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This chapter describes how to use and configure redundant supervisor engines. The Catalyst 5505, 5509, and 5500 switches support an optional redundant supervisor engine. The second supervisor engine takes over if the active supervisor engine fails.
This chapter consists of these sections:
When you install two supervisor engine modules in the Catalyst 5505, 5509, or 5500 switch, the first supervisor engine module to come online becomes the active module; the second supervisor engine module goes into standby mode. All administrative and network management functions, such as SNMP, CLI console, Telnet, Spanning-Tree Protocol (STP), Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP), and VLAN Trunk Protocol (VTP) are processed on the active supervisor engine module.
At power-up, both supervisor engine modules run initial module-level diagnostics. Assuming both modules pass this level of diagnostics, the two modules communicate over the backplane, allowing them to cooperate during switching-bus diagnostics. The supervisor in slot 1 becomes active, and the supervisor in slot 2 enters standby mode. At this point, if the software versions of the two supervisors are different, or if the NVRAM configuration of the two supervisors is different, the active supervisor engine automatically downloads its software image and configuration to the standby supervisor engine.
If the background diagnostics on the active supervisor engine detect a major problem or an exception occurs, the active supervisor engine resets. The standby supervisor engine detects that the active supervisor engine is no longer running and becomes active. The standby supervisor engine can detect if the active supervisor engine is not functioning and can force a reset, if necessary. If the reset supervisor engine comes online again, it enters standby mode.
If you hot-insert a second supervisor engine module, the second module communicates with the active supervisor engine after completing its initial module-level diagnostics. Because the active supervisor engine is already switching traffic on the backplane, no switching-bus diagnostics are run for the second supervisor engine because running diagnostics can disrupt normal traffic. The second supervisor engine immediately enters standby mode. The active supervisor engine downloads the software image and configuration to the standby supervisor engine, if necessary.
The Supervisor Engine III modules use two Flash images: the boot image and the runtime image. The boot image filename is specified in the BOOT environment variable, which is stored in NVRAM. The runtime image is the boot image that the ROM monitor uses to boot the Supervisor Engine III module. After the system boots, the runtime image resides in dynamic RAM (DRAM).
When you power up or reset a Catalyst 5000 series switch with redundant Supervisor Engine III modules, synchronization occurs to ensure that the runtime and boot images on the standby supervisor engine are the same as the images on the active supervisor engine.
The Supervisor Engine III modules can have different runtime and boot images. If the boot image and the runtime image are the same, and you change the BOOT environment variable or overwrite or destroy the current boot image on the Flash device that was used to boot the system, the runtime and boot images will differ. Whenever you reconfigure the boot image, the active supervisor engine synchronizes its current boot image with the standby supervisor engine.
Supervisor Engine II modules use 8-MB onboard Flash memory to store a single boot image, and only one boot image can be stored at a time. The Supervisor Engine III, III FSX, and III FLX modules do not have memory dedicated to storing the boot image. Instead, a Flash file system is implemented and the boot image is read directly into the file system. You can perform operations (such as copy, delete, undelete, and so on) on files stored on Flash memory devices, and you can store the boot image of the active supervisor engine in the standby supervisor engine boot Flash. For more information about using the Flash file system, see "Working With the Flash File System."
The Supervisor Engine III FSX and FLX models have only the onboard Flash memory (bootflash:). The Supervisor Engine III module has two Flash PC card (PCMCIA) slots (slot0: and slot1:) in addition to the onboard Flash memory; these slots can hold Flash PC cards that can store additional boot images.
Since you can store multiple boot images on the Supervisor Engine III, III FSX, and III FLX modules, you must specify the name of the boot file image and the location of the image file in the Flash file system in order to boot and synchronize properly. For information about how to specify the name and location of the boot image, see "Modifying the Switch Boot Configuration."
In the synchronization process, the active supervisor engine checks the standby supervisor engine runtime image to make sure it matches its own runtime image. The active supervisor engine checks three conditions:
The following section describes the conditions that can initiate Flash synchronization. For examples of how the system synchronizes the Supervisor Engine III (including the FSX and FLX models) Flash images with various configurations, see the "Supervisor Engine III Synchronization Examples" section.
These conditions initiate the synchronization of the runtime and boot images on the active and standby Supervisor Engine III modules:
Whether you can use the uplink ports on the standby supervisor engine depends on the software release running on the switch:
The following conditions and events can cause the synchronization of images between redundant Supervisor Engine III modules to fail or to produce unexpected results:
You can verify the status of the standby supervisor engine using a number of CLI commands.
