Tag Archives: 9513

Cisco – Restoring MDS configurations from somewhere else

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We recently had to replace a Cisco MDS 9124e in our lab. I used to use this method to copy and restore configuration files to MDS switches.

switch# copy tftp://192.168.0.20/switch.cfg startup-config
Trying to connect to tftp server......
Connection to server Established. Copying Started.....
|
TFTP get operation was successful
This command is deprecated. To obtain the same results, please use
the sequence 'write erase' + 'reload' + 'copy <file> running-config' + 'copy running-config startup-config'.

It was rough, but it used to work. So now I do this.

switch# copy tftp://192.168.0.20/switch.cfg bootflash:
Trying to connect to tftp server......
Connection to server Established. Copying Started.....
|
TFTP get operation was successful
switch# dir
      15155    Feb 05 21:37:37 2013  switch.cfg

write erase
reload
copy switch.cfg running-config
copy run start

It makes sense, as the write erase and reload commands make you think about what you’re doing, and you need to be sure that you want to overwrite the running or startup config.

Cisco MDS Scheduler with AAA

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This is probably very old news but it’s here more for my reference than anything else. A little while ago we introduced 2 new MDS 9513 switches into our core and needed to setup a simple scheduled backup task to copy the configs to a tftp server daily. For some reason I wasn’t able to create the job in the scheduler when I was logged in as a user that had authenticated against AAA. MDS9513(config)# scheduler enable MDS9513(config)# scheduler job name backup_config Error: AAA authentication password not configured (for logged in user) I may have the reason behind this arse-backwards, but it seems like I’ve probably never been able to do this. I think what I’ve been doing is setting up the configs on the switches and then adding them to ACS. I could be wrong about that too, but I’m really just interested in workarounds, not understanding the problem.

For some information on using the scheduler with a AAA user, have a look at this link on Cisco’s website.  So here’s how to give the AAA user privileges to configure scheduled tasks.

login as: username
User Access Verification
Using keyboard-interactive authentication.
Password:

Cisco Nexus Operating System (NX-OS) Software
TAC support: http://www.cisco.com/tac
Copyright (c) 2002-2009, Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
The copyrights to certain works contained in this software are
owned by other third parties and used and distributed under
license. Certain components of this software are licensed under
the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2.0 or the GNU
Lesser General Public License (LGPL) Version 2.1. A copy of each
such license is available at
http://www.opensource.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.php and
http://www.opensource.org/licenses/lgpl-2.1.php

MDS9513# conf t
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
MDS9513(config)# scheduler enable
MDS9513(config)# scheduler aaa-authentication user username password password
MDS9513(config)# scheduler job name backup_config
MDS9513(config-job)# copy running-config startup-config
MDS9513(config-job)# copy startup-config tftp://tftphost/Backup/MDS9513_cfg_$(TIMESTAMP).txt
MDS9513(config-job)# end
MDS9513# show scheduler job name backup_config

Job Name: backup_config
-----------------------
copy running-config startup-config
copy startup-config tftp://tftphost/Backup/MDS9513_cfg_$(TIMESTAMP).txt
==============================================================================
 

The problem with this is that you might prefer to use a service account to get this done. But perhaps you’re lazy and can’t be bothered asking for a service account. So if you’ve used your admin account you might want to remove it. Note that this *shouldn’t* have an impact on your scheduler configuration.

MDS9513# conf t
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
MDS9513(config)# no scheduler aaa-authentication username username password password
MDS9513(config)# end
MDS9513# show running-config | include "scheduler aaa-authentication"
MDS9513# show scheduler job name backup_config
Job Name: backup_config
-----------------------
copy running-config startup-config
copy startup-config tftp://tftphost/Backup/MDS9513_cfg_$(TIMESTAMP).txt
==============================================================================

MDS9513#

Cisco MDS blades are being returned …

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I was going to write a long and angsty post about how I think Cisco should be publicly villified for their continued publication of specs that don’t add up, but I’ll leave that to analysts who know more about such things than I do. I’m sure a lot of our issues arise from the fact that our procurement guy asks the vendor for a number of ports and then buys them, rather than checking with the technical guys. Suffice to say that we’re sending 4 48-port blades back because, well, if we wanted to run the ports at 4Gbps we’d have to disable 24 of the 48 ports. Hey Cisco, 2005 called and they want their shitty bandwidth back. I’m sure these blades are great for hosting providers who promise a lot and count on oversubscription to get by with less but it doesn’t work for us.

EMC – Silly things you can do with stress testing – Part 1

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I have a whole swag of things I want to talk about with regards to EMC CLARiiONs and stress testing with SQLIO. But the posts are still forming and I want to be sure that what I put on the internet is accurate (a novel concept, I know) before I publish them. But what I can show you is the performance of our 4Gbps FC ports when running a particular read test on EFDs. In this instance you can see how, conceivably, the 8Gbps FC fabric becomes useful. At least for benchmarking.

