Users can clear the memory and the partitions of an RP or a line card before an RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization). Clearing the memory and partitions of the card is performed when the card is defective and has to be returned.

When a line card or an RP is identified for an RMA, the user might want to remove the card from the chassis. However, the service personnel may not be available onsite to remove the card immediately. By clearing the memory and partitions of the card, the users can clear the RP or the line card and power-off the card and also let it remain in the slot.

After clearing the memory, do not reload the card or the chassis until the card is removed from the slot. This is because reloading will reboot the card or the chassis resulting in restoring the data that was erased.

In a dual RP system, the reset of the standby RP must be executed from the active RP. Once the standby RP has been cleaned, the standby RP will be shut down to prevent resync with the active RP.

Prerequisites

XR VM and the System Admin VM must be operational.

Note	Do not perform an admin process restart, card reload, or an FPD upgrade while clearing the memory and partitions of the card.

Commands

Run the following commands from the XR VM to clear the memory and the partitions of the card:

• show zapdisk locations- displays the locations where the memory and the partition can be cleared.

• zapdisk start location <location-id> - clears the memory and the partition from the specified location.

The following steps explain how to clear the memory or the partition of the card:

1. Display the Locations to Clear the Memory - Use the show zapdisk locations command to display the locations to be cleared.

   The following example shows how to display the location:

   <! Display the Locations to Clear the Memory !>
   
   Router# show zapdisk locations
   0/RP1      Fully qualified location specification
   0/2        Fully qualified location specification
   0/6        Fully qualified location specification
   all        all locations
   
   Router#conf t
   Router(config)#logging console disable 
   Router(config)#commit 
   Router(config)#end
                 

2. Clear the Memory or Partition - Use the zapdisk start location command to clear the memory or partition.

   The following example shows how to clear the memory or partition:

   <! Clear the Memory or Partition !>
   
   Router#zapdisk start location 0/2
   Action on designated location is in progress, please monitor admin syslog.
   Action on designated location is in progress, please monitor admin syslog.
   
   Router#zapdisk start location 0/6
   Action on designated location is in progress, please monitor admin syslog.
   Action on designated location is in progress, please monitor admin syslog.
   
   Router#zapdisk start location 0/RP1
   Action on designated location is in progress, please monitor admin syslog.
   Action on designated location is in progress, please monitor admin syslog.
   

3. Verify that the memory and the partition is cleared - Use show logging, show platform, show controller card, and show reboot-history card location commands to verify if the memory and partitions are cleared.

   The following example shows how to verify if the memory and partitions are successfully cleared:

   
   <!Verification!>
   
   sysadmin-vm:0_RP0# show controller card-mgr event-history brief location 0/2
   
   Card Event History for: 0/2
     
   Card Event History as seen by Master (0/RP0)
     Current State: ZAPDISK_POWERED_ON
   
     DATE   TIME (UTC)    STATE                   EVENT                           
     -----  ------------  ----------------------  ------------------------------
     03/04  22:26:13.400  ZAPDISK_RESET           ev_dm1_power_up_ok              
     03/04  22:26:02.630  SYSADMIN_VM_GOING_DOWN  ev_zapdisk_req                  
     03/04  22:25:46.660  CARD_READY              ev_sysadmin_vm_shutdown         
     03/04  21:58:14.842  OIR_INSERT_NOTIF        if_card_local_init_done         
     03/04  21:58:14.841  WAIT_CARD_INFO          ev_card_info_synced             
     03/04  21:57:57.219  WAIT_SYSADMIN_VM_READY  ev_sysadmin_vm_booted           
     03/04  21:57:45.305  HOST_OS_RUNNING         ev_sysadmin_vm_started          
     03/04  21:57:24.371  BOOTLDR_STARTED         ev_host_os_started              
     03/04  21:56:04.619  CARD_POWERED_ON         ev_bootldr_started              
     03/04  21:55:58.212  CARD_IN_RESET           ev_dm1_power_up_ok              
     03/04  21:55:45.397  IMAGE_INSTALLED         ev_ios_install_reset            
     03/04  21:55:44.896  INSTALLING_IMAGE        ev_ios_install_done             
     03/04  21:54:53.045  WAIT_FIRST_EVENT        ev_ios_install_started          
     03/04  21:54:53.043  IDLE                    ev_present                      
   
   sysadmin-vm:0_RP0# show controller card-mgr event-history brief location 0/6
   Card Event History for: 0/6
     
