The last job I had to do on a Friday afternoon was fit one of these.
ML350/370 G6 8 SMALL FORM FACTOR (SFF) 2ND DRIVE CAGE KIT
SKU 507803-B21
The client needed some more disks in their ESX Server, and its internal 8 bay drive cage was fully populated.
Solution
Problem 1
After powering down the server and removing the blanking plates from the front I carried the cage over to the server and IT WAS TOO BIG. Thankfully this is covered in the instructions (which of course I had not read!) The cage is for an ML370 and an ML350 Server. If you are fitting it in an ML350 you need to REMOVE the inner cage and discard the outer cage.
Note: There are 4x torx screws, two on each side (as indicated below), that allow you to release the inner cage.
Problem 2 (Where’s the Power Socket!)
Once the cage was fitted, and I’d installed the SAS card (a P400) that was going to control it, the instructions simply tell you to connect the power lead. Connecting one end to the new cage is easy, it’s obvious where it goes, but there is NO INDICATION where the other end connects to the server. I took the server out of the rack for a better look. The motherboard diagram on the lid of the server was no help either. The factory fitted drive cage’s power lead disappeared through a hole to the ‘void’ under the motherboard. So after getting a second opinion from a colleague (cheers Andy!) the motherboard was removed, and hey presto!
It is impossible to connect this power lead without removing the motherboard tray (sorry). You will see there are two power sockets (I don’t know why, as the 350 only supports 2 cages) the factory fitted one and an additional one. The ML 370 supports 3 cages so maybe they use the same board? There was no indication which one to use so we picked the one closest to the rear of the server (and it worked).
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However if you have a spare one lying around and you want to have a play, you CAN get it to version 7.1(2).
Note: It is possible to run the 8.0(2) version of the PIXOS on a 506E, Howerver you need to decompress the image and make some changes to it before it will work (usung lzma.exe). I could not find any decent details on how to do this, and I’m not really a code jockey. If anyone would like to document that and send me the details, I’ll publish it here.
Solution
Memory For the PIX 506E
Your first task is to get some more memory in the firewall. There are two slots on the board and only one will be populated with a 32MB PC133 chip. You need to be at AT LEAST 64MB to attempt this upgrade.
Opening the PIX 506E Chassis
What memory Do I need to find? Any PC133 will work, the memory in the firewall is non ECC, so if you locate some ECC memory you will need to replace the on board memory. Because it will not boot if you mix them (I know I tried). It’s not fussy if you use ECC or non ECC, as long as you don’t mix them. (Note: A lot of the ECC memory I found that worked, was ex server RAM, and it was fine, but the chips were “too tall” to get the lid back on the firewall afterwards.)
Can I use PC100? Yes! And you can mix PC100 and PC133, and the firewall will still boot (This is what I did).
Perform the Upgrade
1. Connect to the firewall via console cable, just to prove it’s still version 6, issue a show version command, Note the RAM and version number;
Important: At this point take a copy of the firewall Activation Key! [box]
Petes-PIX> en
Password:
Petes-PIX# show version
Cisco PIX Firewall Version 6.3(5)
Cisco PIX Device Manager Version 3.0(4)
Compiled on Thu 04-Aug-05 21:40 by morlee
Petes-PIX up 1 min 5 secs
Hardware: PIX-506E, 64 MB RAM, CPU Pentium II 300 MHz
Flash E28F640J3 @ 0x300, 8MB
BIOS Flash AM29F400B @ 0xfffd8000, 32KB
Output removed for the sake of space!
Serial Number: 810412141 (0x304de999)
Running Activation Key: 0x2d796132 0x68c660cd 0x334cac62 0xcaeddaaa
Configuration has not been modified since last system restart.
Petes-Pix#
[/box]
2. Before continuing make sure you have the 7.1(2) version of the PIX Operating system, and you have a TFTP Server set up ready to send you that file. The new OS needs so much flash memory you WILL NOT be able to run the ASDM*. First erase all files from the flash memory and reboot.
*You could try running th ASDM form your TFTP Server. [box]
3. Press Esc as the firewall boots to boot into ROMMON mode. Then set it to load its operating system from your TFTP server (here running on my laptop at 172.16.254.207). [box]
Use BREAK or ESC to interrupt flash boot.
PRESS ESC
Use SPACE to begin flash boot immediately.
Flash boot in 10 second.
Flash boot interrupted.
0: i8255X @ PCI(bus:0 dev:14 irq:10)
1: i8255X @ PCI(bus:0 dev:13 irq:11)
Using 1: i82557 @ PCI(bus:0 dev:13 irq:11), MAC: 0019.aabe.d624
Use ? for help.
monitor> address 172.16.254.240
address 172.16.254.240
monitor> server 172.16.254.207
server 172.16.254.207
monitor> file pix712.bin
file pix712.bin
monitor> tftp
tftp pix712.bin@172.16.254.207 .......................................
......................................................................
.........................................................
