Introduction
This document provides an understanding of what Turboboot is and how to bring up a system running IOS-XR from scratch
There are two ways to upgrade the system:
- One is to install add and activate the new XR software version. At a minimum this would require that mini.pie file
- The second way is by performing a turboboot, fresh install, by booting the mini.vm file from rommon
This executable mini.vm file needs to be transferred via TFTP (on the RSP2) or can be loaded from the external USB port or TFTP (on the RSP440 and CRS-PRP). On the 9001 the USB ability is added in rommon 2.03 (5.1.1 release version).
No other media or protocols are possible to be used for a turboboot other then the ones specified above. Ex FTP is not allowed
File System overview
XR devices have multiple medias for storage and they all have their individual purpose.
| Volume | RSP2 | RSP440 | Trident | Typhoon |
| disk0: | Embedded USB | SSD (SATA) | ||
| disk0a: | Embedded USB | SSD (SATA) | ||
| disk1: | Embedded USB | SSD (SATA) | ||
| disk1a: | Embedded USB | SSD (SATA) | ||
| harddisk: | Harddisk (SAS) | Embedded USB | ||
| harddiska: | Harddisk (SAS) | Embedded USB | ||
| harddiskb: | Harddisk (SAS) | Embedded USB | ||
| compactflash: | Compactflash1 | External USB1 | ||
| lcdisk0: | Embedded USB | Embedded USB | ||
| lcdisk0a: | Embedded USB | Embedded USB | ||
| bootflash: | NOR Flash | NOR Flash | NOR Flash | |
| configflash: | NOR Flash | |||
| nvram: | NVSRAM | NVSRAM | ||
| Kernel dump | Harddisk (SAS) | SSD (SATA) | TFTP | bootflash: |
| 1. Removable | ||||
| Access (Mount) Points (in /dev) | ||||
| Volume | RSP2 | RSP440 | Trident | Typhoon |
| disk0: | disk00t77 | hd0t77 | qsm to active rsp | qsm to active rsp |
| disk0a: | disk00t78 | hd0t78 | qsm to active rsp | qsm to active rsp |
| disk1: | disk10t77 | hd1t77 | qsm to active rsp | qsm to active rsp |
| disk1a: | disk10t78 | hd1t78 | qsm to active rsp | qsm to active rsp |
| harddisk: | hd0t79 | usb00t77 | qsm to active rsp | qsm to active rsp |
| harddiska: | hd0t77 | usb00t78 | qsm to active rsp | qsm to active rsp |
| harddiskb: | hd0t78 | usb00t11 | ||
| compactflash: | disk20t6,11,121 | usb10t6,11,121 | ||
| lcdisk0: | lcdisk00t77 | lcdisk00t77 | ||
| lcdisk0a: | lcdisk00t78 | lcdisk00t78 | ||
| bootflash: | fs0p1 | fs0p1 | fs0p1 | |
| configflash: | fs1p1 | |||
| nvram: | nvram | nvram | ||
| Kernel dump | hd0t80 | hd0t80 or hd1t802 | fs0p2 | |
| 1. Any one | 2. Either one | |||
| Usage | ||||
| Volume | RSP2 | RSP440 | Trident | Typhoon |
| disk0: | IOS-XR Packages, Configs | IOS-XR Packages, Configs | ||
| disk0a: | sysmgr_debug | sysmgr_debug | ||
| disk1: | IOS-XR Packages (if Mirrored) | IOS-XR Packages (if Mirrored) | ||
| disk1a: | wdsysmon_debug | wdsysmon_debug | ||
| harddisk: | Crash files, logs | Crash files, logs | ||
| harddiska: | NP logs, crash files | NP logs, crash files | ||
| harddiskb: | ||||
| compactflash: | File Copy | File Copy | ||
| lcdisk0: | Kernel dump files | Kernel dump files | ||
| lcdisk0a: | ||||
| bootflash: | MBI Images | |||
| configflash: | OBFL | |||
| nvram: | Configs | Configs | ||
| Kernel dump | Raw kernel dumps | Raw kernel dumps | Raw kernel dumps | |
| Filesystems | ||||
| Volume | RSP2 | RSP440 | Trident | Typhoon |
| disk0: | QNX4 | QNX4 | ||
| disk0a: | QNX4 | QNX4 | ||
| disk1: | QNX4 | QNX4 | ||
| disk1a: | QNX4 | QNX4 | ||
| harddisk: | QNX4 | QNX4 | ||
| harddiska: | QNX4 | QNX4 | ||
| harddiskb: | QNX4 | FAT | ||
| compactflash: | FAT1 | FAT1,2 | ||
| lcdisk0: | QNX4 | QNX4 | ||
| lcdisk0a: | QNX4 | QNX4 | ||
| bootflash: | FFSv3 | FFSv3 | FFSv3 | |
| configflash: | FFSv3 | |||
| nvram: | Cisco | Cisco | ||
| Kernel dump | Raw | Raw | File | Raw |
| 1. FAT F/S only | 2. Flash Media only | |||
| Approximate Parition Size (minimum) | ||||
| Volume | RSP2 | RSP440 | Trident | Typhoon |
| disk0: | 1.6GB | 11.0GB | ||
| disk0a: | 0.4GB | 2.2GB | ||
| disk1: | 1.6GB | 11.0GB | ||
| disk1a: | 0.4GB | 2.2GB | ||
| harddisk: | 35GB | 3.1/6.2GB | ||
| harddiska: | 8GB | 0.4/0.8GB | ||
| harddiskb: | 8GB | 0.4/0.8GB | ||
| compactflash: | 1GB | 1-32GB | ||
| lcdisk0: | 1.6GB | 1.6GB | ||
| lcdisk0a: | 0.4GB | 0.4GB | ||
| bootflash: | 44MB | 56MB | 56MB | |
| configflash: | 28MB | |||
| nvram: | 220K | 500K | ||
| Kernel dump | 21GB | 500MB x 2 | 24MB | |
Note that unlike many IOS devices, nvram is NOT used for the configuration storage. Configurations are stored in a database on the boot disk (often disk0). Typically only rommon variables and license info are stored in nvram.
