Converting a Cisco 6248 FI to a Nexus 5548

[oddball]

I love the hacker ethos of this forum, so I'm back with a new idea..

On eBay a Nexus 5548, which is a currently supported switch sells for $600-1000. BUT, a Cisco 6248, which is a fabric interconnect in the exact same hardware (but painted green) sells for $200 (or less).

Inspired by this thread on reddit I'm wondering if the same thing is possible with a 6248. For those too lazy to click through, the redditor formatted their 6120xp (the pre-cursor to the 6248) flash and loaded the nexus firmware.

I have two 6248's that I'm setting up for a chassis, but I have a "spare" on order. I purchased the spare for $60, and am open to experimentation.

I think the 6248 is a better platform to upgrade because of the integrated USB port. On the 6120xp you have to tftp the firmware over. On this you can just copy it via USB.

The 6120xp has a Xeon with 2GB of RAM, the 6248 is an upgrade, but I can't find hardware details. I'd presume a better processor and more ram.

It also looks like the Nexus 5548 platform supports the latest NX-OS release, which like Arista is Linux with a switch later on top.

So... I am willing to mess around with this spare of mine. We don't need it right now, and if I can save off the firmware I think I can always revert it to a fabric interconnect. Which means it might be worth trying to switch to a Nexus.

Does anyone have experience with this? I have access to the FI firmware and UCS firmware, but not Nexus. Specifically I'd need the actual bin files for the kickstart and system files.

Has anyone tried this? I have two 6120xp's sitting in my garage (and listed on eBay) that could be flashed as well, but they're EOL, so I think they only go to NX-OS 5 (possibly 7?).

I'm happy to hack on these things. The boxes are loud, and drink power, but I have a colo and power is free, so out of sight out of mind...this seems like a worthy experiment. I might even spray paint the box if I can get it flashed!

 

[oddball]

Some hardware specs: http://images10.newegg.com/UploadFi...lligence/Cisco/qa_c67_6186051400321443745.pdf

 

[oddball]

After doing a ton of digging I found:

1) My Cisco account includes Nexus downloads, so I'm good to go on firmware. It appears 7.0 is the recommended latest version, although 8 is possible if I go to 7 first.
2) The 6248 has a USB port, but it's unusable and unreadable on the custom NX-OS firmware.

I'm going to try to scp the firmware over, then do a ctrl-shift-r at the boot loader and load the kickstart package, then load the nexus system package.

 

[bndabbs]

Did you have any luck with this? I am looking into doing the same thing.

 

[oddball]

So.... I had a slight delay in plans. Turns out my $60 FI has 28 ports licensed. I need to swap it with a FI that only has 12 licensed. Or primary has 20 licensed, so this was sort of a lucky draw.

But, I've been playing with these a ton. To reset an admin password you have to escape to the boot loader, and from there you manually load each package. The Nexus software is the exact same as the UCS, there is a kickstart.bin and a system.bin.

I should have these swapped next week and then I'll start to experiment.

 

[Foldero]

So.... I had a slight delay in plans. Turns out my $60 FI has 28 ports licensed. I need to swap it with a FI that only has 12 licensed. Or primary has 20 licensed, so this was sort of a lucky draw.

But, I've been playing with these a ton. To reset an admin password you have to escape to the boot loader, and from there you manually load each package. The Nexus software is the exact same as the UCS, there is a kickstart.bin and a system.bin.

I should have these swapped next week and then I'll start to experiment.

Hi, I just found this years after you posted it. Did you every try this?

 

[StormX]

No. It doesn't work.
The 6248up uses a 32GB SATA flash module, which does not get properly detected by the N5k kickstart environment.

 

[StormX]

I have got 6248, replaced internal ssd with new 64gb one as recommended here and never got it running. Given instructions are wrong or incomplete.

 

[StormX]

Nexus Kickstarter image booted from tftp-server can not format or initialize system disk (32 gb sata ssd is used instead of compact-flash). I tried n5000 4.2.5, 5.0.3, 5.1.3, 5.2.1 kistrater images. And it never worked.

Seems like nexus kickstart-environment is looking for different variables and cannot work with sata disk used in 6248up

 

[openetwork]

Hi! cross-flashers.

Today I'm trying this. and, learned a few things.
The Cisco UCS 6248UP works almost as well as the Cisco Nexus 5548UP.

