CX-UA Firmware

Upgrade Procedure
 Update Procedure
• All updates are done via IP.
• The upgrade command is used to enter firmware management mode
and manage firmware versions on the device.
• The CX-UA has two flash memory sections drives and can hold two
versions of firmware. They are called active and alternate.
• A new firmware version is always first loaded into the alternate
memory.
• Activating new firmware is done by exchanging active with alternate
pointers and rebooting the unit.
• The firmware is updated by instructing the unit to fetch a new version
from an HTTP file server.
• HFS is a small free HTTP File Server for Windows systems. Visit
http://www.rejetto.com/hfs/ for more information on HFS.

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 Set up HFS
• HFS is a single executable file. No need to install, just download, run
and it's up & ready.
• After it’s launched, a main window appears and a small icon is added
to the system tray. The main window shows:
– The available files in the ‘Virtual File System’ section
– A log of the file transfer, in the ‘Log’ section
– A list of current connections in the bottom section.

• Since PC’s often have multiple IP addresses, it is important to first

check which interface is selected by HFS.
– To verify the interface used by HFS, press either the <ALT> key, or F10, or the “Menu”
button at the top left corner, the select “IP address” from the list (see next slide).

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 Set up HFS

• Make sure the IP address at the top (ex: http://10.80.127.75:8080/) is

the one that you will be using for the firmware download. To change the
IP address, select Menu->IP Address and select the correct address.

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 Verify Connectivity
• Verify that your PC is able to reach the target CX-UA unit by executing
a ping command within a CMD shell (see example below).

• Verify that the target CX-UA unit is able to reach the HFS by executing
a ping command within Tera Term to your PC HFS IP address (see
example below).

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 Adjust CX-UA IP Address
• If your PC is not able to reach the target CX-UA, then it is very likely
that you will need to adjust the target CX-UA IP address.
• A communication software client for Windows PC is required to interact
with the CX-UA. Tera Term is free and available at
http://logmett.com/index.php?/products/teraterm.html
• Connections can be made via Serial COM port or via IP.
– Since you do not currently have IP access, set Tera Term for Serial COM port access.

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 Adjust CX-UA IP Address
• If using the Serial COM port method, adjust the serial port baud rate to
115200 to match the CX-UA console port. This is done as follows:
• Pull down the “Setup” menu and the “Tera Term: Serial port setup” menu
will pop up.
• Pull down the “Baud rate” menu and select 115200, then select “OK”.
• Press <CR> until the CX-UA unit responds, then log in.

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 Adjust CX-UA IP Address
• Log into the target CX-UA unit and enter the following sequence of
commands to configure its management IP address (see next slide).
• configure
• 2 (to create a new configuration from the current running one)
• ip mgt (the interface we will be configuring)
• address <ip address> (10.80.127.73 in our example)
• apply <CR> yes (to save the configuration)
• end (to exit configuration mode)
• show ip (to verify that it matches what we configured)
• advanced (to enter the unit’s advanced mode)
• reboot (to reboot the unit)

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Adjust CX-UA IP Address

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 Adjust PC Firewall
• If your target CX-UA is not able to reach HFS, then it is very likely that
you will need to adjust your PC’s firewall to allow pings and HFS
application communications. Alternatively, you can temporarily disable
your firewall (see below)

Use this setting to

temporarily enable
or disable your
firewall.

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 How to Update Firmware
• CX-UA firmware releases are made available as ZIP packages and
need to be extracted using software such as 7z available at
http://www.7-zip.org/
• Extract the firmware to a folder of your choice (such as
c:\memotec\firmware).
• Launch the HFS Web server (if not already done).
• Click on the folder of newly extracted firmware, drag it to the ‘Virtual
File system’ section and select ‘Real folder’ when prompted (see next
slide).
• The firmware is now ready to be accessed by the CX-UA.
• Type ‘Ctrl+S’ to preserve the HFS environment into a file. This allows
easy repeated access following exit and restart of the HFS server
software.
• Connect to the CX-UA with a client (Tera Term).

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 How to Update Firmware
• Preparing the http server

Extract

Drag

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 How to Update Firmware
• Type upgrade within Tera Term to enter upgrade mode.
• Type install and specify the new firmware filename by copying the
filename from HFS and pasting within Tera Term (see below and next
slide).
– You can use the right button on your mouse to copy into Tera Term.

Copy this link to your

Tera Term session.

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 How to Update Firmware

• You can add the “-option activate” syntax to the allow the unit to
automatically activate the firmware once the download process has
completed. The unit will be reboot as the final step of the activation
process.
– If you do not select “-option activate” at this time, you will have to manually activate the
firmware once the download process has completed (see further below in this
document)

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 How to Update Firmware
• Once the command has been entered, you will be prompted to proceed
(see below).

• Once you confirm, the download process will initiate (see below)

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 How to Update Firmware

• Type status periodically to check on update progress (see below).

– The firmware transfer time is short, but the process of flashing the
firmware is long, which is followed by a unit reboot (if you selected
the automatic “-option activate” option). Total time is around 18
minutes
• Type info to check on the firmware locations (see below).

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 How to Update Firmware

• Once the unit has completed the transfer and has rebooted, you
will be prompted to log into the target unit (see below).

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 How to Update Firmware
• Type show system to verify that your software has been correctly
loaded into the unit (see below).
– The new firmware will always be loaded into the flash bank (Flash Id) other than the
one it was running prior to the download. In the example below, the unit was running in
flash bank 2 prior to the download. At the time, flash bank 2 was the ‘Current’, while
flash bank 1 was the ‘Alternate’. Note the difference after the firmware download.

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 Activate Firmware
• If you did not select the “-option activate” at the time of installation, you
will have to manually activate the firmware once the download process
has completed.
• Type activate to activate and reboot the unit with the newly loaded
firmware (see below)

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 Copy Firmware
• Now that the firmware has been successfully loaded, proceed to load
the configuration file into the target CX-UA unit.
– Follow Memotec’s “CX-UA CLI Script Loading procedure” document.

• Once the configuration file has been loaded, you have the option to
copy the current firmware and configuration files to the alternate flash,
thus making both flash banks identical.
– This would be a security feature to ensure that in the unlikely chance that a flash bank
fails, the unit will be able to run the same firmware and configurations from the
alternate flash bank.

• To proceed with the copy, enter the following sequence of commands

into the CX-UA unit (see next slide steps).
• upgrade (to enter the unit’s upgrade mode)
• copy <CR> yes (to copy the ‘Current” flash contents to the
‘Alternate’ flash)

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Copy Firmware

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 Copy Firmware
• Type status to verify the copy progress.

• Once the upgrade completes enter the following command to exit the
unit’s upgrade mode and to verify that both flash banks are now
identical.
• end (to exit the unit’s upgrade mode)
• show system (to verify both flash banks are identical)

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Copy Firmware

Both flash banks

are now identical

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 Revert Firmware
• A revert is only used if you wish to have the unit run an older (previous)
firmware located in the ‘Alternate’ flash bank. Some restrictions apply,
as outlined below.
• First, we must check if a revert is possible.
– If the new firmware has changed the FPGA organization, a revert is NOT possible
without doing a full re-load of the previous firmware.

• A simple rule is used to check if revert is possible:

– Date stamp of FPGA (as displayed by show system) must be older or equal to the
date stamp of the firmware to revert to (also displayed by show system).

• If rule allows (see next slide), type revert to reboot the unit with a the
previous firmware.

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Revert Firmware

Date stamp of FPGA must be

older or equal to the date stamp
of the firmware to revert to

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