1 kilobyte
    1024 kilobytes = 1 megabyte
    qwerty_face wrote: »
    Also, is 192MB enough memory for 12.4(T) and to install CDM? Thanks.
    Probably. It depends on what feature set you're using anyway. As you're going to be using this for a lab, it is unlikely that you'll actually need the full amount they list.

    I assume you mean SDM instead of CDM? If so then SDM doesn't require any RAM on the router. You can store it in Flash on the router itself or install it locally on your PC. Both are equivalent.
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