Home >
Articles > What are the memory types used by Cisco switches?
What are the memory types used by Cisco switches?
Are you preparing for IT certification? With practice questions, study notes, interactive quizzes, tips and technical articles, uCertify PrepKits ensure that you get a solid grasp of core technical concepts to
ace your certification exam in first attempt.
Cisco switches use the following types of memory:
- RAM: Random-Access Memory (RAM), sometimes called Dynamic Random-Access Memory (DRAM), is used by Cisco switches as working storage. The running configuration file is stored in RAM.
- ROM: Read-only Memory (ROM) contains the bootstrap program. The bootstrap program is loaded when the switch is powered on. The bootstrap program then searches the full Cisco IOS images and manages the process of loading them into RAM.
- Flash memory: This is a chip inside the switch or a removable memory card. The flash memory is the default location of Cisco IOS images. It is also used to store backup copies of configuration files.
- NVRAM: Nonvolatile RAM (NVRAM) stores the startup configuration file. When the switch is reloaded or booted, the configuration file of NVRAM is used.
NVRAM contains the startup-config file to store initial configuration. RAM contains the running-config file that stores the currently used configuration of a switch.
Other articles
