Basic Router Operation - Backing Up and Restoring Router Configuration Files and IOS Software Images

Objectives In this lab you will complete the following tasks: • Back up a router configuration file to a TFTP server • Back up a router IOS software image to a TFTP server • Restore a ro

Date of Issue: 09-01-2000

Backing Up and Restoring Router

Configuration Files and IOS Software

Images

by Marc Menninger / Barry Meinster

Objectives

Setup

TIP

Scenario

Task 1: Back up a router configuration file to a TFTP server

Step 1-1

Step 1-2

Step 1-3

Step 1-4

Task 2: Back up a router IOS software image to a TFTP server

Step 2-1

Step 2-2

Step 2-3

Task 3: Restore a router configuration file from a TFTP server

Step 3-1

Task 4: Restore router IOS software image from a TFTP server

Step 4-1

Solutions

Task 1, Step 2

Task 1, Step 3

Task 1, Step 4

Task 2, Step 1

Task 2, Step 2

Task 3, Step 1

Task 4, Step 1

Complete this lab to practice what you learned in the Basic Router Operation Tutorial

Objectives

In this lab you will complete the following tasks:

• Back up a router configuration file to a TFTP server

• Back up a router IOS software image to a TFTP server

• Restore a router configuration file from a TFTP server

• Restore a router IOS software image from a TFTP server

Setup

Your router should have at least a basic configuration from either completing the router's setup script or manually configuring your router similar to the sample configuration in the Basic Router Operation Tutorial

You should also install and configure a TFTP server in your lab

network This is fairly easy to do, and any PC or laptop can function

as your TFTP server for the purposes of this lab For more

information about finding TFTP software, see Backing Up Router

Configuration Files in the Basic Router Maintenance and

Troubleshooting section of the Basic Router Operation Tutorial

TIP

Many TFTP server implementations require you to access files, for both upload and download, by their fully qualified name not

You've configured your router, and now you want to save your configuration somewhere other than NVRAM You also want to back up your router's IOS software image in case your router suffers a critical failure Finally, you want to test these backups by restoring them to your router

Task 1: Back up a router configuration file to a TFTP server

Step 1-1

Enter privileged EXEC mode

Step 1-2

Save your running configuration to NVRAM

What command saves your running configuration to NVRAM?

Step 1-3

Backup your running configuration to the TFTP server

What command will back up your running configuration to the TFTP server?

Refer to the Backing Up Router Configuration Files section of the Basic Router Operation Tutorial for the correct responses to the router questions Make sure you enter the IP address you configured for your TFTP server when prompted for the address of the remote host Give your configuration file a unique name

Step 1-4

Find and view your configuration file on the TFTP server

What is different about the configuration file on the TFTP compared to your original running configuration? (Do a

show run on your router if necessary.)

Task 2: Back up a router IOS software image to a TFTP server

Step 2-1

Look at the contents of Flash memory

What command shows you the contents of Flash memory?

How many files are currently in Flash memory?

List the files currently in Flash memory:

their name relative to a directory

What file, ending in bin, will always be found in the Flash memory of newly configured routers?

How many bytes of Flash memory is the bin file taking up?

How many bytes of Flash memory are left?

Step 2-2

Back up your IOS software image to your TFTP server

What command backs up your IOS software image to your TFTP server?

Refer to the Backing Up Software Images section of the Basic Router Operation Tutorial for the correct responses to the router questions Make sure you enter the IP address you configured for your TFTP server when prompted for the address of the remote host Use the name of the bin file you wrote above as the source file name

Step 2-3

Find your IOS software image on the TFTP server to verify that it transferred correctly

Task 3: Restore a router configuration file from a TFTP server

Step 3-1

Restore the configuration you saved to the TFTP server in Task 1 to your router's current running configuration

What command restores the configuration you saved to the TFTP server in Task 1 to your router's current running configuration?

Refer to the Backing Up Router Configuration Files section of the Basic Router Operation Tutorial for the correct responses to the router questions Make sure you enter the IP address you configured for your TFTP server when prompted for the address of the remote host Use the name you gave your configuration file

What command would you enter to restore the configuration from the TFTP server directly to your router's startup configuration?

Task 4: Restore router IOS software image from a TFTP server

Step 4-1

Restore the IOS software image you saved to the TFTP server in Task 2 to your router's Flash memory

What command restores the IOS software image you saved to the TFTP server in Task 2 to your router's Flash memory?

Refer to the Backing Up Software Images section of the Basic Router Operation Tutorial for the correct responses to the router questions Make sure you enter the IP address you configured for your TFTP server when prompted for the address of the remote host Use the name of the bin file you wrote in above as the source file name

Why would the router need to erase Flash memory in order to restore an IOS software image from a TFTP server?

How does the router indicate that Flash memory is being erased?

How does the router indicate that the IOS is being copied?

Solutions

Task 1, Step 2.

- copy run start

Task 1, Step 3.

- copy run tftp

Task 1, Step 4.

- The configuration file on the TFTP server will have no comments [lines beginning with an exclamation point (!)] in it The comments get stripped out when being transferred to the TFTP server You can add them back in on your TFTP server with a regular text editor

Task 2, Step 1.

- show flash

The number and name of files currently in Flash will vary from router to router On newly configured routers the only file in Flash is the system image file (the file that ends in bin) The number of bytes of Flash memory that the system image file takes up will vary from router to router There should be at least several megabytes of Flash memory still available, however

Task 2, Step 2.

- copy flash tftp

Task 3, Step 1.

- copy tftp run

- copy tftp start

Task 4, Step 1.

- copy tftp flash

Note the size of the IOS software image from Task 2, Step 1 If there is not enough room in Flash memory to save a second copy of the IOS software image, it will need to erase the Flash to make room

The letter 'e' is output to the screen to indicate that Flash memory is being erased

Exclamation points are output to the screen to indicate that the IOS is being copied

[NA-IOS-LS3-F03]

[2000-08-25-01]

Copyright © 2000 Genium Publishing Corporation