To verify the status of the standby supervisor engine, perform one or more of these tasks:
| Task | Command |
|---|---|
| show module [mod_num] |
| show port [mod_num[/port_num]] |
| show test [mod_num] |
This example shows how to check the status of the standby supervisor engine using the show module command:
Console> (enable) show module Mod Module-Name Ports Module-Type Model Serial-Num Status --- ------------------- ----- --------------------- --------- --------- ------- 1 4 10/100BaseTX Supervis WS-X5530 009979082 ok 2 2 10/100BaseTX Supervis WS-X5530 007451586 standby 3 48 10BaseT Ethernet WS-X5012A 007879593 ok 4 1 Network Analysis/RMON WS-X5380 008175475 ok 5 1 Route Switch WS-X5302 007460757 ok 6 10BaseT Ethernet Ext 7 48 10BaseT Ethernet WS-X5014 007879658 ok 8 1 MM OC-3 ATM WS-X5155 003414855 ok 9 2 UTP OC-3 Dual-Phy ATM WS-X5156 007646048 ok 13 ASP/SRP Mod MAC-Address(es) Hw Fw Sw --- -------------------------------------- ------ ---------- ----------------- 1 00-e0-4f-ac-b0-00 to 00-e0-4f-ac-b3-ff 1.8 3.1.2 4.3(1a) 2 00-e0-4f-ac-b0-00 to 00-e0-4f-ac-b3-ff 1.3 3.1.2 4.3(1a) 3 00-10-7b-50-1b-00 to 00-10-7b-50-1b-2f 0.202 4.2(108) 4.3(1a) 4 00-e0-14-10-18-00 0.100 4.1.1 4.3(0.31) 5 00-e0-1e-91-d5-14 to 00-e0-1e-91-d5-15 5.0 20.7 11.3(3a)WA4(5) 7 00-10-7b-5d-30-40 to 00-10-7b-5d-30-6f 0.102 4.2(108) 4.3(1a) 8 00-e0-1e-a9-20-b9 1.2 1.3 3.2(7) 9 00-e0-1e-e5-07-27 2.1 1.3 3.2(6) Mod Sub-Type Sub-Model Sub-Serial Sub-Hw --- -------- --------- ---------- ------ 1 NFFC WS-F5521 0008936340 1.0 1 uplink WS-U5537 0007288247 2.0 2 NFFC WS-F5521 0011462777 1.1 2 uplink WS-U5531 0007464204 1.1 Console> (enable)
You can switch over to the standby supervisor engine module by resetting the active supervisor engine.
To force a switchover to the standby supervisor engine, perform this task in privileged mode:
| Task | Command |
|---|---|
Reset the active supervisor engine module (where mod_num is the number of the active supervisor). | reset mod_num |
You can also switch to the standby supervisor engine module by setting the CISCO-STACK-MIB moduleAction variable to reset(2) on the active supervisor engine module. When the switchover occurs, the system sends a standard SNMP warm-start trap to the configured trap receivers.
This example shows an example of the console output on the active supervisor when you force a switchover from the active to the standby supervisor engine:
Console> (enable) reset 1 This command will force a switch-over to the standby Supervisor module. Do you want to continue (y/n) [n]? y Console> (enable) 12/07/1998,17:04:39:SYS-5:Module 1 reset from Console// System Bootstrap, Version 3.1(2) Copyright (c) 1994-1997 by cisco Systems, Inc. System Bootstrap, Version 3.1(2) Copyright (c) 1994-1997 by cisco Systems, Inc. Presto processor with 32768 Kbytes of main memory Autoboot executing command: "boot bootflash:cat5000-sup3.4-3-1a.bin" CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC Uncompressing file: ########################################################### System Power On Diagnostics NVRAM Size .. .................512KB ID Prom Test ..................Passed DPRAM Size ....................16KB DPRAM Data 0x55 Test ..........Passed DPRAM Data 0xaa Test ..........Passed DPRAM Address Test ............Passed Clearing DPRAM ................Done System DRAM Memory Size .......32MB DRAM Data 0x55 Test ...........Passed DRAM Data 0xaa Test ...........Passed DRAM Address Test ............Passed Clearing DRAM .................Done EARLII ........................Present EARLII RAM Test ...............Passed EARL Serial Prom Test .........Passed Level2 Cache ..................Present Level2 Cache test..............Passed Boot image: bootflash:cat5000-sup3.4-3-1a.bin Downloading epld sram device please wait ... Programming successful for Altera 10K50 SRAM EPLD This module is now in standby mode. Console is disabled for standby supervisor
