* Dr. Internet columnist Steve Blass offers tips for CD/DVD burning * Help Desk columnist Ron Nutter offers advice for upgrading the supervisor on a Cisco 6509 switch
* Tips for CD/DVD burning
By Steve Blass
Q: We’re looking for a CD/DVD duplicator with a printer. What would you recommend?
A: Two companies that come to mind are Primera and Rimage. Both provide duplicating units that include inkjet printers for labeling printable disks. Their systems work with computers running Windows. The duplicator connects to the computer via USB or FireWire, sometimes both, then the CD/DVD drives in the duplicator become visible — like any other external drive you might connect.
To read Steve’s response in its entirety, please click here.
* Upgrading the supervisor on a Cisco 6509 switch
By Ron Nutter, Network World
Q: We recently tried to upgrade our Cisco 6509 switch from a Sup1A to a Sup 2 supervisor engine. We would have liked to moved up to a newer Supervisor engine but a used Sup2 was all that we could afford. What was supposed to be an “easy” upgrade went from bad to worse. After powering down the switch and swapping out the supervisor engines, the prompt that came up didn’t look anything like the IOS prompt that we were used to with the Sup1A Supervisor engine. When we took another look, we noticed there wasn’t a flash card in the designated slot on the Sup2 engine. We took the card from the Sup1A and put it in the Sup2 and powered things up. The messages on the console screen appears to have been what I would term a continual reboot process. Is there something that we missed?
A: It sounds like you are fighting more than one problem. Start by checking with your Sup2 vendor to see what OS was installed on when it was shipped. It would appear that your Sup2 shipped with CatOS installed on it. You probably need a flash card with at least 64 MB on it so that you can run IOS as the onboard flash on the supervisor engine can have sufficient room to store the binary. Also check to make sure that your “new” supervisor engine is properly relicensed. So many places offer great pricing on used Cisco gear but at a hidden price – no proper relicensing. This lack of licensing can prevent you from getting proper support when you may most need it.
To read Ron’s response in its entirety, please click here.
