Introduction
60
SmartWare Software Configuration Guide
5 • System image handling
Introduction
This chapter describes how to load, maintain, and update software images. The images are stored in persistent
(non-volatile) memory. The application image is the software which actually operates the SmartNode. Driver
images are used to operate optional PMC interface cards, if applicable.
This chapter includes the following sections:
•
Memory regions in Smartware
•
System image handling task list (see
page 62
)
•
Boot procedure and bootloader (see
page 67
)
SmartNode devices are shipped with system software which is stored in persistent memory. Along with the this
software, a factory configuration, factory-config, has been loaded into the SmartNode at the factory. This con-
figuration file sets the initial basic operating parameters and enables IP connectivity.
Memory regions in SmartWare
The SmartNode’s memory contains several logical regions and several physical regions as shown in
figure 8
on
page 62, each separate from the other.
Note
You will use a remote TFTP server for uploading and downloading the
application image, the driver images, and the various configuration files to
the SmartNode. The command syntax in SmartWare requires you to prefix
the file path on the TFTP server with tftp: followed by the absolute file path.
You need to start from the root directory of the TFTP server.
The three physical regions of memory are the remote tftp server’s memory, the Volatile memories, and the Per-
sistent memory. The remote tftp server has one logical region, tftp:, which can contain various configuration
files and batch files for system software upgrade/download. Within the SmartNode the Volatile physical region
contains one logical region, system:, which is random access memory (RAM). When no power is applied to the
SmartNode, the system: region contains no data, no configuration—nothing; it is volatile. The system: region
contains the current configuration of the unit, called running-config.
The third and last physical memory region is the Persistent portion. It has two logical regions called flash:
and nvram:.
•
The logical region flash: stores the application image, the driver images and the bootloader image. These
images are not lost when the SmartNode is powered off.
•
The logical region nvram: stores configuration files. The factory default configuration file is always present
in nvram:, and can be restored by pressing the reset button. For those models that do not have a reset but-
ton, use the
copy
command. The startup-config and user-specific configurations are also stored in nvram:.
The factory configuration is read-only. It is contained in the logical region nvram: of the SmartNode. It is
used—if no user-specific configuration is available—to start-up SmartWare with a minimal functionality. This
configuration is named factory-config in SmartWare terminology.
On powering up a SmartNode (or pressing the Reset button on applicable units) with no pre-configured user
configuration files, the default factory-config file is also the startup-config and the running-config. Upon changing