[c-nsp] Re: cisco 7200 battery

[Eric Kagan]

> A while ago there was a brief discussion about the impact
> of a failing battery in the 7200 I/O board.   I've searched,
> but didn't find definitive conclusions.

Same here.  I then had a problem and could not find it again.


> 
> If that battery fails then would we expect anything
> unpleasant to happen if
> 
> a) the main power stays on?
> b) the box is power cycled? 
> 
> I'm guessing that the answer for a) is No,
> and for b) it is "you'ld lose anything stored in the file 
> system marked as 'nvram:' because it isn't really nvram it is 
> 'sram + battery'"
> 
> And so, with boxes that have been in operation for 5+ years, 
> our options are:
> 
> cheap: copy files from nvram: to slot0:, power down system,
> put in new battery, power up, copy files back where they 
> belong, reload.
> 
> expensive: use the NPE-G1 and discard the I/O boards.
> 
> Have I correctly grasped the situation?

Yes.  As long as power remains you are fine.  When it is cycled and the
battery on the IO is dead, you get dumped to ROMMON>
You need to go through confreg and reset boot variables and then it comes
back, load config, etc

Cisco claims the batteries last 10 years.  We have 10+ 7200 and have only
seen 1 of the batteries die.

Some of the IO have the battery soldered and you can actually replace it but
its not that easy !

Eric