   Card Event History as seen by Master (0/RP0)
     Current State: ZAPDISK_POWERED_ON
   
     DATE   TIME (UTC)    STATE                   EVENT                           
     -----  ------------  ----------------------  ------------------------------
     03/04  22:26:14.309  ZAPDISK_RESET           ev_dm1_power_up_ok              
     03/04  22:26:03.722  SYSADMIN_VM_GOING_DOWN  ev_zapdisk_req                  
     03/04  22:25:49.563  CARD_READY              ev_sysadmin_vm_shutdown         
     03/04  22:00:32.071  OIR_INSERT_NOTIF        if_card_local_init_done         
     03/04  22:00:32.070  WAIT_CARD_INFO          ev_card_info_synced             
     03/04  22:00:10.314  WAIT_SYSADMIN_VM_READY  ev_sysadmin_vm_booted           
     03/04  21:59:57.999  HOST_OS_RUNNING         ev_sysadmin_vm_started          
     03/04  21:59:35.271  BOOTLDR_STARTED         ev_host_os_started              
     03/04  21:58:18.244  CARD_POWERED_ON         ev_bootldr_started              
     03/04  21:58:11.836  CARD_IN_RESET           ev_dm1_power_up_ok              
     03/04  21:57:59.122  IMAGE_INSTALLED         ev_ios_install_reset            
     03/04  21:57:58.521  INSTALLING_IMAGE        ev_ios_install_done             
     03/04  21:54:53.045  WAIT_FIRST_EVENT        ev_ios_install_started          
     03/04  21:54:53.043  IDLE                    ev_present                      
   
   Aborted: by user
   sysadmin-vm:0_RP0# show controller card-mgr event-history brief location 0/RP1
   Card Event History for: 0/RP1
     
   Card Event History as seen by Master (0/RP0)
     Current State: ZAPDISK_POWERED_ON
   
     DATE   TIME (UTC)    STATE                   EVENT                           
     -----  ------------  ----------------------  ------------------------------
     03/04  22:26:24.730  ZAPDISK_RESET           ev_dm1_power_up_ok              
     03/04  22:26:04.503  HOST_GOING_DOWN         ev_zapdisk_req                  
     03/04  22:26:00.677  SYSADMIN_VM_GOING_DOWN  ev_host_shutdown_started        
     03/04  22:25:54.770  CARD_READY              ev_sysadmin_vm_shutdown         
     03/04  21:57:28.878  OIR_INSERT_NOTIF        if_card_local_init_done         
     03/04  21:57:28.878  WAIT_CARD_INFO          ev_card_info_synced             
     03/04  21:57:11.443  WAIT_SYSADMIN_VM_READY  ev_sysadmin_vm_booted           
     03/04  21:56:59.228  HOST_OS_RUNNING         ev_sysadmin_vm_started          
     03/04  21:56:31.882  BOOTING_IOS_IMAGE       ev_host_os_started              
     03/04  21:56:26.466  BOOTING_IOS_IMAGE       ev_boot_kernel                  
     03/04  21:56:12.834  CARD_POWERED_ON         ev_bootldr_ssd_boot             
     03/04  21:56:09.730  CARD_IN_RESET           ev_dm1_power_up_ok              
     03/04  21:55:48.701  IMAGE_INSTALLED         ev_ios_install_reset            
     03/04  21:55:47.700  INSTALLING_IMAGE        ev_ios_install_done             
     03/04  21:54:53.046  WAIT_FIRST_EVENT        ev_ios_install_started          
   Aborted: by user
   sysadmin-vm:0_RP0# show logging | i card_mgr                                 
   0/RP0/ADMIN0:Mar  4 22:26:03.240 : card_mgr[3211]: %DRIVER-CARD_MGR-5-ZAPDISK_STARTED : Card cleanup started for location 0/2  
   0/RP0/ADMIN0:Mar  4 22:26:04.332 : card_mgr[3211]: %DRIVER-CARD_MGR-5-ZAPDISK_STARTED : Card cleanup started for location 0/6  
   0/RP0/ADMIN0:Mar  4 22:26:04.503 : card_mgr[3211]: %DRIVER-CARD_MGR-5-ZAPDISK_STARTED : Card cleanup started for location 0/RP1  
   sysadmin-vm:0_RP0# show reboot-history card location 0/2
   Card Reboot History for 0/2
    0
     Reason Code  22
     Reason       "ZAPDISK by user request"
     Src Location 0/RP0
     Src Name     card_mgr
   sysadmin-vm:0_RP0# show reboot-history card location 0/6 
   
