Cisco Systems 7401ASR manual Compatibility Requirements

Appendix C Using the CompactFlash Disk

Compatibility Requirements

Compatibility Requirements

This section discusses CompactFlash Disk compatibility and use between supported systems.

In order to boot a Cisco IOS software image from the CompactFlash Disk, when the system is executing from the ROM monitor software image, your ROM monitor software image and your boot image must be from one of the minimum Cisco IOS releases listed in the “Hardware and Software Requirements” section on page C-1. Use the show version or show hardware commands to verify that your system is running these software images.

The format command places a processor-specific file system on the CompactFlash Disk so that the ROM monitor software can read the CompactFlash disk media. If you plan to use the boot or dir commands at the ROM monitor prompt (rommon>), you might need to reformat your CompactFlash Disk if it was not already formatted on a like system processor.

For simple file storage and retrieval functions, CompactFlash Disks can be interchanged between any Cisco 7401ASR router.

Note The CompactFlash Disk in the Cisco 7401ASR router is supported on the c7400-kboot-mz image.

System Memory and Software Image Functions and Interactions

The read-only memory (ROM) monitor image on your system performs important functions, such as running a brief set of system diagnostics, and initializing the hardware. This image gains control at reset or power on, or after a nonrecoverable event (such as a bus error). The ROM monitor software image has a rudimentary user interface that is recognizable by way of the ROM monitor prompt (rommon>). The ROM monitor software image has console drivers and trap handlers for parity and bus errors; however, the ROM monitor does not have any network interface code and it cannot boot an image over the network.

Note The ROM monitor is only able to load an image from boot flash memory or a CompactFlash Disk.

By default, and as a result of a reset or power on, the ROM monitor loads the boot image from boot flash memory. If the ROM monitor cannot find a bootable image in boot flash memory, it searches the CompactFlash Disk for the first bootable image. Normally, this would be the c7400-kboot-mz image.

The boot image, when loaded, looks in the boot environment variables—stored in nonvolatile random-access memory (NVRAM)—to determine the location of the Cisco IOS software image and the configuration to use. If boot environment variables are not defined, the system will boot the first image found on the CompactFlash Disk.

The operation of the boot environment variables is described in the “Boot Environment Variables” section, which follows.

Cisco 7401ASR Installation and Configuration Guide

OL-5419-01 B0 C-3