How to schedule a reload

Not everyone knows that the reload command permits to schedule a reboot system; for instance, to plan a night router restart or during a critical configuration (AAA, vty, and so on…).

There are two ways to schedule a reload system:

  • at: at a specific time/date
  • in: after a time interval

The ‘at’ keyword permits to schedule a reload of the software to take place at the specified time (using a 24-hour clock). If you specify the month and day, the reload is scheduled to take place at the specified time and date.
The following example reloads the router on April 30 at 3:00 a.m.:

Ciscozine#reload at 03:00 30 apr
Reload scheduled for 03:00:00 UTC Sat Apr 30 2011 (in 42 hours and 10 minutes) by console
Reload reason: Reload Command
Proceed with reload? [confirm]
Ciscozine#
Ciscozine#show reload
Reload scheduled for 03:00:00 UTC Sat Apr 30 2011 (in 42 hours and 10 minutes) by console
Reload reason: Reload Command
Ciscozine#

The ‘in’ keyword permits to schedule a reload of the software to take effect in the specified minutes or hours and minutes.
The followind example reloads the router in 90 minutes:

Ciscozine#reload in 1:30
Reload scheduled for 10:20:49 UTC Thu Apr 28 2011 (in 1 hour and 30 minutes) by console
Reload reason: Reload Command
Proceed with reload? [confirm]
Ciscozine#
Ciscozine#show reload
Reload scheduled for 10:20:49 UTC Thu Apr 28 2011 (in 1 hour and 29 minutes) by console
Reload reason: Reload Command
Ciscozine#

The ‘cancel’ keyword aborts a scheduled reload:

Ciscozine#reload cancel
Ciscozine#

***
*** --- SHUTDOWN ABORTED ---
***

Ciscozine#

Remember: You can define the reason for the reload. For example, if you would restart the system for ‘test HSRP preemption’:

R1#reload test HSRP preemption

Proceed with reload? [confirm]

*Apr 27 11:58:11.407: %SYS-5-RELOAD: Reload requested  by console. Reload Reason: test HSRP preemption.

System Bootstrap, Version 12.3(8r)T7, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
Technical Support: http://www.cisco.com/techsupport
Copyright (c) 2004 by cisco Systems, Inc.

Below the video with the two examples:

1 COMMENT

  1. very handy if you are making a change you may loose connectivity, (configuring the interface you’re managing the router thorough).

    wr mem
    reload 5
    ! change change change
    ! changes to interface, IP or acl works,
    reload cancel
    wr mem

    or
    doesn’t work, system reboots and you’re back in a known config (last saved)

    thanks for the article,
    Dan

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