

The job of the warm reload feature is to allow you to reload your routers without having to read the IOS image from flash. Now, what about warm reload? How do you use warm reload in the Cisco IOS? It is amazing to be able to transfer a 45MB file to the router, have it installed, decompressed, and have the router reload, with only 45 seconds of downtime! From my test, that downtime was about 45 seconds. The router is only down for the very short time while the IOS image is overwritten with the new image. I was able to ping the router the whole time the image was being downloaded and decompressed. To reiterate, the reload warm file command allows the router to read and decompress the image while the router continues to process packets. The file that you are upgrading from could be any valid source that the router can access.Ĭlick here to see what the warm reload upgrade file looks like. This command actually has a number of options such as scheduling and creating a comment: reload ] mm | at hh:mm ] Next, I used the reload warm file command, like this: Within my Cisco IOS license, I downloaded IOS version 5.bin and made it available to download from the TFTP server on my PC. I started with a Cisco 2811 Router running IOS 12.4(3g). How to perform a warm upgrade in the Cisco IOS Without further delay, let's see how to use these powerful Cisco IOS features. Both of these Cisco IOS features - warm upgrade and warm reload - are there to minimize router downtime anytime you do a router upgrade or reboot. As network administrators, it is our job to minimize network downtime.

Routers are one of the most critical features of your network infrastructure. The warm reload feature of the Cisco IOS was offered in IOS version 12.3(2)T. The warm upgrade feature of the Cisco IOS was offered in Cisco IOS version 12.3(11)T. What are the warm upgrade and warm reload features? Here is how I performed a warm upgrade and warm reboot on a Cisco 2811 Router. By using these features, you can minimize downtime for your end users when you have to upgrade or reboot your router. I had read about the new Cisco IOS warm upgrade and warm reload features, and I took this opportunity to test them out. Recently, I wanted to upgrade my test router to the latest IOS.
