User Guide

29
Fourth Generation Versatile Interface Processor (VIP4) Installation and Configuration Guide
OL-3673-01
VIP4 Maintenance Procedures
Note Software and interface processor microcode images are carefully optimized and bundled to work
together. Overriding the Cisco IOS software bundle can result in system incompatibilities. We
recommend that you use the microcode included in the Cisco IOS software bundle.
You can download microcode to Flash memory by copying the TFTP image of a microcode version to
Flash memory. When the microcode image is stored in Flash memory, you have to configure the router
to use that image using the microcode vip4 flash command; then you can use the microcode reload
command to manually load the new microcode file. Finally, you use the configure command to instruct
the system to load the new image automatically at each system boot.
Note The appropriate microcode image runs from DRAM (or SDRAM) on the VIP4.
To compare the size of the microcode image and the amount of Flash memory available, you must know
the size of the new microcode image. The image size is specified in the README file that is included
with the new image.
Note Note the size of the new image before proceeding to ensure that you have sufficient available Flash
memory for the new image.
Caution Before you copy a file to system Flash memory, be sure there is ample space available in Flash memory.
Compare the size of the file you want to copy to the amount of available Flash memory shown. If the
space available is less than the space required by the file you want to copy, the copy process will
continue, but the entire file will not be copied into Flash memory.
Use the following procedure to download (copy) a microcode version from a TFTP server to Flash
memory:
Step 1 To display the total amount of Flash memory present, its location, any files that currently exist in Flash
memory and their size, and the amount of Flash memory remaining, use the show flash command.
Following is an example of the output that is displayed:
Router# show flash
-#- ED --type-- --crc--- -seek-- nlen -length- -----date/time------ name
1 .. image 0A423F1B E01200 22 14553472 Apr 18 2001 19:19:16 rsp-jsv-mz_n
6024704 bytes available (14553600 bytes used)
Step 2 Compare the amount of available Flash memory (last line in the preceding example) to the size of the
new microcode image on the floppy disk. If you attempt to copy in a new image, and the size of the new
image exceeds the available space in Flash memory, only part of the new image will be copied, and the
following error message will be displayed:
buffer overflow - xxxx/xxxx
In this error message, xxxx/xxxx is the number of bytes read in/number of bytes available.