B-38
Catalyst 3750-X and 3560-X Switch Software Configuration Guide
OL-21521-01
Appendix B Working with the Cisco IOS File System, Configuration Files, and Software Images
Working with Software Images
The download algorithm verifies that the image is appropriate for the switch model and that enough
DRAM is present, or it aborts the process and reports an error. If you specify the /overwrite option, the
download algorithm removes the existing image on the flash device whether or not it is the same as the
new one, downloads the new image, and then reloads the software.
Note If the flash device has sufficient space to hold two images and you want to overwrite one of these images
with the same version, you must specify the /overwrite option.
If you specify the /leave-old-sw, the existing files are not removed. If there is not enough room to install
the new image an keep the running image, the download process stops, and an error message is
displayed.
The algorithm installs the downloaded image onto the system board flash device (flash:). The image is
placed into a new directory named with the software version string, and the BOOT environment variable
is updated to point to the newly installed image.
If you kept the old software during the download process (you specified the /leave-old-sw keyword), you
can remove it by enterin g the delete /force /recursive filesystem:/file-url privileged EXEC command.
For filesystem, use flash: for the system board flash device. For file-url, enter the directory name of the
old software image. All the files in the directory and the directory are removed.
Caution For the download and upload algorithms to operate properly, do not rename image names.
Uploading an Image File By Using RCP
You can upload an image from the switch to an RCP server. You can later download this image to the
same switch or to another switch of the same type.
Step 7 archive download-sw [/directory]
/leave-old-sw /reload
tftp:[[//location]/directory]/image-name1.tar
[image-name2.tar image-name3.tar
image-name4.tar]
Download the images file from the RCP server to the switch and
keep the current image.
• (Optional) The /directory option specifies a directory for the
images.
• The /leave-old-sw option keeps the old software version after
a download.
• The /reload option reloads the system after downloading the
image unless the configuration has been changed and not been
saved.
• For //username, specify the username. For the RCP copy
request to execute, an account must be defined on the network
server for the remote username. For more information, see the
“Preparing to Download or Upload an Image File By Using
RCP” section on page B-36.
• For @location, specify the IP address of the RCP server.
• For /directory/image-name1.tar [/directory/image-name2.tar
image-name3.tar image-name4.tar], specify the directory
(optional) and the images to download. Directory and image
names are case sensitive.
Command Purpose