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Catalyst2950 and Catalyst2955 Switch Software Configuration Guide
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AppendixB Working with the Cisco IOS File System, Configuration Files, and Software Images
Working with Configuration Files
This example shows how to extract the contents of a tar file located on the TFTP server at 172.20.10.30.
This command extracts just the new-configs directory into the root directory on the local flash file
system. The remaining files in the saved.tar file are ignored.
Switch# archive tar /xtract tftp:/172.20.10.30/saved.tar flash:/new-configs

Displaying the Contents of a File

To display the contents of any readable file, including a file on a remote f ile system, use the more [/ascii
| /binary | /ebcdic] file-url privileged EXEC command:
This example shows how to display the contents of a configuration file on a TFTP server:
Switch# more tftp://serverA/hampton/savedconfig
!
! Saved configuration on server
!
version 11.3
service timestamps log datetime localtime
service linenumber
service udp-small-servers
service pt-vty-logging
!
<output truncated>
Working with Configuration Files
This section describes how to create, load, and maintain configuration files. You can create a basic
configuration file by using the setup program or by entering the setup privileged EXEC command. For
more information, see Chapter 5, “Assigning the Switch IP Address and Default Gateway.”
You can copy (download) configuration files from a TFTP, FTP, or RCP server to the running
configuration or startup configuration of the switch. You might want to perform this for one o f th ese
reasons:
•To restore a backed-up configuration file.
•To use the configuration file for another switch. For example, you might add another switch to your
network and want it to have a configuration similar to the original switch. By copying the file to the
new switch, you can change the relevant parts rather than recreating the whole file.
•To load the same configuration commands on all the switches in your network so t hat al l t he
switches have similar configurations.
You c an c opy (upload) configuration files from the switch to a file server by using TFTP, FTP, or RCP.
You might perform this task to back up a current configuration file to a server before changing its
contents so that you can later restore the original configuration file from the server.
The protocol that you use depends on which type of server you are using. The FTP and RCP transport
mechanisms provide faster performance and more reliable del ivery of da ta th an T F TP. These
improvements are possible because FTP and RCP are built on and use the TCP/IP stack, which i s
connection-oriented.