Flash Memory Overview; Setting The Default Boot Partition; Resetting The Fwsm Or Booting From A Specific Partition - Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Configuration Manual

Chapter 2 Configuring the Switch for the Firewall Services Module

Flash Memory Overview

The FWSM has a 128-MB Compact Flash card ("Flash memory") that stores the operating system,
configurations, and other data. The Flash memory includes six partitions, called cf:n in Cisco IOS
software and Catalyst operating system software commands:
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Setting the Default Boot Partition

By default, the FWSM boots from the cf:4 application partition. However, you can choose to boot from
the cf:5 application partition or into the cf:1 maintenance partition. To change the default boot partition,
enter the command for your operating system:
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Resetting the FWSM or Booting from a Specific Partition

This section describes how to reset the FWSM or boot from a specific partition. You might need to reset
the FWSM if you cannot reach it through the CLI or an external Telnet session. You might need to boot
from a non-default boot partition if you need to access the maintenance partition or if you want to boot
from a different software image in the backup application partition. The maintenance partition is
valuable for troubleshooting.
The reset process might take several minutes.
For Cisco IOS software, when you reset the FWSM, you can also choose to run a full memory test. When
the FWSM initially boots, it only runs a partial memory test. A full memory test takes approximately
six minutes.
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Maintenance partition (cf:1)—Contains the maintenance image. Use the maintenance partition to
upgrade or install application images if you cannot boot into the application partition, to reset the
application image password, or to display the crash dump information.
Network configuration partition (cf:2)—Contains the network configuration of the maintenance
image. The maintenance partition requires IP settings so that the FWSM can reach the TFTP server
to download software images.
Crash dump partition (cf:3)—Stores the crash dump information.
Application partitions (cf:4 and cf:5)—Stores the software image, system configuration, and PDM
for FWSM. By default, Cisco installs the images on cf:4. You can use cf:5 as a test partition. For
example, if you want to upgrade your software, you can install the new software on cf:5, but
maintain the old software as a backup in case you have problems.
Security context partition (cf:6)—64 MB are dedicated to this partition, which stores security
context configurations (if desired) and RSA keys in a navigable file system. All other partitions do
not have file systems that allow you to perform common tasks such as listing files. This partition is
called disk when using the copy command.
Cisco IOS software
Router(config)# boot device module mod_num cf: n
Where n is 1 (maintenance), 4 (application), or 5 (application).
Catalyst operating system software
Console> (enable) set boot device cf: n mod_num
Where n is 1 (maintenance), 4 (application), or 5 (application).
Catalyst 6500 Series Switch and Cisco 7600 Series Router Firewall Services Module Configuration Guide
Managing the Firewall Services Module Boot Partitions
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