Booting XM Images on Non-XM 2600 Series Routers

CCIE Preparation in progress and we fell that some of our routers are not able to fulfill our requirements like one of the limitation we can face and I personally faced that our 2600 series routers (2610, 2611, 2620 etc) lack the memory capacity to run the new IOS images, within CCIE (Routing & Switching) boot camp we can quote this problem that it doesn’t support OSPFv3 for IPv6. For us we are lucky that the old 2600 series platform is same as 2600xm series routers just with a bit difference of less processing power and memory capacity. What this means that 2600 series router can boot 2600XM images and therefore run IOS version that support OSPFv3. Now to accomplish this task we have to use “tftpdnld –r” command in rommon mode to boot an IOS image into RAM. As the image will be running from RAM, a TFTP download will be required every time the router is rebooted.

CONFIGURATIONS:

Following is the configuration of a 2610 router running the 12.2(15) T7 IP Plus image. While it does support IPv6 routing but it lacks OSPFv3 support which is our requirement in this case:

CCIE-Router-9 # show version

Cisco Internetwork Operating System Software
IOS (tm) C2600 Software (C2600-J1S3-M), Version 12.2(15) T7, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc2)
TAC Support: http://www.cisco.com/tac
Copyright (c) 1986-2003 by cisco Systems, Inc
Compiled Sat 09-Aug-03 07:18 by ccai
Image text-base: 0x80008098, data-base: 0x8195144C

ROM: System Bootstrap, Version 11.3(2) XA4, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)

Router uptime is 5 hours, 8 minutes
System returned to ROM by power-on
System image file is "flash: c2600-j1s3-mz.122-15.T7.bin"

cisco 2610 (MPC860) processor (revision 0x202) with 59392K/6144K bytes of memory.
Processor board ID JAD03337409 (4221326695)
M860 processor: part number 0, mask 49
Bridging software
X.25 software, Version 3.0.0
TN3270 Emulation software
2 Ethernet/IEEE 802.3 interface(s)
4 Serial network interface(s)
32K bytes of non-volatile configuration memory
16384K bytes of processor board System flash (Read/Write)

Configuration register is 0x2142 (will be 0x2102 at next reload)

CCIE-Router-9 # config terminal
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
CCIE-Router-9 (config) # ipv6 unicast-routing
CCIE-Router-9 (config) # ipv6 router ospf 1
CCIE-Router-9 (config) # interface e0/0
CCIE-Router-9 (config-if) # ipv6 ospf 1 area 0

% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.

CCIE-Router-9 (config-if) # exit
CCIE-Router-9 #

In order to boot the XM image we first have to boot the router into rommon mode. To do this reloads the router and press CTRL-BREAK as the router begins to boot.

CCIE-Router-9 # reload

System configuration has been modified. Save? [yes/no]: n
Proceed with reload? [confirm]

*Oct 1 10:59:13.751: %SYS-5-RELOAD: Reload requested by console.
System Bootstrap, Version 11.3(2) XA4, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
Copyright (c) 1999 by cisco Systems, Inc.
TAC: Home:SW:IOS:Specials for info
PC = 0xfff0a530, Vector = 0x500, SP = 0x680127b0
C2600 platform with 65536 Kbytes of main memory

PC = 0xfff0a530, Vector = 0x500, SP = 0x80004864

monitor: command "boot" aborted due to user interrupt

rommon 1 >

Setting ENVIRONMENT Varaibles:


1. Now next we have to set the environment variables for loading an IOS image via tftp.

rommon 1 > IP_ADDRESS=10.110.9.2
rommon 2 > IP_SUBNET_MASK=255.0.0.0
rommon 3 > DEFAULT_GATEWAY=10.110.9.102
rommon 4 > TFTP_SERVER=10.110.9.102
rommon 5 > TFTP_FILE=FileName.bin

2. Next, issue the "tftpdnld -r" command.

Note: The -r switch is required to instruct the router to load the image to RAM instead of writing it to flash.

rommon 6 > tftpdnld -r

IP_ADDRESS: 10.110.9.2
IP_SUBNET_MASK: 255.0.0.0
DEFAULT_GATEWAY: 10.110.9.102
TFTP_SERVER: 10.110.9.102
TFTP_FILE: FileName.bin

Receiving 2600xm.bin from 192.10.4.254!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!
File reception completed.

Program load complete, entry point: 0x80008000, size: 0x1176b34
Self decompressing the image: #######################################
############################################################ [OK]


Do show running-config, we can now see that the router has booted and is running IOS 12.2(15) T14 Enterprise Plus, which is only officially supported as a 2600XM image. Most importantly our 2610 router now has OSPFv3 support.

CCIE-Router-9 > enable
CCIE-Router-9 # configure terminal

Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.

CCIE-Router-9 (config) # ipv6 unicast-routing
CCIE-Router-9 (config) # ipv6 router ospf 1
CCIE-Router-9 (config-rtr) # ?

area: OSPF area parameters
auto-cost: Calculate OSPF interface cost according to bandwidth
compatible: OSPF compatibility list
default: Set a command to its defaults
default-information: Distribution of default information
default-metric: Set metric of redistributed routes
discard-route: Enable or disable discard-route installation
distance: Administrative distance

CCIE-Router-9 (config) # interface e0/0

CCIE-Router-9 (config-if) #ipv6 ospf ?
<1-65535>: Process ID
cost: Interface cost
database-filter: Filter OSPF LSA during synchronization and flooding
dead-interval: Interval after which a neighbor is declared dead
demand-circuit: OSPF demand circuit
flood-reduction: OSPF Flood Reduction
hello-interval: Time between HELLO packets
mtu-ignore: Ignores the MTU in DBD packets
neighbor: OSPF neighbor
network: Network type
priority: Router priority
retransmit-interval: Time between retransmitting lost link state
advertisements
transmit-delay: Link state transmit delay

Note: The router may not or may display a warning that it is short on processor memory. Ensure to save your configuration early and often in order to avoid losing our work due to a router crash.

To store your router configuration automatically when you save your configuration using write command, consult my post here

Any comments and suggestion will be highly appreciated :)

I hope this will be informative for you !

Cheers :)