Chapter 5 Field Diagnostics for the Cisco 12000 Series Router
Diagnostics Overview
5-2
Cisco 12006 and Cisco 12406 Router Installation and Configuration Guide
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• Smaller Cisco IOS image—To accommodate customers with 20-MB Flash
memory cards, the line card field diagnostics are stored and maintained as a
separate image that must be available on a Flash memory card or a TFTP boot
server.
• Easy access to the most current diagnostics software—Since the field
diagnostics software is now maintained as a separate image, the most recent
version is always available on Cisco.com, without regard to the Cisco IOS
software version currently in use.
The remainder of this chapter contains the following sections:
• Diagnostics Overview, page 5-2
• FPGA Overview, page 5-3
• Using Diagnostics, page 5-6
• Using the diag Command, page 5-8
Diagnostics Overview
There are more than 100 diagnostic operations for each Cisco 12000 Series
Router line card, in addition to diagnostics for the switch fabric and route
processor cards. These operations include the following:
• Processor tests
• Memory tests
• Component tests
• Major data path tests
• Field-programmable gate array (FPGA) image updates (on some line cards)
Note When using Cisco IOS Release 12.0(21)S or 12.0(21)ST or later, the default
download method changes from the MBus to the switch fabric. It takes about
1 minute to obtain test results from the switch fabric, compared to 15 minutes to
obtain test results from the MBus.