Stop Logging Messages From Interrupting Your Work

One of the things that I find really annoying with the Cisco devices is that when I am configuring a router or a switch, the console messages keep popping up all over the places and interfere with my work. Although this doesn't cause any typo error but it's really difficult to see what you have typed. Luckily, we can control the logging message behavior.

To disable, use:
Router(config)# no logging console

or if you prefer to see what's going on with the router/switch then use the "logging synchronous" command:
Router(config)# line console 0
Router(config-line)# logging synchronous
Router(config)# line vt 0 4
Router(config-line)# logging synchronous

It would be nice if these were taken into consideration and set as default options when the IOS is built but it's not the case so until they change it, you will have to either put up with it or do a little extra work to change the default behavior.

Configure Interface - Cisco vs. Procurve

In Cisco IOS, you can switch from one interface from another real easy. The Interface command moves you from one interface to another without having to Exit every time you configure an interface.

With Procurve switch, you don't have the same kind of flexibility. Everytime you configure an interface, you would need to Exit out to Configuration mode before you can enter another interface.

Let look at this example on a Cisco switch:

Int g0/1
desc "IBA LAN"
Int g0/2
desc "ESV LAN"

That's perfectly legal on the Cisco IOS. Now configure that on a Procurve switch:

Int g0/1
name "IBA LAN"
exit
Int g0/2
name "ESV LAN"

If you miss Exit command, you'll received an "Invalid Input" error because you can not go to a different interface from within an interface. I never like this approach and prefer the shortcut where you enter two commands on one single line. Not only it cuts out the Exit command but keeps you in the Config mode.

Int g0/1 name "IBA LAN"
Int g0/2 name "ESV LAN"

Cisco Switch - TFTP IOS Upgrade

Update, Copy, Backup, Restore IOS and startup-config are pretty much done in the same manner. First, you've got to configure the switch and the PC to talk then run the TFTP or FTP server and start the copy process.

Let's walk though how you can update Cisco IOS on a 6500.

Router> enable
Router# configure terminal
Router(config)# interface gig 9/1
Router(config-int)# switchport
Router(config-int)# switchport mode access
Router(config-int)# switchport access vlan 1
Router(config-int)# no shutdown
Router(config-int)# exit

At this point, we have turn port 9/1 into a layer 2 port on vlan 1. Now we need to assign an ip address to this default vlan so we can communicate to it.

Router(config)# interface vlan 1
Router(config-int)# ip address 10.10.10.1 255.255.255.0
Router(config-int)# no shutdown
Router(config-int)# exit

The next thing we need to do is to configure the network adapter on your PC or laptop and give it an address that's on the same network as the switch. In this case, I set it to be 10.10.10.2 255.255.255.0.

Plug in the cable from the PC to the port we just configured; and to make sure the PC can talk to the 6500 we can try pinging it:

Router(config)# do ping 10.10.10.2

If you have a successful ping reply then you should be good to go. Launch the TFTP server and start the copy process. To copy from data from TFTP server to the switch use:

Router# copy tftp: disk0:

After you issue either of this command, you will be prompted for the FTFP server address and filename. Enter 10.10.10.2 and the filename you want to copy, then confirm it to start the copy process.

And to copy data from flash to FTFP server use the command:

Router# copy disk0: tftp:

If you are copying a rather large file then you should use FTP instead of TFTP and issue the command:

Router# copy FTP: Disk0:

I have run into some issue while moving a large file to the Cisco 6509. See this blog for more details.

ProCurve Switch - TFTP Flash Update

To update the IOS on the HP's ProCurve switches you first need to configure an access port so it can communicate to the TFTP Server.

ProCurve Switch 3500yl-48G> enable
ProCurve Switch 3500yl-48G# configure terminal
ProCurve Switch 3500yl-48G(config)# vlan 1
ProCurve Switch 3500yl-48G(vlan-1)# ip address 10.10.10.1/24
ProCurve Switch 3500yl-48G(vlan-1)# exit

Next, you will need to configure the network adapter on your PC or laptop and give it an address that's on the same network as the switch. In this case, I set it to be 10.10.10.2 255.255.255.0.

Then the next step is to connect your machine to the switch; plug a cable from your laptop or PC to the switch. And just to make sure that the data can travel from one end to another, we'll go ahead and try to send a ping to the server:

ProCurve Switch 3500yl-48G# ping 10.10.10.2

If the ping is successful, you need to launch your TFTP Server, then you can go ahead and update the flash by issuing the copy command and pass to it the server address and the filename:

ProCurve Switch 3500yl-48G# copy tftp flash 10.10.10.2 k_12_02.swi

And if you need to update the secondary flash, then issue this command:

ProCurve Switch 3500yl-48G# copy tftp flash 10.10.10.2 k_12_02.swi secondary

I make a habit of using scripts to make the whole process easier to manage and make the update faster so here's the entire script:

enable
configure terminal
vlan 1
no ip add
ip address 10.10.10.1/24
exit
ping 10.10.10.2
copy tftp flash 10.10.10.2 k_12_02.swi
y
copy tftp flash 10.10.10.2 k_12_02.swi secondary
y

Note: If you use this script, make sure that you update the ip address and change the filename.

Cisco TFTP - Flash Update Problem

I was upgrading the IOS for the Cisco 6509s. I got Cisco TFTP Server setup and connected to it to download the file. The file was around 80Mb. TFTP Server threw an exception and shutdown. Upon restart, the file started to get downloaded but a few seconds later Cisco TFTP Server threw another error. This time I was able to view the error message and it said the transfer failed due to Synchronization Error.

I switched to SolarWinds TFTP Server and got a more detailed error saying the file was too large to be transferred through TFTP.

As an alternative, I used FTP Server from 3CDaemon and issued the command:

copy FTP: Disk0:

and it worked like a champ.

I had IIS running on my laptop so I turned off 3CDaemon and used IIS's FTP server. It worked out just fine.

So if you are transferring a large file you should use FTP and not TFTP to avoid potential problems and I also recommend 3CDaemon as it's got TFTP Server, FTP Server, Syslog as well as TFTP client all in one package.