Network engineers move firmware images, configs, and certs constantly. TFTP and FTP are the two foundational transfer protocols. This chapter covers what each is, when to use it, and the exact 'copy' commands.
Trivial File Transfer Protocol runs over UDP/69. No login. No directory browsing. No retries beyond the protocol's own ack mechanism. Used for very small payloads — switch configs, boot images, PXE boot.
Because it has no authentication, anyone on the management VLAN can pull files. Always firewall the TFTP server.
! Back up
R1# copy running-config tftp:
Address or name of remote host []? 10.99.0.20
Destination filename [r1-confg]? r1-2026-05.cfg
!!
[OK - 4321 bytes]
! Restore a firmware image
R1# copy tftp: flash:
Source filename []? net-os-15.5.3.binFile Transfer Protocol runs over TCP/21 (control) and TCP/20 (data, active mode) — or an ephemeral port in passive mode. It supports usernames and passwords, but credentials and data travel in plaintext. For sensitive use cases, prefer SCP or SFTP (more advanced territory).
R1(config)# ip ftp username netadmin
R1(config)# ip ftp password S3cretP@ss
R1# copy ftp: flash:
Address or name of remote host []? 10.99.0.21
Source filename []? net-os-15.6.2.bin1 more section in this chapter, plus a 2-question quiz.
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