How do I backup my IOS?

Good day everyone. I just recently purchased some Cisco gear to get hands on study for my CCNA. Right now I am trying to backup the ios of my Cisco 2610XM Router to the SolarWinds TFTP Server. I am using Putty for my Terminal.

After startup I type the show version and here the basics:

ROM: System Bootstrap, Version 12.2(8r)
ROM: C2600 Software (C2600-IS-M), Version 12.3(16a)

126976K/4096K Bytes of Memory
32,768K Bytes of processor board system flash

I'm a newbie at setting up the correct environment so I can properly study.

If anyone can tell me step by step or point me in the right direction to how I can correctly backup my IOS so I can upgrade it. If would be gladly appreciated.

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Comments

oli356

HD - Cisco IOS Image Backup and Restore/Upgrade via TFTP - YouTube

Some good videos out there on how to do this.

nava87

Thank you for this. Now do I have to have a crossover cable to connect the router to my PC in order to ping the tftp server?

MrBrian

Yea, you'll need a crossover cable between the router and PC (unless one of them can auto detect the cable type and change the pins used)..

So on the router, give the interface connected to your PC an IP and mask.. then manually give your PC an IP and mask in the same subnet.. Then try to ping each other. Once you have this IP connectivity you can use higher layer protocols to exchange things over that layer 3 path. Have fun tftp'ing!

Michael2

MrBrian wrote: »

Yea, you'll need a crossover cable between the router and PC

Can't you just use the rollover cable, if there is one?

phatrik

FYI, backing up and restoring a copy of IOS and config files to/from remote devices is part of the CCENT exam objectives.

MrBrian

Michael2 wrote: »

Can't you just use the rollover cable, if there is one?

You're talking about copying the IOS over through the console connection? I've never done it, but believe you can through the "Xmodem" method. This is much slower than over an ethernet network connection. It seems like you'd only want to use that method if the router has no IOS at all, and boots into rommon mode (not sure, but from what I can gather). As for using tftp through the console connection, you can't because the console connection doesn't run tcp/ip.. tftp has to run over IP.

Here's some stuff about using xmodem.. read the overview section

https://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/routers/ps259/products_tech_note09186a008015bfac.shtml

RouteMyPacket

I assume this is for the test? Otherwise there are many tools available to us to keep consistent backups of our gear (Kiwi CatTools being my fav)

I have used Xmodem for upgrading ios but never to back it up (and yes it is slooooow), you can do a basic "copy tftp running-config" when you have your gear on the network.

Roguetadhg

You can't have IP traffic over the console port, atleast from what I've seen. You'll need to have an ethernet cable to the tftp server's computer.

The hardest part for me was navigating Flash: And setting up the TFTP server to work withing failing. Deleting files, copying old configs, etc. I like my flash neat and having the image within an folder wasn't "neat" to me. Make sure to copy over the IOS and configurations before changing things. If you're doing a switch - make sure to delete the VLAN.dat file

TFTP server from: Open TFTP Server | Free System Administration software downloads at SourceForge.net

Googling for "TFTP server" as #2/#3 seem to have unexpected "gifts" that you wouldn't normally want

Set time out to maximum!

MAC_Addy

Whenever I've wanted to backup my running/start config or an image, I just assign VLAN 1 to the same subnet as my home network is on, connect it to my home router/switch and then transfer everything to my NAS which has a built-in TFTP/FTP server. Or, if you have a PC, just download a small TFTP client and transfer it that way.

Ltat42a

Here's how I got my setup -
Installed the Solarwinds' TFTP Server onto a PC
Configured the NIC for
192.168.1.2
255.255.255.0
192.168.1.1

On the router, configure the Fast Ethernet to 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0

If you're going through a Switch, plug a straight-thru cable from the PC to the Switch, plug another straight-thru from the Fast Ethernet on the router to the same switch.

From the PC, ping the router - 192.168.1.1 (you should have good connectivity)

Start the TFTP Service on the PC

Go to the router(using puTTY), at privileged mode - enter the command "copy flash TFTP" (no quotes), then follow the prompts.

If you're going from the PC straight to the router, use a crossover cable.

hth

nava87

Thank you guys for your help

Michael2

Just remember running-config, startup-config, flash, and tftp. Then you can transfer files using the copy command. The syntax is copy [source] [destination], as in copy flash tftp to upgrade and copy tftp flash to restore.