Summary steps for using turboboot
Because a turboboot can erase configuration, SSH keys, and other items such as licenses the following should be done to check and backup any files
1. Run a cfs check in admin & non-admin mode
2. Copy active licenses and SNMP files to tftp server
3. Copy running config to a tftp-server or laptop
4. Capture "show ipv4 int brief" output to a text file
5. Capture "show ipv6 int brief | i Up/Up" output to a text file
6. Offline. Edit the saved RSP config - add "no shutdown" for all physical interfaces that are up/up from the above IPv4 & IPv6 interface captures and save cfg changes. Note that it is not necessary to “no shut” sub-interfaces, only the main physical interface.
7. Connect a laptop console cable to the RSP in RSP0 slot and enable a log file to monitor and capture the RSP bootup logs.
8 . Turn the power supplies on to power up the asr9k system. (approx. 7-12 minutes)
9. After the LED's indicate IOS-XR on the LC's, and ACTV or STBY on the RSP’s, log in via the console of the RSP that is ACTV and run some preliminary checks to check system stability.
NOTE: The default root-system username and password on the RSP440 are root/root
(if root/root does not work also try cisco/cisco, or admin/admin or viking/viking)
10. Verify the ASR9K IOS XR version
11. Run a cfs check in admin & non-admin mode
12. (Optional) Install add & commit any missing SW packages (pies) or required SMU’s
13. Upgrade FPD in admin mode
14. Reload any nodes that had FPD upgrades
15. Configure the Mgmt ethernet interface with an IP address to reach tftp server & load and commit the saved RSP config from tftp server or laptop
a) or log into the console and cut & paste a saved cfg from laptop
b) or copy saved cfg from laptop to usb, then insert usb into RSP440 and copy and commit cfg
c) copy licenses and snmp files back to the RSP’s
16. (Optional) create and generate new crypto keys if required.
Steps to Turboboot
As mentioned Turbobooting means that you load the "VM" (virtual machine) XR base OS image.
Turboboot is started from Rommon and is essentially the same as putting a disk with the desired OS in your laptop, reboot the machine to boot from CDROM, and installing the base OS.
Before the Turboboot process starts, you can instruct the system to wipe all files from the system and start clean or install the image to be turbobooted along side with any existing releases currently found on the disk. (see Set the Turboboot variables on the RSP)
Turbobooting may be required if you want to sweep clean your system, or we also had some issues in XR4.2.0 with the RSP2 whereby the upgrade pie could not be loaded. A turboboot was required in that case also.
Some or all of these procedures below are needed.
The command "set" gives you an overview of all the rommon environment variables currently set to their values.
Clear the ROM Monitor environmental variables on all RSPs
unset BOOT
unset TFTP_FILE
sync
the command *unset* clears the variable value from rommon.
the command *sync *saves or writes the newly set and unset variables to persistent memory so they are saved cross reloads and power cycles.
Clear disk mirroring variables
unset BOOT_DEV_SEQ_OPER
unset MIRROR_ENABLE
sync
By default, the two internal USB partitions (disk0 and disk1) are mirrored to each other, if you break the mirror, turboboot will only affect the disk
that you are turbobooting target to and not the other one (nice if you want to fall back).
Disable the CPU watchdog
priv
diswd <- Disable the CPU watchdog
If you omit this step and the TFTP download for the turboboot mini-vm image takes longer than 30 minutes due to network delays etc, then the RSP might reset and you'll have to start over. Disabling this watchdog makes sure the system is not going to reload during the transfer of the image in rommon.
Define the network and IP settings on the mgmt interface
IP_ADDRESS=ip_address
IP_SUBNET_MASK=mask
DEFAULT_GATEWAY=ip_address
Set TFTP environment variables
TFTP_RETRY_COUNT=4
sets the number of retries to contact the tftp server
TFTP_TIMEOUT=6000
sets the TFTP timeout for the transfer, you may need to set this larger to prevent abort during xfer if there are network delays
TFTP_CHECKSUM=1
whether checksum on the transfer is needed, this is adviceable in case the image gets corrupted during transfer.