-tried
1.Open the box and take out the SSD.
2.Clean SSD (with diskpart)
3.Put SSD back in and boot with kickstart image for n5000 via tftp(n5000-uk9-kickstart.5.0.3.N1.1c.bin)
4.Run [init system] command
5.Transfer n5000 NX-OS image via scp (much faster than tftp )
6.Run [load bootflash:n5000-uk9.5.0.3.N1.1c.bin]

If you are lucky, the NX-OS of the excellent one will start up at this point in the operation.

I have tried these in addition, but so far it has not worked.

7.Upload the same version kickstart and nx-os image to bootflash:
(n5000-uk9-kickstart.5.0.3.N1.1c.bin/n5000-uk9.5.0.3.N1.1c.bin)
8.run [install all kick bootflash:n5000-uk9-kickstart.5.0.3.N1.1c.bin sys bootflash:n5000-uk9.5.0.3.N1.1c.bin force)

you can see correct bootup config (boot kickstart bootflash:/n5000-uk9-kickstart.7.3.7.N1.1b.bin/boot system bootflash:/n5000-uk9.7.3.7.N1.1b.bin)

However, when reboot, it does not start. and, you can see empty disk.

loader> dir
slot0:
lost+found


I'll try a few more, but any advice would be appreciated!

 

[StormX]

I replaced original ssd with a clean kingston ssd, booted from kickstart-5.0.3.1.1.1c.1c.bin and got an error saying it can not initialize disk.

I suppose that 5548's firmware looking for a eUSB disk the real 5538 have in another slot.

6248 does have that place on motherboard, but without connector. So i ordered necessary connector and got eUSB disk from some ASA device.

While waiting for connector to be delivered i put eUSB disk into real 5548 and installed 7.3.1 system fw without any issue.

As soon as connector arrives i will solder it in place and continue to experiment

 

[openetwork]

Hi there,

I think no need extra device such like eUSB.

In the loader mode,
booting from ucs kickstart image(ucs-6100-k9-kickstart.5.0.3.N2.4.13i.bin)
and copy nexus kickstart image to bootflash once,
you can see this


loader> dir
bootflash:
lost+found
n5000-uk9-kickstart.7.3.7.N1.1b.bin
n5000-uk9.7.3.7.N1.1b.bin
ucs-6100-k9-system.5.0.3.N2.4.13i.bin
.patch
ucs-6100-k9-kickstart.5.0.3.N2.4.13i.bin
ucs-2200.4.1.3i.bin
ucs-manager-k9.4.1.3j.bin
ucs-2100.2.2.2c.bin
ucs-2200.2.2.2c.bin
ucs-2200.3.2.3o.bin
ucs-6100-k9-kickstart.5.2.3.N2.2.22c.bin
ucs-6100-k9-system.5.2.3.N2.2.22c.bin
ucs-manager-k9.2.2.2c.bin
n5000-uk9-kickstart.4.1.3.N2.1.bin
slot0:



After doing so, you can boot with the image for Nexus and run the init system command.
It seems to be one more step.

 

[StormX]

The problem is that, once booted from Nexus's kickstart it does not initialize ssd disk correctly. If you have an empty disk after installation it means that installation obviously failed at some point.

 

[openetwork]

In my case, boot from nexus kickstart image, ssd can init correctly.
but, i think loader shows another partition. so you can see empty disk.

startup with nexus and copy image once (such like kickstart or nx-os core) , you can see the same file when booting with previous nexus kickstart file.

 

[openetwork]

Using the nexus image, we also experienced cases where disk initialization failed, but when the disk was cleard (with diskpart) , this problem did not occur.

 

[StormX]

You can remove ssd from switch and hook it up to any desktop with linuх, copy anything.
I guess nexus image looks for a disk in another slot which is empty.
I have successfully converted 6120 to 5010 but 6120 is factory shipped with eusb disk, not ssd.

 

[StormX]

I expect to get the connector in a few days. Will solder it and test again

 

[StormX]

In my case, boot from nexus kickstart image, ssd can init correctly.
but, i think loader shows another partition. so you can see empty disk.

startup with nexus and copy image once (such like kickstart or nx-os core) , you can see the same file when booting with previous nexus kickstart file.

Nexus firmware names disk as" bootflash:", where Ucs firmware - "workspace:"

 

[openetwork]

I expect to get the connector in a few days. Will solder it and test again

Was it successful?

 

[StormX]

Yes. You need a connector, eusb disk and some soldering experience.

It is up and running with 7.3.9 fw and n55-m16p module