Copy command on IOS 12.2

Hi guys. I am getting strange output on a copy command I'm running on a real Cisco 1721 Router. I am copying from flash to a tftp server (solarwinds) with this command:

copy flash: tftp:

I enter the source filename, ip address of the tftp server and the destination filename. All is fine up to this point but then I expect to see the screen fill with !!!!!!!!! as it transfers the file but I get mixed characters !!.!!!..!!..!!..

What does that mean? I know on a ping you get !!!!! if it suceeds and ..... if it fails but I don't know what both characters mean together.

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Comments

tiersten

! = 512 byte chunk was successfully transferred
. = Timeout

If it continues and the copy finishes then ignore it

PhildoBaggins

certmister wrote: »

Hi guys. I am getting strange output on a copy command I'm running on a real Cisco 1721 Router. I am copying from flash to a tftp server (solarwinds) with this command:

copy flash: tftp:

I enter the source filename, ip address of the tftp server and the destination filename. All is fine up to this point but then I expect to see the screen fill with !!!!!!!!! as it transfers the file but I get mixed characters !!.!!!..!!..!!..

What does that mean? I know on a ping you get !!!!! if it suceeds and ..... if it fails but I don't know what both characters mean together.

Are you running bit torrent or anything similar on your desktop your are using as the TFTP server?

certmister

! = 512 byte chunk was successfully transferred
. = Timeout

If it continues and the copy finishes then ignore it

Wow didn't know that, any idea why it's 512 bytes exactly? The file does transfer over and the command does complete.

Are you running bit torrent or anything similar on your desktop your are using as the TFTP server?

No Torrent clients are running. The only Network intensive program that may have been running is GNS3, but it would have to be a background process because I exited out of the program beforehand. Do you think some process is interrupting the return path?

tiersten

certmister wrote: »

Wow didn't know that, any idea why it's 512 bytes exactly? The file does transfer over and the command does complete.

Its actually 10x512. Made a mistake earlier. The packet size is 512 because the TFTP specification uses 512.

! = 10x512 bytes transferred
. = Timeout
O = Packet out of order
e = Erasing
E = Error
V = Verifying

You get timeouts if the network/server/router is busy as it doesn't wait very long for the TFTP UDP packet to turn up. It will just retransmit any missing or corrupted packets as it knows that UDP is unreliable.

certmister

Its actually 10x512. Made a mistake earlier. The packet size is 512 because the TFTP specification uses 512.

! = 10x512 bytes transferred
. = Timeout
O = Packet out of order
e = Erasing
E = Error
V = Verifying

You get timeouts if the network/server/router is busy as it doesn't wait very long for the TFTP UDP packet to turn up. It will just retransmit any missing or corrupted packets as it knows that UDP is unreliable.

That's great info tiersten, thank you.