Upgrading the ROMMON on Cisco NCS 4201 and NCS 4202 Routers

Table 1. Feature History

Feature Name

Release Information

Description

Secondary ROMMON Version Auto Upgrade

 Cisco IOS XE Bengaluru 17.5.1

After primary ROMMON version is auto upgraded, secondary ROMMON version auto upgrade process takes place. The secondary ROMMON upgrade is only completed during the next planned manual reload of the router.

Starting with Cisco IOS XE Bengaluru release 17.5.1, after primary ROMMON version is auto upgraded, secondary ROMMON version auto upgrade process takes place. The secondary ROMMON upgrade is only completed during the next planned manual reload of the router.

Note

If the secondary ROMMON version is lesser than that of the primary ROMMON version, the secondary ROMMON gets auto upgraded.

The router has two ROMMON regions (ROM0 and ROM1). We recommend that the upgrade is performed on both the regions.


Caution

To avoid actions that might make your system unable to boot, read this entire section before starting the upgrade.

  1. Check the booted ROMMON region (ROM0 or ROM1). The example, shows the device booting up from ROM0 region.

    Example: 
    System Bootstrap, Version 15.6(32r)S, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
Technical Support: http://www.cisco.com/techsupport
Copyright (c) 2018 by cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Thu 30-Aug-18 06:23 by pallavik
*Upgrade in progress* Boot ROM1
Last reset cause: BootRomUpgrade
link status 0
link status 0
UEA platform with 3670016 Kbytes of main memory

  2. Copy the ROMMON pkg file asr920_15_6_43r_s_rommon.pkg to the bootflash.

  3. Use the upgrade rom-monitor filename asr920_15_6_43r_s_rommon.pkg all command to upgrade the version.

  4. Reload the router and ensure device is booted from upgrade region ROM0.

    Example: 

    System Bootstrap, Version 15.6(32r)S, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
Technical Support: http://www.cisco.com/techsupport
Copyright (c) 2018 by cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Thu 30-Aug-18 06:23 by pallavik
Boot ROM1
Last reset cause: RSP-Board
Rommon upgrade requested
Flash upgrade reset 1 in progress
.......
System Bootstrap, Version 15.6(43r)S, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
Technical Support: http://www.cisco.com/techsupport
Copyright (c) 2020 by cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Tue 19-May-20 22:55 by pallavik
*Upgrade in progress* Boot ROM0
Last reset cause: BootRomUpgrade
link status 0
link status 0
UEA platform with 3670016 Kbytes of main memory

We're coming up from a flash upgrade reset cookie
rommon 1 >

  5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 to update the other region router (ROM1) region in this procedure.


Note

We recommend you to upgrade that both ROM0 and ROM1 regions.

Starting with Cisco IOS XE Amsterdam 17.3.1 and higher, secondary partition upgrade is performed only after loading version 17.3.1 or higher.

Verifying ROMMON Upgrade on the Cisco NCS 4202

Use the show platform command to verify the ROMMON upgrade. 

Router#show platform
Chassis type: NCS4202-SA

Slot      Type                State                 Insert time (ago) 
--------- ------------------- --------------------- ----------------- 
 0/0      12xGE-4x10GE-FIXED  ok                    00:40:35      
 0/1      NCS4200-3GMS        ok                    00:40:35      
R0        NCS4202-SA          ok, active            00:47:43      
F0                            ok, active            00:47:43      
P0        ASR920-PSU0         ok                    00:45:37      
P1        ASR920-PSU1         N/A                   never         
P2        ASR920-FAN          ok                    00:45:36      

Slot      CPLD Version        Firmware Version                        
--------- ------------------- --------------------------------------- 
R0        2008241E            15.6(54r)S                          
F0        2008241E            15.6(54r)S                          

Router#

Auto Upgrade

Table 2. Feature History

Feature Name

Release Information

Description

Secondary ROMMON Version Auto Upgrade

 Cisco IOS XE Bengaluru 17.5.1

After primary ROMMON version is auto upgraded, secondary ROMMON version auto upgrade process takes place. The secondary ROMMON upgrade is only completed during the next planned manual reload of the router.

  • The ROMMON image upgrade from Cisco IOS XE Release 3.x to Cisco IOS XE Everest Release 16.5.1 is not mandatory. We recommend a ROMMON upgrade for effective utilization of the new features delivered in Cisco IOS XE Everest 16.5.1 and later releases.

  • We recommend you to reload the router two times for successful ROMMON and software image upgrade.

  • You cannot expand the Cisco IOS XE Release 16.x image into the Cisco IOS XE Release 3.x images. The bin. file may be used to reload the image.

  • Before installing the Cisco IOS XE Amsterdam Release 17.3.1, you must upgrade the ROMMON to version 15_6_43r_s or higher to avoid bootup failure. Booting in sub package mode takes care of auto upgrade to ROMMON version 15_6_43r_s on bootup. This workaround is not applicable to devices installed with ROMMON version 15.6(9r)S.

  • For Cisco IOS XE Amsterdam Release 17.3.x, a minimum diskspace of 2 MB is required in the boot flash memory file system for a successful ROMMON auto upgrade process. For a diskspace lesser than 2 MB, ROMMON auto upgrade fails and the router reboots.

  • For Cisco IOS XE Amsterdam Release 17.3.x, Cisco IOS XE Bengaluru Release 17.4.x, and earlier, the secondary ROMMON partition is not auto upgraded. You must manually upgrade it using the upgrade rom-mon filename command.

  • Secure ROMMON is supported from Cisco IOS XE Amsterdam Release 17.3.1 onwards. However, it is compatible with all the releases.

  • Any future secure ROMMON upgrade or downgrade is only possible from Cisco IOS XE Amsterdam Release 17.3.1 onwards.

  • Starting with Cisco IOS XE Bengaluru Release 17.4.1, Cisco NCS 4201 and Cisco NCS 4202 routers are auto upgraded to ROMMON version 15_6_44r_s.

  • Starting with ROMMON release version 15.6(43r)S, ROMMON version is secure. Once the ROMMON version is upgraded, it cannot be downgraded to a non-secure ROMMON version.

  • Starting with Cisco IOS XE Bengaluru Release 17.5.1, secondary ROMMON partition is also auto upgraded after a successful primary ROMMON partition upgrade is complete. You can reload the router at the next planned reload to complete the secondary ROMMON upgrade.

    Note

    If the secondary ROMMON version is lesser than that of the primary ROMMON version, the secondary ROMMON gets auto upgraded.

  • Any non-secure FPGA bundled releases moving to Cisco IOS XE Bengaluru Release 17.3.x or future releases can result in an FPGA upgrade and a ROMMON upgrade. If FPGA upgrade happens parallely with the ROMMON upgrade, you can only expect a single reload. If FPGA upgrade gets delayed and happens post ROMMON upgrade, two reloads are expected to complete both the upgrade processes. This is followed by a successful bootup of the target release image.

    However, starting with Cisco IOS XE Bengaluru Release 17.5.1, for Cisco NCS 4201 and Cisco NCS 4202 routers, ROMMON and FPGA upgrade are synchronized to happen in a single reload.