Received 6764544 bytes
Cisco PIX admin loader (3.0) #0: Tue Mar 14 16:46:07 PST 2006
#####################################################
#####################################################
#####################################################
#####################################################
#####################################################
64MB RAM
Total NICs found: 2
mcwa i82559 Ethernet at irq 11 MAC: 0019.aabe.d624
mcwa i82559 Ethernet at irq 10 MAC: 0019.aabe.d623
BIOS Flash=am29f400b @ 0xd8000
Old file system detected. Attempting to save data in flash
Flash filesystem is corrupted (0x0).
Could not save data in flash.
Initializing flashfs...
flashfs[7]: Checking block 0...block number was (-2131)
Output removed for the sake of space!
flashfs[7]: Checking block 61...block number was (0)
flashfs[7]: erasing block 61...done.
flashfs[7]: 0 files, 1 directories
flashfs[7]: 0 orphaned files, 0 orphaned directories
flashfs[7]: Total bytes: 7870464
flashfs[7]: Bytes used: 1024
flashfs[7]: Bytes available: 7869440
flashfs[7]: flashfs fsck took 52 seconds.
flashfs[7]: Initialization complete.
Need to burn loader....
Erasing sector 0...[OK]
Burning sector 0...[OK]
INFO: Unable to read firewall mode from flash
Cisco PIX Security Appliance Software Version 7.1(2)
Copyright (c) 1996-2006 by Cisco Systems, Inc.
[/box]
4. Now the operating system is in memory but if you rebooted the firewall it would not work, you need to configure the IP address, some basic settings, and copy the new OS to the firewall permanently. [box]
pixfirewall> enable
Password:
pixfirewall# show flash
Directory of flash:/
No files in directory
7870464 bytes total (7868416 bytes free)
pixfirewall# configure terminal
pixfirewall(config)# int Ethernet1
pixfirewall(config-if)# ip address 172.16.254.240 255.255.255.0
pixfirewall(config-if)# nameif inside
INFO: Security level for "inside" set to 100 by default.
pixfirewall(config-if)# no shutdown
pixfirewall(config-if)# exit
pixfirewall(config)# global (outside) 1 interface
INFO: outside interface address added to PAT pool
pixfirewall(config)# nat (inside) 1 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0
pixfirewall(config)# ping 172.16.254.207
Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 172.16.254.207, timeout is 2 seconds:
!!!!!
Success rate is 100 percent (5/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 1/36/180 ms
pixfirewall(config)# copy tftp://172.16.254.207/pix712.bin flash
Address or name of remote host [172.16.254.207]?
Source filename [pix712.bin]?
Destination filename [pix712.bin]?
Accessing tftp://172.16.254.207/pix712.bin...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Writing file flash:/pix712.bin...
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
6764544 bytes copied in 64.950 secs (105696 bytes/sec)
pixfirewall(config)# show flash
Directory of flash:/
5 -rw- 6764544 11:37:32 Feb 08 2013 pix712.bin
7870464 bytes total (1103872 bytes free)
[/box]
5. Change the firewall so that it uses this file to boot from, save the changes, and then reboot. [box]
pixfirewall(config)# boot system pix712.bin
INFO: Converting pix712.bin to flash:/pix712.bin
pixfirewall(config)# write mem
Building configuration...
Cryptochecksum: f59a9bd3 3129b8bc 474b2415 52f2db0f
1049 bytes copied in 0.430 secs
[OK]
pixfirewall(config)# reload
Proceed with reload? [confirm]
--- START GRACEFUL SHUTDOWN ---
Shutting down isakmp
Shutting down File system
--- SHUTDOWN NOW ---
Rebooting....
[/box]
6. Post reboot you should be upgraded. [box]
pixfirewall> enable
Password:
pixfirewall# show version
Cisco PIX Security Appliance Software Version 7.1(2)
Compiled on Tue 14-Mar-06 17:00 by dalecki
System image file is "flash:/pix712.bin"
Config file at boot was "startup-config"
pixfirewall up 10 secs
Hardware: PIX-506E, 64 MB RAM, CPU Pentium II 300 MHz
Flash E28F640J3 @ 0xfff00000, 8MB
BIOS Flash AM29F400B @ 0xfffd8000, 32KB
0: Ext: Ethernet0 : address is 0019.aabe.d623, irq 10
1: Ext: Ethernet1 : address is 0019.aabe.d624, irq 11
The Running Activation Key is not valid, using default settings:
Licensed features for this platform:
Maximum Physical Interfaces : 2
Maximum VLANs : 2
Inside Hosts : Unlimited
Failover : Not supported
VPN-DES : Disabled
VPN-3DES-AES : Disabled
Cut-through Proxy : Enabled
Guards : Enabled
URL Filtering : Enabled
Security Contexts : 0
GTP/GPRS : Disabled
pixfirewall#
[/box]
6. Finally add the original activation key you took note of in step one back into the firewall. [box]
pixfirewall# configure terminal
pixfirewall#(config)# activation-key 0x2d796132 0x68c660cd 0x334cac62 0xcaeddaaa
pixfirewall(config)# write mem
Building configuration...
Cryptochecksum: f59a9bd3 3129b8bc 474b2415 52f2db0f
1049 bytes copied in 0.430 secs
[OK]
pixfirewall(config)#
[/box]
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