3750 boot from TFTP

DevilWAHDevilWAH Member Posts: 2,997 ■■■■■■■■□□
in CCNP
I was wondering, when you set up the the boot varibable on a 3750 switch you have the option of setting TFTP as the source for the IOS file.

However in rommon there is no way to set up the TFTP varibables?

Can a 3750 be booted from a TFTP server, and if so is it possible to set this up from the ROMMON? I was just wondering as if you have a switch with a broken IOS, can you set it to boot from TFTP?

DevilWAH
  • If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. Albert Einstein
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  • peanutnogginpeanutnoggin Member Posts: 1,096 ■■■□□□□□□□
    DevilWAH,

    I've never tried it on a 3750, I've only had to do it on a router... but the procedures should be identical. Checkout this link for more detail. HTH.

    -Peanut
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  • VAHokie56VAHokie56 Member Posts: 783
    You can always upload a new IOS threw the console cable...just don't forget to up the baud rateicon_thumright.gif
    .ιlι..ιlι.
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  • DevilWAHDevilWAH Member Posts: 2,997 ■■■■■■■■□□
    VAHokie56 wrote: »
    You can always upload a new IOS threw the console cable...just don't forget to up the baud rateicon_thumright.gif

    yer i know that, but with a router you can use TFTP from ROMMON and on a switch you can set it to boot from TFTP so it seems like ROMMON must support TFTP in some way
    • If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. Albert Einstein
    • An arrow can only be shot by pulling it backward. So when life is dragging you back with difficulties. It means that its going to launch you into something great. So just focus and keep aiming.
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  • tierstentiersten Member Posts: 4,505
    Cisco fixed configuration switches don't have a ROMMON capable of doing TFTP and the 3750 doesn't appear to have a boot helper capable of doing it either. XMODEM is all you've got for a 3750. No idea why Cisco don't make it capable of doing TFTP from ROMMON. There must be some sort of technical limitation.

    I know that this isn't possible because I've had the misfortune of having to load in IOS on a 3750 stack...
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  • mikearamamikearama Member Posts: 749
    tiersten wrote: »
    Cisco fixed configuration switches don't have a ROMMON capable of doing TFTP and the 3750 doesn't appear to have a boot helper capable of doing it either. XMODEM is all you've got for a 3750.

    I read through the thread wondering if anyone was going to make this statement... and there you have it. Nicely done tiersten.

    I also don't know why tftp isn't an option in the 3750, but it isn't. Pity. However, upping your baud to 115200 makes the xmodem process at least tolerable.
    There are only 10 kinds of people... those who understand binary, and those that don't.

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    Taking a time-out to add the CCVP. Capitalizing on a current IPT pilot project.
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  • DevilWAHDevilWAH Member Posts: 2,997 ■■■■■■■■□□
    I relise that there is no TFTP support in rommon to copy over an IOS, I have had to recove a few through Xmodem.

    But with in the ios you can set some thing like.

    #boot system tftp:\ip.address\file name

    sugesting you can boot the switch from a tftp server ( i have never actuly tried this to see if it really works)

    that suggests that the ROMMON does support tftp to some degree, or at least a switches boot helper before it boots to an IOS supports tftp.

    So what I was wondering is not can you copy the IOS from rommon mode. But if you can set a switch to boot to tftp when it is already running an ios, assuming it works can you not make this setting also from rommon?

    I supose what I should do is get a 3750 and see if it can indeed boot from a TFTP server at some point :)
    • If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. Albert Einstein
    • An arrow can only be shot by pulling it backward. So when life is dragging you back with difficulties. It means that its going to launch you into something great. So just focus and keep aiming.
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  • tierstentiersten Member Posts: 4,505
    DevilWAH wrote: »
    that suggests that the ROMMON does support tftp to some degree, or at least a switches boot helper before it boots to an IOS supports tftp.
    It doesn't work.
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  • DevilWAHDevilWAH Member Posts: 2,997 ■■■■■■■■□□
    tiersten wrote: »
    It doesn't work.