   Card Reboot History for 0/6
    0
       Reason Code  22
     Reason       "ZAPDISK by user request"
     Src Location 0/RP0
     Src Name     card_mgr
   sysadmin-vm:0_RP0# show reboot-history card location 0/RPCard Reboot History for 0/RP1
    0
       Reason Code  22
     Reason       "ZAPDISK by user request"
     Src Location 0/RP0
     Src Name     card_mgr
   
   sysadmin-vm:0_RP0# show reboot-history card location 0/RP1
   Card Reboot History for 0/RP1
    0
       Reason Code  22
     Reason       "ZAPDISK by user request"
     Src Location 0/RP0
     Src Name     card_mgr
   

4. Power-Down the Card - Shut down the card.

In the event of an RSP switchover, the router logs the following syslog messages:

RP/0/1/CPU0:Feb 19 09:08:00.655 UTC: rmf_svr[436]: %HA-REDCON-6-GO_ACTIVE : this card going active
RP/1/1/CPU0:Mar 8 11:43:29.041 UTC: rmf_svr[147]: %HA-REDCON-6-GO_STANDBY : this card going standby, location RP/1/1/CPU0

From Cisco IOS XR Release 7.8.1 onwards, the RSP switchover syslog message for the active RSP includes the RSP slot location as well:

RP/0/1/CPU0:Mar  8 11:42:50.876 UTC: rmf_svr[165]: %HA-REDCON-6-GO_ACTIVE : this card going active , location RP/0/1/CPU0:

Fault Recovery Mechanism

Fault recovery is a mechanism designed to handle faults in hardware components such as line cards, fabric cards, shelf controllers, and route processors. This mechanism ensures that a faulty card does not enter a continuous cycle of automatic recovery attempts, which can lead to operational instability.

How Fault Recovery Mechanism Works

The critical alarms lead to hardware module reload for recovery. Reloading a card shifts the traffic to an alternate path. After the hardware module reload is completed, the traffic streams move back. If the errors persist, the traffic switch may continue until someone eventually brings down the card. Depending on the configured features and the overall capacity and traffic load going through the router, there is a potential for traffic loss if one hardware module keeps reloading and trying to take the traffic load momentarily.

In the previous releases, if a router, line card, fabric card, shelf controller, or a route processor experienced a fault, they used to trigger fault recovery and reboot themselves to be operational. Fault recovery mechanism was time based as the fault recovery count used to reset to zero if the card remained operational for more than an hour. After the fault recovery count exceeded five, then the faulty card was shut down. As power related faults triggered were not frequent, and fault recovery count used to reset to zero, the card never entered the shut down mode. As a result, the card always attempted for fault recovery.

How to Control Fault Recovery Attempts

Rather than reloading hardware modules for fault recovery when the router is carrying live traffic, it is better to power down the affected hardware module and notify users to attempt recovery in a controlled environment. You can set the number of recovery attempts to shut down the card.

With the Cisco IOS XR Software Release 24.3.1, we have introduced the hw-module fault-recovery command with which you can set the number of times a fault recovery can take place before permanently shutting down a faulty card.

For example, if you configure the fault recovery count to 1, the router will reboot the faulty module after the first recovery. On the next attempt, the router shuts down or powers off the faulty module.