This is primarily directed at the Adtran folks and/or anyone who has had a similar problem where a TA900 loses its boot hint.
Scenario:
Customer has second generation TA924e which has been service for some time running R10.5.2. Unit is supplying PRI and analog lines from SIP trunk, not used for data. Customer called in this morning reporting all phones down, T1 lights red, box unresponsive. They tried power-cycling with no effect.
I programmed a spare unit from RANCID backup and swapped it out. Customer back in service.
Brought old unit back, on the bench it comes up in bootstrap# mode.
TA924e (4242924L1)
Executing bootstrap...
ram: 134217728 bytes of RAM detected.
Serial Number: CFG0610778
Bootstrap version: 14.05.00.SA, checksum: F343, Thu Jun 21 13:58:08 2007
vfs: NONVOL: 248 tracks, 128 sectors/track, 1024 bytes/sector.
eth0/1: initializing...
eth0/1: MAC address is 00:A0:C8:32:C9:26
bootstrap: Checking boot configuration...
bootstrap: Boot configuration not found.
bootstrap: Upload a new image using the 'copy' command
or specify the correct primary/backup images using the
'boot system flash <filename> <backup_filename>' command.
bootstrap: Error in boot configuration!!! Checking backup boot configuration.
bootstrap: Boot configuration not found.
bootstrap: Invalid boot configuration, entering bootstrap mode...
cli: starting user interface
Press '?' for help.
bootstrap#
bootstrap#sh ver
Boot ROM version 14.05.00.SA
Checksum: F343, built on: Thu Jun 21 13:58:08 2007
Copyright (c) 1999-2007, ADTRAN, Inc.
Platform: Total Access 924e, Part number 4242924L1
Serial number CFG0610778
Note that there isn't a boot hint.
bootstrap#sh flash
207599 exception-report-20140422214754
15367 startup-config
15401 startup-config.bak
13802545 T900E2A-R10-5-2-E.biz
14048895 bytes used, 17720160 available, 31769055 total
Exception report from last night so the unit crashed...
I tell it to boot from the image in flash:
bootstrap#boot system flash T900E2A-R10-5-2-E.biz
Primary image: NONVOL:/T900E2A-R10-5-2-E.biz
Backup image: none
bootstrap#boot
bootstrap: Primary image is 'NONVOL:/T900E2A-R10-5-2-E.biz'.
bootstrap: Booting 'NONVOL:/T900E2A-R10-5-2-E.biz'
bootstrap: Reading 13802545 bytes of code, stand by...
bootstrap: Inflating, stand by...
.............................................................
And all is now just fine. Power cycle unit, it is happy, boots consistently. But can I trust it, and what caused it to lose its boot configuration? Should I try to RMA the box? It's working fine now so probably not.
What is the exception report file? I haven't tried to download or open it, is this the type of thing that Adtran support would want to see, or can mere mortals decipher it? Is there a hardware issue and can I trust this unit?
Replying again to my own post. Adtran support says that this is rare, usually caused by a voltage spike on either power or T1 lines. Per their advice I am going to erase flash and reload the AOS from TFTP. If trouble recurs it is likely defective flash memory but it has been fine on the bench so I'll consider it resolved. Still lots of time left on the fantastic 10-year warranty!
Replying to my own post...
Exception report file is plain text - 200KB of a dump of just about everything, logs, configs, etc.
Opened case with Adtran, waiting resolution.
Replying again to my own post. Adtran support says that this is rare, usually caused by a voltage spike on either power or T1 lines. Per their advice I am going to erase flash and reload the AOS from TFTP. If trouble recurs it is likely defective flash memory but it has been fine on the bench so I'll consider it resolved. Still lots of time left on the fantastic 10-year warranty!