TFTP_SERVER=server_ip_addr
the server address can also be specified in the boot statement, or fixed in the rommon variable.
TFTP_MGMT_INTF=0
which of the 2 mgmt interfaces you want to use, either 0 or 1 with 0 being the default.
TFTP_BLKSIZE=1400
Setting a larger TFTP block size is recommended to pack larger packets and transfer the VM image quicker. Note that for CRS this variable is TFTP_BLOCK_SIZE.
Set the Turboboot variable on the RSP
TURBOBOOT=on, {boot-device},[format | clean],[nodisablebreak]
on tells us to install add and install activate the packages when we boot from the VM image.
boot-device is which device we want to use to install the OS, typically disk0
format tells us to replace the OS completely except for the admin configuration
clean tells us to replace the OS completely, but other files such as the admin or exec configuration are saved
nodisablebreak allows us to terminate the turboboot via a break signal. The default is to ignore breaks
Example:
TURBOBOOT=on,disk0,format
sync
This will instruct the system to do a turboboot with disk0 as the selected boot device and to use the format option. The format key is optional.
Currently today we only support targeted install to disk0 but this will change likely in XR4.3.1 whereby you can use disk1 as install target.
NOTE: a recent tac case showed that the command for turboboot failed on the ASR9001.
Supposedly this was made to work by omitting the colon after disk0:
Suggesting to try the disk0 (without colon) if the command with colon fails.
ASR9K/CRS-PRP Additional Information
In CRS the format option works with FAT16 but not FAT32 or QNX4 so a new variable must also be used.
In ASR9K the format and clean options do work but in order to erase the exec configuration, admin configuration, and every other file this additional variable must be used.
For these scenarios the following must be set.
TURBOBOOT=on,disk0
MEDIA_FORMAT=disk0:,QNX4
Note: If the format or clean options are set in turboboot or confreg 0x2142 is set when also having the MEDIA_FORMAT variable set then when prompted for a new username/password we will be unable to write this to the disk. To fix this go back to rommon and properly set the variables.
Boot the remote mini.vm file
(Works only with the VM image, not the TAR file or mini.pie)
rommon> boot tftp://server/directory/filename
During the boot process the image is copied first on to the memory(RAM) and is installed from memory(RAM). Once it is insalled from memory, it will copy the image back on to disk0: and reload the device. Wait till you get the message "SYSTEM CONFIGURATION COMPLETED"
Output of show install active when in memory,
RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:ios#sh install active
<SNIP>
Active Packages:
mem:asr9k-mini-p-4.2.0
Output of show install active after image copied on to disk0:,
RP/0/RSP0/CPU0:ios#sh install active
<SNIP>
Active Packages:
disk0:asr9k-mini-p-4.2.0
The system will also self unset the TURBOBOOT rommon variable.
Restore disk mirroring
To restore disk mirroring, use the mirror command in the global configuration mode. For more information on the mirror command, see the "Boot Commands on Cisco IOS XR Software" module in Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Router System Management Command Reference.
How to boot from the external USB port
The RSP-440 (and 9001 with rommon 2.03) can boot from the USB front panel port. Instead of using "boot tftp:// or boot disk0:/" you need to use a different command, mediaboot.
The command is:
rommon> mediaboot usb:\release_mini.vm
In later revisions of the rommon, the mediaboot has been superseded to boot usb:/<file>
so make sure you try them both.
NOTE:
Some newer rommon versions on the 9001 want to use the boot usb:/ directive. (see Q&A/comment section below this article).
It is also seen in rommon versions post 2.04 that the usb is referred to as disk1 in which case you can use: boot disk1:/...
To find out the mapping of the usb disk use the rommon "dev" command to see all filesystem devices.
On the CRS-PRP use boot disk2:hfr-mini-px.vm<image>
CRS does not use the mediaboot command.
How to update the FPD's
FPD upgrade for all ASR9K devices using FPD.
a) Enter admin mode via the admin command, and capture the output of the current firmware versions using CLI show hw-module fpd location all. save this output to a text file. Notice any LC that has a “yes” in the Upg/Dng? column. This indicates the FPD should be upgraded or downgraded to match the current FPD version.
b) From admin mode upgrade FPD using the CLI: upgrade hw-module fpd location r/s/m
or if all locations require FPD upgrade (suggested) use CLI:* upgrade hw-module fpd location all *
Disk Space occupied for each image
Simplest way is to use the ksh df utility.
Install a release and packages and run df:
# df /disk0:
/dev/disk00t77 3813344 733477 3079867 20% /dev/disk0:/
Divide the highlighted number by 2000. That gives the approximate size in MB. 366MB in this case.
Repeat for any other releases we should be interested in.
If you do an upgrade, gather the df output before and after upgrade and compute the difference in df output.
Related Information
Xander Thuijs, CCIE #6775
Principal Engineer ASR9000
Sam Milstead,
Customer Support Engineer TAC XR
https://community.cisco.com/t5/service-providers-documents/asr9000-xr-understanding-turboboot-and-initial-system-bring-up/ta-p/3146024
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