Naming Convention of Cisco IOS Image Files
Naming Convention of Cisco IOS Image Files
The IOS is Internetworking Operating system software that runs on Cisco Routers and Switches. The IOS is stored in the flash memory. It is an image file having specific naming convention.
The below command shows the version of the IOS image: show version
You can also see it using the below command: show flash
The naming convention for the image file is in the format:
flash:c2600-i-mz.122-28.bin
cXXXX-yyy-mz-123-2.1a.T1.bin
cXXXX: Platform
yyy: Feature Set
m: Memory Location
z: Compression format
123: Train Number
2: Maintenance Release
1: Interim Build Number
a: Rebuild Letter
T: Train Identifier
1: Rebuid Number
Bin: Extension( binary)
The Examples for different platforms are mentioned below:
c1005 1005 platform
c1600 1600 platform
c1700 1700, 1720 and 1750 platform
c2500 25xx platform
c2600 2600 platform
c3620 3620 platform
c1500 1005 platform
c4500 4500 platform
The memory location codes:
f: image running from flash memory
m: image running from RAM
r: image running from ROM
l: image is relocatable during runtime
The compression codes:
z: zip format compression
x: mzip format compression
Codes in Feature Set
i: IP
I: IPX
2a2: ATM
b: Apple Talk
n: Novell
o: Firewall
p: Service Provider
v: Voice
so from the image name “c2600-i-mz.122-28.bin”, we understand that :
c2600 It’s a 2600 platform
i IP Routing
mz It shows that IOS is run from RAM and the compression is zip format
122-28 12.2 patch 28.
Read more
- What is Trivial File Transfer Protocol
- Different types of router memory
- Cisco Router Configuration Files
- How to backup IOS and configuration files to Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) Server