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Catalyst 3550 Multilayer Switch Software Configuration Guide
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AppendixB Working with the IOS File System, Configuration Files, and Software Images
Working with Software Images
This section includes this information:
Image Location on the Switch, page B-20
tar File Format of Images on a Server or Cisco.com, page B-20
Copying Image Files By Using TFTP, page B-21
Copying Image Files By Using FTP, page B-25
Copying Image Files By Using RCP, page B-29
Note For a list of software images and the supported upgrade paths, refer to t he release notes that shipped
with your switch.
Image Location on the Switch
The IOS image is stored as a .bin file in a di rec tory tha t sh ow s the ver si on nu mbe r. A subdirecto ry
contains the HTML files needed for web manage m en t. T he im ag e i s st or ed on t he s yst em b oa rd F las h
memory (flash:).
You can use the show version privileged EXEC command to see the software version that is currently
running on your switch. In the display, check the line that begins wi th System image file is... . It
shows the directory name in Flash memory where the image is stored.
You can also use the dir filesystem: privileged EXEC command to see the directory names of other
software images you might have stored in Flash memory.
tar File Format of Images on a Server or Cisco.com
Software images located on a server or downloaded from Cisco.com are provided in a tar fil e format ,
which contains these files:
info file
The info file is always at the beginning of the tar file and contains information about the files within
it.
IOS image
Web management files needed by the HTTP server on the switch
info.ver file
The info.ver file is always at the end of the tar file and contains the same information as the info
file. Because it is the last file in the tar file, its existence means that all files in the image have been
downloaded.
This example shows the information contained in the info and info.ver files:
version_suffix: i5q3l2-121-6.EA1
version_directory: c3550-i5q3l2-mz.121-6.EA1
image_name: c3550-i5q3l2-mz.121-6.EA1.bin
ios_image_file_size: 3049472
total_image_file_size: 4551168
image_feature: LAYER_3|MIN_DRAM_MEG=64
image_family: C3550
info_end: