Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Cisco TFTP new IOS – ARP timed out

I kept trying TFTP IOS and couldn’t get around ARP time outs. I was not using a crossover cable. But instead used the existing switching network. I tried changing FE_SPEED_MODE to see if it was a link speed issue. But the issue continued.

 

ARP: address resolution for 192.168.1.13 timed out.
ARP failed with failure code 1.  TFTP transfer aborted.

Besides switching to a crossover cable the only option i had left was to increase the number of ARP tries.

rommon 23 > TFTP_RETRY_COUNT=20

rommon 24 > TFTP_VERBOSE=2

I tried the TFTPDNLD command one more time and got a ARP response. As it turns out that the gear and the options took ARP 11 tries to get a response. Not sure why it was taking so long but by increasing the TFTP_RETRY_COUNT allowed ARP to finish.

Invoke this command for disaster recovery only.
WARNING: all existing data in all partitions on flash will be lost!
Do you wish to continue? y/n:  [n]:  y

Performing tftpdnld over Fast Enet.
Interface is operating at: 100Mbps/FULL DUPLEX
Initializing interface.
Interface link state down.
Interface link state up.
ARPing for 192.168.1.13
ARPing for 192.168.1.13
ARPing for 192.168.1.13.
ARPing for 192.168.1.13
ARPing for 192.168.1.13
ARPing for 192.168.1.13.
ARPing for 192.168.1.13
ARPing for 192.168.1.13.
ARPing for 192.168.1.13
ARPing for 192.168.1.13
ARPing for 192.168.1.13.
ARP reply for 192.168.1.13 received.  MAC address