Cisco Technology, Inc.

John Thomas Welder

Sudhir Rao

Thomas W Uban

Ratheesh Krishna Vadhyar

Praveen Joshi

Donald Edward Banks

Seok Anthony Koh

A method and system for resetting a network device. Specifically, in one embodiment, a method is disclosed for upgrading and/or reloading software for a network device with minimal disruption. The method begins by separating operations associated with layer two of an International Standardization Organization Open Systems Interconnect (ISO/OSI) reference model from other layers in the ISO/OSI reference model in a network device. Then, the software operations in layer two of the network device are reset. The software operations are reset while maintaining continuity for a communication session between the network device and other network devices coupled together through a network. Thereafter, for minimal disruption, execution of the software operations is recovered at layer two before continuity of the communication session s terminated.

Method and system for minimal disruption during software upgrade or reload of a network device

Methods and devices are provided for maintaining configuration synchronization when an Active unit and a Standby unit have different versions of a software image. Preferred implementations allow the system to operate in a stateful mode even after the Standby unit has had an image upgrade. Other implementations allow the system to operate in a stateful mode when the Active unit has a higher-level version of the image than the Standby unit.

Configuration synchronization for redundant processors executing different versions of software

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

John Thomas Welder