This example shows an example of the console output on the standby supervisor when you force a switchover from the active to the standby supervisor engine:
Cisco Systems Console Enter password: 12/07/1998,17:04:43:MLS-5:Multilayer switching is enabled 12/07/1998,17:04:43:MLS-5:Netflow Data Export disabled 12/07/1998,17:04:44:SYS-5:Module 2 is online 12/07/1998,17:04:45:SYS-5:Module 5 is online 12/07/1998,17:04:45:SYS-5:Module 7 is online 12/07/1998,17:04:45:SYS-5:Module 3 is online 12/07/1998,17:04:52:MLS-5:Route Processor 172.20.52.6 added 12/07/1998,17:05:10:SYS-5:Module 8 is online 12/07/1998,17:05:14:SYS-5:Module 9 is online 12/07/1998,17:05:22:SYS-5:Module 4 is online 12/07/1998,17:06:13:SYS-5:Module 1 is in standby mode Supervisor image synchronization process will start in 10 seconds 12/07/1998,17:06:37:SYS-5:Ports on standby supervisor(Module 1) are UP 12/07/1998,17:06:41:SYS-5:Active supervisor is synchronizing the NMP image. 12/07/1998,17:06:44:SYS-5:The active supervisor has synchronized the NMP image. Console>
In software release 4.3 and later, you can configure the uplink ports on the standby supervisor engine as active or inactive. This configuration is independent of other configuration commands such as set port enable and set port disable. By default, the uplink ports are inactive.
To configure the uplink ports on the standby supervisor engine as active, perform this task in privileged mode:
| Task | Command |
|---|---|
Step 1 Set the uplink ports on the standby supervisor engine to active. | set standbyports enable |
Step 2 Verify the configuration. | show standbyports |
This example shows how to set the uplink ports on the standby supervisor engine to active:
Console> (enable) set standbyports enable Standby ports feature enabled. Please wait while the standby ports are coming up.. Console> (enable) 12/07/1998,16:45:15:SYS-5:Ports on standby supervisor(Module 2) are UP Console> (enable)
To configure the uplink ports on the standby supervisor engine as inactive, perform this task in privileged mode:
| Task | Command |
|---|---|
Step 1 Set the uplink ports on the standby supervisor engine to inactive. | set standbyports disable |
Step 2 Verify the configuration. | show standbyports |
This example shows how to set the uplink ports on the standby supervisor engine to inactive:
Console> (enable) set standbyports disable Standby ports feature disabled. Console> (enable)
The following examples show what happens when the synchronization function encounters certain conditions. These examples apply to the Supervisor Engine III, III FSX, and III FLX models, unless otherwise noted. These examples are not intended to cover every possible condition.
This section contains four examples in which the active supervisor engine runtime image is synchronized with the standby supervisor engine.
The configuration for example 1 is as follows:
bootflash:f1
bootflash:f1,1
f1
The configuration for example 2 is as follows:
bootflash:f1
bootflash:f1,1
f1
bootflash:f2
bootflash:f2,1
f2
The configuration for example 3 is as follows:
bootflash:f1
bootflash:f1,1
f1
bootflash:f2
bootflash:f2,1
f1,f2
The configuration for example 4 is as follows:
bootflash:f1
bootflash:f1,1
f1
bootflash:f2
bootflash:f2,1;
f2, f3, f4 (less than 1 MB left on device)
This section contains four examples in which the bootstrings on the active and standby Supervisor Engine III modules are synchronized.
The configuration for this example is as follows:
bootflash:f1
bootflash:f1,1;
f1
bootflash:f1
bootflash:f1,1;
f1
The configuration for this example is as follows:
bootflash:f1
bootflash:f1,1;
f1,f2
bootflash:f1
bootflash:f1,1;
The configuration for this example is as follows:
bootflash:f1
bootflash:f1,1;
f1,f2
bootflash:f1
bootflash:f1,1;
f1,f2
The configuration for this example is as follows:
bootflash:f1
bootflash:f1,1;
f1,f2
bootflash:f1
bootflash:f1,1;
f0,f1,f3 (less than 1 MB left on device)
Posted: Tue Mar 30 16:01:41 PST 1999
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