Configuring switches and routers is regular work for me. But if I would like to configure a switch or a router, I have to be able to boot the specific device…. Today I had to configure some new Cisco Catalyst 3650(E) en 3750 switches. In total I had 16 switches to configure, but three of them didn’t have any IOS image in flash and weren’t able to boot.

I have never seen this before. The switches aren’t refurbished, at least that is what the customer told me. At first I didn’t see any problem, because I wanted to upload an image from rommon through TFTP. After accessing rommon, I noticed that the Catalyst 3560 en 3750 don’t support TFTP upload in rommon. This leaves an XMODEM transfer as the only available option.

The image I wanted to upload was approximately 10 MB and upload with XMODEM at a baud rate of 9600 bps isn’t really fast. I had only one laptop to use, so it would take a whole day to upload the correct image into the three switches. Because I had only one COM port, I wasn’t able to configure anything.

I wanted to speed up my XMODEM transfer to buy some time and I found a way. At the switch prompt I set the baud rate to 115200:

switch: set BAUD 115200

Next I reconfigured my terminal (TeraTerm) to use the new baud rate of 115200. I started the XMODEM recovery procedure:

switch: copy xmodem: flash:c3560-ipbasek9-mz.122-50.SE.bin

I was satisfied while looking at the transfer rate. I had some time to invite myself to a cappuccino and  chat a little with the customer. The image was transferred in approximately 30 minutes. The last step in the recovery was setting back the baud rate to 9600, reconfigure my terminal and boot the image:

switch: set BAUD 9600

switch: boot flash:c3560-ipbasek9-mz.122-50.SE.bin

It only took two hours upload the correct IOS image to the three switches. Now I am set to start the configuration.

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René Jorissen

Co-owner and Solution Specialist at 4IP Solutions

René Jorissen works as Solution Specialist for 4IP in the Netherlands. Network Infrastructures are the primary focus. René works with equipment of multiple vendors, like Cisco, Aruba Networks, FortiNet, HP Networking, Juniper Networks, RSA SecurID, AeroHive, Microsoft and many more. René is Aruba Certified Edge Expert (ACEX #26), Aruba Certified Mobility Expert (ACMX #438), Aruba Certified ClearPass Expert (ACCX #725), Aruba Certified Design Expert (ACDX #760), CCNP R&S, FCNSP and Certified Ethical Hacker (CEF) certified. You can follow René on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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