    Ah ha ;) see I love it when you can configure something on cisco but it does not actuly work :)

    cheers
    • If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. Albert Einstein
    • An arrow can only be shot by pulling it backward. So when life is dragging you back with difficulties. It means that its going to launch you into something great. So just focus and keep aiming.
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  • tierstentiersten Member Posts: 4,505
    DevilWAH wrote: »
    Ah ha ;) see I love it when you can configure something on cisco but it does not actuly work :)
    I believe you can do something like chain loading so your flash IOS then loads IOS from somewhere else but you need a working IOS in the first place to do that. This is from vague memories and not something I actually use so this feature may not actually exist :D
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  • notgoing2failnotgoing2fail Member Posts: 1,138
    Devil,

    Where did this question come from? Do you have access to a 3750?

    As for Cisco letting you configure things that don't work. Don't even start. I fully configured an L3 switch to be a VPN endpoint with no errors. But VPN won't work.... icon_redface.gif
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  • DevilWAHDevilWAH Member Posts: 2,997 ■■■■■■■■□□
    notgoing2fail wrote: »
    Devil,

    Where did this question come from? Do you have access to a 3750?

    As for Cisco letting you configure things that don't work. Don't even start. I fully configured an L3 switch to be a VPN endpoint with no errors. But VPN won't work.... icon_redface.gif

    5 years designing and configuring a few hundred of the things ;) yer a bit of practice with them ;) Had 3 of them in my test network there.

    Now had to leave them behind, but still work on them in my new job a lot running IOS upgrades.

    Mind you I still have one sitting under my desk to play with at the new job that I have been training some guys on. Showing them how to recover from failed upgraded and broken IOS images.

    I know on routers I use TFTP to copy over in ROMMON, and like I say I have seen the boot system tftpicon_mad.gifxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/ios.bin on a 3750. So I was just curious, as like the people who have posted I did not think it was possible and had never seen the settings in ROMMON. But just wanted to confirm I was not missing something.

    But now I have much better things than 3750's to play with, got 8 racks full of cisco equipment to use for lab/study :)
    • If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. Albert Einstein
    • An arrow can only be shot by pulling it backward. So when life is dragging you back with difficulties. It means that its going to launch you into something great. So just focus and keep aiming.
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  • notgoing2failnotgoing2fail Member Posts: 1,138
    DevilWAH wrote: »
    5 years designing and configuring a few hundred of the things ;) yer a bit of practice with them ;) Had 3 of them in my test network there.

    Now had to leave them behind, but still work on them in my new job a lot running IOS upgrades.

    Mind you I still have one sitting under my desk to play with at the new job that I have been training some guys on. Showing them how to recover from failed upgraded and broken IOS images.

    I know on routers I use TFTP to copy over in ROMMON, and like I say I have seen the boot system tftpicon_mad.gifxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/ios.bin on a 3750. So I was just curious, as like the people who have posted I did not think it was possible and had never seen the settings in ROMMON. But just wanted to confirm I was not missing something.

    But now I have much better things than 3750's to play with, got 8 racks full of cisco equipment to use for lab/study :)


    Understood. I will be getting my hands on some 3750's this week to play with. Will cable them up with the stack cables for production. Not everyone is lucky enough to have some just "laying" around under their desk... =)

    So what do you have in this rack I'm curious....
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  • DevilWAHDevilWAH Member Posts: 2,997 ■■■■■■■■□□
    notgoing2fail wrote: »
    Understood. I will be getting my hands on some 3750's this week to play with. Will cable them up with the stack cables for production. Not everyone is lucky enough to have some just "laying" around under their desk... =)

    So what do you have in this rack I'm curious....

    look under the ccna lab pic thread for the list
    • If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. Albert Einstein
    • An arrow can only be shot by pulling it backward. So when life is dragging you back with difficulties. It means that its going to launch you into something great. So just focus and keep aiming.
    Linkin Profile - Blog: http://Devilwah.com
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