Cisco – Generate ssh key with SAN-OS from the console

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We had a situation a few weeks ago where we needed to stand up some HP / Cisco 9124e switches in a hurry. Unfortunately our data centre people initialized the switches and weren’t available to tell us what point they’d gotten to. We could see the switches in Fabric Manager and Device Manager, but for some reason we couldn’t ssh to the devices. And for some other reason we couldn’t generate a key to use with the switches. SAN-OS version is 3.3(4a). So here’s what we did to generate keys on the console (accessed via the HP Onboard Administrator on the blade chassis).

login as: admin

 

—————————————————————————–

WARNING: This is a private system.  Do not attempt to login unless you are an

authorized user.  Any authorized or unauthorized access and use may be moni-

tored and can result in criminal or civil prosecution under applicable law.

—————————————————————————–

Firmware Version: 3.21

Built: 11/15/2010 @ 09:59

OA Bay Number:  1

OA Role:       Active

admin@256.256.256.256’s password:

 

 

 

 

 

 

HP BladeSystem Onboard Administrator

(C) Copyright 2006-2010 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

 

 

Type ‘HELP’ to display a list of valid commands.

Type ‘HELP <command>’ to display detailed information about a specific command.

Type ‘HELP HELP’ to display more detailed information about the help system.

 

 

CHASSIS-OA1> connect interconnect 3

 

NOTICE: This pass-thru connection to the integrated I/O console

is provided for convenience and does not supply additional access

control.  For security reasons, use the password features of the

integrated switch.

 

Connecting to integrated switch 3 at 9600,N81…

Escape character is ‘<Ctrl>_’ (Control + Shift + Underscore)

 

Press [Enter] to display the switch console:

 

User Access Verification

switch1 login: admin

Password:

Cisco Storage Area Networking Operating System (SAN-OS) Software

TAC support: http://www.cisco.com/tac

Copyright (c) 2002-2009, Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

The copyrights to certain works contained herein are owned by

other third parties and are used and distributed under license.

Some parts of this software may be covered under the GNU Public

License or the GNU Lesser General Public License. A copy of

each such license is available at

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html and

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl.html

switch1# sh ssh key

**************************************

could not retrieve rsa key information

**************************************

could not retrieve dsa key information

**************************************

no ssh keys present. you will have to generate them

**************************************

switch1# conf t

Enter configuration commands, one per line.  End with CNTL/Z.

switch1(config)# ssh key rsa 1024

generating rsa key(1024 bits)…..

.

generated rsa key

switch1(config)# exit

switch1# copy run start

And then it was all better.

Updated articles page

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I’ve added another document to my articles page. This one covers the creation of port-channels between Cisco MDS 9513 switches. I was clueless about a lot of this until a friend from EMC took me through the steps. So I’ve created this document as a way to capture those steps for future reference. Hopefully you’ll find it of use.

Cisco MDS 9XXX Basics – Part 4

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Creating port-channels between Core – Edge … I had this blog post in my drafts section for a week, and then Scott Lowe – bless his cotton socks – beat me to it with a typically well-written post on ostensibly the same topic. So I’ll point you to his post, because it gets the idea across in a coherent fashion. I’ll make an effort, however, to get some more interesting switch config articles about before the Christmas break.

My SAN-OS skills are wack

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I was making some port-channels between one of our MDS 9513 director switches and a 9124e edge and managed to add the interfaces to the wrong port-channel. Here’re the basic steps on the 9124e end that I took to rectify the issue. I’ve created a pdf file which, while inconvenient, solves the problems related to both my wordpress skills and the age of the theme I use. That is, a 4 page doc was going to look pretty ugly if I tried to insert it in-line. I apologise in advance for the inconvenience you will no doubt experience.

Cisco MDS 9XXX Basics – Part 3

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Once you’ve setup the basic config of your switches, it’s important to backup your configs somewhere not on the switch. There’s nothing worse than not having a backup of your current configs and having to start from scratch. Especially if you’ve just done 20+ zones the hard way. Not that I would know what that feels like.

The first thing to do is create a backup job that copies the running config to the startup config, and then copies the startup config to a tftp host.

conf t
scheduler enable
scheduler job name backup_config
copy running-config startup-config
copy startup-config tftp://tftphost/backup/insertswitchname_cfg_$(TIMESTAMP).txt
end

Once you’ve done that, check your handiwork to make sure you’ve not made any embarassing typos.

show scheduler job name backup_config

Now you probably want to schedule your backup job to run at some kind of frequency.

conf t
scheduler schedule name nightly_6pm
time daily 18:00
job name backup_config
end

Check your schedule is good with this command:

show scheduler schedule

Happy? Good, me too. Because I’ve already backed up my configs. And so should you.

copy running-config startup-config

Oh wait, I created a job but put some garbage in it and didn’t realise until I saved everything. No problem, Cisco likes to use no for when you want to get rid of things. So to delete the job you just created …

conf t
no scheduler job name backup_config
end

As I’ve said before, my knowledge of Cisco SAN-OS and NX-OS commands is rudimentary at best, but I found these ones useful.

Cisco MDS 9XXX Basics – Part 2

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Setting up ntp on your shiny, new Cisco MDS 9XXX switch is fairly simple. And important. Time man, it’s really important.

From a terminal session, issue the following commands:

conf t
ntp server 192.168.0.23 prefer
ntp server 192.168.0.45

end
copy running-config startup-config

And that’s it …