Symptom

A Nexus 9000 switch transferring an image greater than 2GB using FTP may display an error during copy with a reason of "check free space on device", although, the switch bootflash has enough space for the file. This has been identified as a known limitation with a 32-bit OS. This issue is not seen with other file transfer protocols like SCP/SFTP/HTTP. Versions of NX-OS running 64-bit images will not hit this limitation. N9K-C93108TC-01# copy ftp: bootflash: vrf management Enter source filename: nxos64-cs.10.3.2.F.bin Enter hostname for the ftp server: 10.xx.xxx.xx Enter username: xxxxx Password: /bootflash/nxos64-cs.10.3.2.F.bin: Write could not complete, check free space on device Error during copy ***** Transfer of file aborted ***** Copy failed. Removing file nxos64-cs.10.3.2.F.bin Usage for bootflash:// 46386438144 bytes used 70202773504 bytes free 116589211648 bytes total <------------------Enough Space.

Conditions

Nexus 9000 switch running 9.3.x code transferring a file over 2GB utilizing FTP.

Workaround

Use TFTP/HTTP/SFTP/SCP for file transfer to the switch. Utilizing the "guestshell" is another possible workaround if FTP must be used. Guestshell example: 1. To specify the management vrf, use "chvrf management" 2. Use -P to specify the destination of the file (/bootflash) 3. Use --user=xxx for username 4. Use --ask-password to prompt for password. # guestshell [admin@guestshell ~]$ chvrf management [admin@guestshell ~]$ wget ftp://x.x.x.x/nxos64-cs.10.3.3.F.bin -P /bootflash --user= --ask-password Password for user '': --2023-06-05 09:05:58-- ftp://x.x.x.x/nxos64-cs.10.3.3.F.bin => '/bootflash/nxos64-cs.10.3.3.F.bin.2' Connecting to x.x.x.x:21... connected. Logging in as xxxxx ... Logged in! ==> SYST ... done. ==> PWD ... done. ==> TYPE I ... done. ==> CWD not needed. ==> SIZE nxos64-cs.10.3.3.F.bin ... 2429916160 ==> PASV ... done. ==> RETR nxos64-cs.10.3.3.F.bin ... done. Length: 2429916160 (2.3G) (unauthoritative) 100%[===============================================================================================================================>] 2,429,916,160 83.9MB/s in 25s 2023-06-05 09:06:23 (92.1 MB/s) - '/bootflash/nxos64-cs.10.3.3.F.bin.2' saved [2429916160] [admin@guestshell ~]$

Further Problem Description