Cisco Catalyst 3650 Recovery from switch: Prompt Using USB

[zemerdon]

non-booting

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flash_init
emergency-install usbflash0:/cat3k_caa-universalk9.16.12.14.SPA.bin

clean install firmware:

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format flash:
copy usbflash0:cat3k_caa-universalk9.16.12.14.SPA.bin flash:
software install file flash:/cat3k_caa-universalk9.16.12.14.SPA.bin new force

[zemerdon]

Cisco Catalyst 3650 Recovery from switch: Prompt Using USB

I first attempted recovery over TFTP.

Basic bootloader networking worked:

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mgmt_init
set IP_ADDR <switch-ip>/<subnet-mask>
ping <tftp-server>

and the switch could successfully reach the TFTP server.

I then tried:

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emergency-install tftp://<tftp-server>/cat3k_caa-universalk9.16.12.14.SPA.bin

The recovery environment started normally, but once it reached:

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### Launching Linux Kernel

the management Ethernet link physically dropped.

The recovery environment then timed out while trying to download the IOS-XE bundle.

After confirming the bootloader network itself was working, I gave up on TFTP and used a FAT32 USB stick instead.

The IOS-XE image was copied to the USB root as:

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firmware.bin

Then from the bootloader:

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dir usbflash0:
emergency-install usbflash0:firmware.bin

This worked successfully. The switch validated, installed and verified the IOS-XE packages, then rebooted normally.

Final result:

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IOS XE 16.12.14
Mode: INSTALL

Because the switch was now running in INSTALL mode, I also corrected the boot variable to:

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configure terminal
no boot system
boot system flash:packages.conf
end
write memory

Verification:

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show version
show boot
dir flash:

Flash should contain

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packages.conf

and the extracted

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.pkg

files.

Main takeaway:

If TFTP works from the 3650 bootloader but the management link drops when the emergency recovery Linux kernel launches, USB

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emergency-install

is a simple way around the problem.