Table of Contents

12.1 ViewRunner for Windows
12.2 Save Configuration NVRAM
12.3 Restore Configuration (NVRAM)

Configuration Save and Restore

The Configuration Save and Restore feature allows you to upload nonvolatile RAM (NVRAM) to out-of-node storage. Such storage provides a backup of node configuration data. Downloading NVRAM back into a system controller (SC) module enables recovery from a corrupted or replaced SC module. It also allows you to quickly recover your configuration after downloading updated Cisco 6100 Series system software (see "Updating Cisco 6100 Series System Software").

12.1 ViewRunner for Windows

ViewRunner for Windows is the craft interface for the Cisco 6100 Series system on-site administration. It is bundled with the Cisco 6100 Series system multiplexer chassis (MC) or can be downloaded from Cisco Connection Online (CCO). See the ViewRunner for Windows Installation and Administration Guide for instructions on downloading ViewRunner for Windows from the CCO website.

Table 12-1 summarizes the compatibility among Cisco 6100 Series system and ViewRunner for Windows releases.

Table 12-1: ViewRunner and Cisco 6100 Series System Release Compatibility Matrix

	Cisco 6100 Series System Release
	2.4.0		2.3.1	2.3.0	2.2.1/ 2.2.5	2.2.0	2.1.3	2.1.2
	Cisco 61301	Cisco 61002
ViewRunner for Windows Release
2.4.0	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
2.3.5	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
2.3.0	No	No	Yes3	Yes3	Yes4	Yes	Yes	Yes
2.2.1	No	Yes	Yes5	Yes5	Yes5	Yes	Yes	Yes
2.2.0	No	Yes	Yes5	Yes5	Yes5	Yes	Yes5	Yes
2.1.0	No	Yes	Yes6	Yes6	Yes6	Yes6	Yes6	Yes

1The Cisco 6130 multiplexer chassis (MC) feature support present in Release 2.4.0 or higher. 2Systems with a Cisco 6100 MC installed must connect to the network through a Cisco PSC to provide the secondary lightning protection required by NEBS. Therefore, a Cisco 6100 MC cannot support a Direct Connect without PSC configuration. 3ViewRunner manages this Cisco 6100 Series system as a 2.2.1 release. ViewRunner presents a feature set corresponding to the capabilities of the Cisco 6100 Series system release noted. When you open Chassis View, ViewRunner tells you that the feature set is not recognized and that a default feature set is being used. 4FCM update for 2.2.5 required. 5ViewRunner manages this Cisco 6100 Series system as a 2.2.0 release. ViewRunner presents a feature set corresponding to the capabilities of the Cisco 6100 Series system release noted. When you open Chassis View, ViewRunner tells you that the feature set is not recognized and that a default feature set is being used. 6ViewRunner manages this Cisco 6100 Series system as a 2.1.x release. ViewRunner presents a feature set corresponding to the capabilities of the Cisco 6100 Series system release noted. When you open Chassis View, ViewRunner tells you that the feature set is not recognized and that a default feature set is being used.

Caution Saving the configuration of the Cisco 6100 Series system does not disrupt service. Restoring the Cisco 6100 configuration resets the system, causing a temporary loss of service.

12.2 Save Configuration NVRAM

Only Cisco 6100 Series systems loaded with Release 2.1 images or later can be saved and restored. The Cisco 6100 Series system does not need to be attended during the process. Software images and relationships to module hardware are also saved and restored. Therefore, a Restore Configuration Now menu choice restores the software release executing on the Cisco 6100 Series system. This choice restores the chassis, module, port, subscriber, pool, and service provisioning information at the time of save. That is, if you restore configuration data from a node to another node running a different software version, the restore will change that node's software version.

When saving a configuration, remember these rules:

• ViewRunner selects the correct file format for each SC module release version.

• Save Configuration command writes the SC module software version number (9000-000-01A, for example) into the file to identify the Management Information Base (MIB) content level of the file.

• If any errors occur during the save, ViewRunner ends the operation and generates this
  error message:

An error was encountered, check the ViewRunner Log View and try again.

Caution Do not edit the saved.NSS file. Cisco cannot be responsible for what may happen if you edit this file by hand. The wizard is designed to prevent mistakes and system outages.

To use the Save Configuration wizard to save NVRAM out to a file, follow the steps below:

Step 1 Select Save Configuration from the File menu on the ViewRunner toolbar (Figure 12-1). A directory windows opens.

