Cisco IOS Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Copying an IOS Image to a Server

Problem

You want to save a backup copy of your IOS image on a TFTP server.

Solution

You can upload a copy of your router’s IOS image to a TFTP server with the following set of commands:

Freebsd% touch /tftpboot/c2600-ik9o3s-mz.122-12a.bin
Freebsd% chmod 666 /tftpboot/c2600-ik9o3s-mz.122-12a.bin
Freebsd% telnet Router1
Trying 172.25.1.5...
Connected to Router1.
Escape character is '^]'.

User Access Verification

Password: <vtypassword>
 
Router1>enable
Password: <enablepassword>
Router1#copy flash:c2600-ik9o3s-mz.122-12a.bin  tftp
Address or name of remote host []? 172.25.1.1
Destination filename [c2600-ik9o3s-mz.122-12a.bin]? <enter>
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
11135588 bytes copied in 52.588 secs (211752 bytes/sec)
Router1#

Discussion

Before attempting to upgrade the IOS version of a router it’s a good idea to save a copy of the current IOS image. This way, if an upgrade fails or if you have problems with the new IOS version, you can revert back to the old proven IOS version. The procedure to copy an IOS image to a TFTP server is very similar to the way we backed up a configuration file in Recipe 1.2. The only real ...