Pix 515 downgrade/upgrade.

In article , wrote: :From a look around Cisco's web site and google, I have seen some posts :inferring that going below 5.1(1) is a nono since it wrecks the :flashfs, so first question, is that the case? Do I have no hope of :actually getting 4.4(5) onto a Pix 515 that had a 6.x firmware on it?

Don't worry about that. There are commands to deliberately downgrade the flashfs . If you use one of those commands then most things you might do to the flashfs will rebuild the flashfs back to the 6.x specs, so accidental loss of the flashfs is not a problem.

The flashfs holds the saved versions of the boot image, pdm, and the current configuration, but the PIX is happy to keep running with the in-memory copies of those. The other thing held in the flashfs (in 5.x and 6.x) is the RSA keys; there isn't any way to preserve those or to put one of those in manually (e.g., you cannot printout, putter around, put in the old key when done.) 7.0 holds one or two other items as well.

:And then that being the case, does anyone have any experience of :upgrading from 4.4(5) to a 6.x release? Will I have to stage it, or can :I go straight up to 6.x? If I do have to stage it, does anyone know :what stages I will need to do? Thanks!

As I recall, you must stage it. The 5.1 release notes give the details if I remember correctly. There was a change in the flashfs format, but that might have been 4.4(2), so the flashfs format itself might perhaps not be the problem. There was, though, a change in keys in early

Also, the 4.4 installer cannot handle 6.x binary images, so at the very least you need to load down a new installer.

Note: I'm going by my recollection of the release notes; I haven't done a 4.x upgrade myself.

After reading around a bit more, I did the following using the Pix