Step 2 From within the open directory window, select the drive and folder where you want to save the configuration file. Do this by clicking the drop-down menu in the Save As field (Figure 12-2). The filename must have an .NSS extension.

Step 4 Read the Save Configuration dialog boxes carefully (Figure 12-3). Select Next to continue. A second Save Configuration dialog box opens (Figure 12-4).

Step 5 Select Next for the system to rediscover the SC image, or if you are sure you want to skip this step, check the Skip re-discovery box (Figure 12-4) and then select Next.

The next two dialog boxes (Figure 12-5 and Figure 12-6) show the configuration save progress with a warning against altering the saved file.

Warning If you edit the file, you risk corrupting the configuration.

Step 7 A message appears at the bottom of the fourth dialog box (Figure 12-7) telling you that the saving process is complete. Click Finish.

12.3 Restore Configuration (NVRAM)

ViewRunner restores software images and relationships to module hardware. Therefore, a restore configuration restores the software release executing on the Cisco 6100 Series system at the time of the save. A restore configuration also restores the chassis, module, port, subscriber, pool, and service provisioning information. That is, if you restore configuration data from one node to another node that is running a different software version, the restore changes that node's software version.

When saving a configuration, keep these rules in mind:

• The restore applies both the software images and the configurations contained in the saved .NSS file to a Cisco 6100 Series system. For this reason, the restore process can be used to restore a backup of a node to itself. You would do this to

  • Recover from a system failure of some kind.

  • Revert to an earlier configuration.

  • Apply a template Cisco 6100 Series system configuration to several Cisco 6100
    Series systems.

• Restoring a .NSS file to a Cisco 6100 Series system loaded with the same software images in the .NSS file does not result in software upgrades. In such an instance, only the Cisco 6100 Series system configurations are restored. This is always the case when you are saving a file from one node and restoring it to the same node, if no software downloads have been performed between the save and restore.

• If the .NSS file being restored contains images that differ from those stored on the SC module, new images must be retrieved from the TFTP IP address. ViewRunner retrieves new images using the TFTP path you enter in the Restore Configuration wizard (see Figure 12-11).

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Note If either the images or the TFTP server is unavailable, the restore operation fails.

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• If new images can be located, the restore operation either upgrades or downgrades the images in the Cisco 6100 Series system to match those in the .NSS file. If only some of the images in the .NSS file do not match the Cisco 6100 Series system images, only those images that differ are retrieved by TFTP and updated on the Cisco 6100 Series system.

• Since the operation restores the Cisco 6100 Series system images before restoring the configuration, there should not be SNMP errors. The SC image will be the same as the SC image present when the file was saved.

Caution Do not edit the saved .NSS file. The .NSS file contains the ViewRunner wizard. Cisco designed the ViewRunner wizard to prevent mistakes and system outages. Cisco is not responsible for what may happen if you edit this file.

To use the Restore Configuration wizard, follow these steps:

Step 1 Select Restore Configuration from the File menu on the ViewRunner toolbar. The Restore Configuration wizard restores the NVRAM with the configuration you saved to a file (Figure 12-8).

Step 2 Select the drive and folder where you saved the .NSS Configuration file using the drop-down menu in the Look In field on the File Open dialog box (Figure 12-9).

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Note The Restore wizard automatically restores any subtend information that was saved in the .NSS file. The subtend information is used by ViewRunner for OpenView.

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Step 3 Click Open. The first dialog box of the Restore Configuration wizard in ViewRunner follows (Figure 12-10).

Step 4 In the Image Location: For TFTP Transfer dialog box (Figure 12-11) you must select the local or remote TFTP server. The local server is the PC currently executing ViewRunner. In this case, ViewRunner uses its own TFTP server to transfer the files. The remote server is the TFTP server on the remote machine.

Step 5 Enter the IP address of the TFTP server you will use to get the new software images to restore to the node. If the IP address is different from the IP address of the PC where ViewRunner is installed, the default location for the images is c:\Program Files\Cisco.

Step 6 Select Next to continue. Figure 12-12 shows the Begin Restore dialog box.

Step 7 The next two dialog boxes, Figure 12-13 and Figure 12-14 show the progress of
the restore.

Step 8 Select Finish to automatically rediscover the Cisco 6100 Series. Figure 12-15 shows the Finish Restoration dialog box.

Posted: Mon Oct 4 14:20:06 PDT 1999
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