Lazy Sunday. Catching up on all the episodes of Hawaii Five-0 that I missed while I was on vacation. I love this show’s pop sensibilities. The hypnotically catchy opening theme music. The weirdly retro TV violence that has no lasting consequences. Snappy cop talk. Wonderful saturated colors in their establishing shots of Hawaii, very reminiscent of Lonely Planet’s palette. It’s a sugary type of beauty, the same way that cotton candy is beautiful. Twilight Zone Hawaii, shiny, mint in the box.
Anyway, I spend most of Sunday with pop TV in the background while tinkering with my pet ASA.
The Cisco ASA stores all its boot images and config files on flash memory. The Cisco ASA 5505 model only has internal flash memory, but the higher-end models have a slot for inserting compact flash cards. This is the external flash memory.
If you want to display the contents of the flash memory,
show disk displays the contents of the internal flash memory
show disk0 displays the contents of the internal flash memory
show disk1 displays the contents of the external flash memory
show flash displays the contents of the internal flash memory
dir displays the contents of the internal flash drive, with file permissions
flash and disk0 mean the same thing to the ASA.
Output of a show flash command, displaying everything stored on the internal flash.
ciscoasa> sh fla
--#-- --length-- -----date/time------ path
88 8312832 Sep 06 2007 07:28:12 asa722-k8.bin
89 1868412 Sep 06 2007 07:28:26 securedesktop-asa-3.1.1.29-k9.pkg
90 398305 Sep 06 2007 07:28:40 sslclient-win-1.1.0.154.pkg
91 5623108 Sep 06 2007 07:29:48 asdm-522.bin
93 8386560 Nov 06 2007 17:52:22 asa723-k8.bin
10 4096 Nov 06 2007 17:55:48 crypto_archive
94 14457072 Sep 29 2010 18:04:44 asdm-632.bin
95 15243264 Sep 29 2010 18:06:32 asa823-k8.bin
3 4096 Sep 29 2010 18:10:14 log
11 4096 Sep 29 2010 18:10:58 coredumpinfo
12 43 Sep 29 2010 18:10:58 coredumpinfo/coredump.cfg
129073152 bytes total (74399744 bytes free)
Since I am running the commands on a Cisco ASA 5505 model, which only has internal flash, I get the same output with the show disk0 command as I do with a show disk command.
ciscoasa> sh disk0
--#-- --length-- -----date/time------ path
88 8312832 Sep 06 2007 07:28:12 asa722-k8.bin
89 1868412 Sep 06 2007 07:28:26 securedesktop-asa-3.1.1.29-k9.pkg
90 398305 Sep 06 2007 07:28:40 sslclient-win-1.1.0.154.pkg
91 5623108 Sep 06 2007 07:29:48 asdm-522.bin
93 8386560 Nov 06 2007 17:52:22 asa723-k8.bin
10 4096 Nov 06 2007 17:55:48 crypto_archive
94 14457072 Sep 29 2010 18:04:44 asdm-632.bin
95 15243264 Sep 29 2010 18:06:32 asa823-k8.bin
3 4096 Sep 29 2010 18:10:14 log
11 4096 Sep 29 2010 18:10:58 coredumpinfo
12 43 Sep 29 2010 18:10:58 coredumpinfo/coredump.cfg
129073152 bytes total (74399744 bytes free)
ciscoasa> sh disk
--#-- --length-- -----date/time------ path
88 8312832 Sep 06 2007 07:28:12 asa722-k8.bin
89 1868412 Sep 06 2007 07:28:26 securedesktop-asa-3.1.1.29-k9.pkg
90 398305 Sep 06 2007 07:28:40 sslclient-win-1.1.0.154.pkg
91 5623108 Sep 06 2007 07:29:48 asdm-522.bin
93 8386560 Nov 06 2007 17:52:22 asa723-k8.bin
10 4096 Nov 06 2007 17:55:48 crypto_archive
94 14457072 Sep 29 2010 18:04:44 asdm-632.bin
95 15243264 Sep 29 2010 18:06:32 asa823-k8.bin
3 4096 Sep 29 2010 18:10:14 log
11 4096 Sep 29 2010 18:10:58 coredumpinfo
12 43 Sep 29 2010 18:10:58 coredumpinfo/coredump.cfg
129073152 bytes total (74399744 bytes free)
In the directory listing, I see various ASA image files and ASDM image files. Some came preloaded with the ASA, some I have copied onto the flash memory. Notice something missing? Where are the config files?
What does the dir command do? Top-level directory listing only. You don’t get to see what’s inside subdirectories. But you get to see directory and file permissions.
ciscoasa# dir Directory of disk0:/ 90 -rwx 8312832 07:28:12 Sep 06 2007 asa722-k8.bin 91 -rwx 1868412 07:28:26 Sep 06 2007 securedesktop-asa-3.1.1.29-k9.pkg 92 -rwx 398305 07:28:40 Sep 06 2007 sslclient-win-1.1.0.154.pkg 93 -rwx 5623108 07:29:48 Sep 06 2007 asdm-522.bin 95 -rwx 8386560 17:52:22 Nov 06 2007 asa723-k8.bin 10 drwx 4096 17:55:48 Nov 06 2007 crypto_archive 96 -rwx 14457072 18:04:44 Sep 29 2010 asdm-632.bin 97 -rwx 15243264 18:06:32 Sep 29 2010 asa823-k8.bin 3 drwx 4096 18:10:14 Sep 29 2010 log 11 drwx 4096 18:10:58 Sep 29 2010 coredumpinfo 129073152 bytes total (74399744 bytes free)
No config files, though. An exploratory dir system: coughs up a single cryptic line.
ciscoasa# dir system: Directory of system:/ 1 ---- 0 00:00:00 Jan 01 1970 running-config
Jan 01 1970? Looks like a zero-value timestamp. Or maybe the config files are in quantum storage. Appropriate. I feel like I’m looking for Brigadoon.
On TV, the fine-looking officers from Hawaii Five-0 are trampling all over the crime scene without booties, picking up shell casings with their bare hands. Geez. There’s something deep in my anal-retentive soul that rebels instinctively against such sloppy TV police procedures. I don’t care how cute you are, Steve McGarrett, you’re contaminating the evidence. Dude, haven’t you ever watched CSI? Put on a pair of damned gloves.
Additional Information:
Show disk command in the Cisco ASA 8.4 Command Reference.
Show flash command in the Cisco ASA 8.4 Command Reference.
Dir command in the Cisco ASA 8.4 Command Reference.