[c-nsp] IOS Code Recommendations

Peter Rathlev peter at rathlev.dk
Thu Jan 7 14:08:28 EST 2010


Hi Jason,

On Sat, 2010-01-02 at 23:11 -0700, Jason LeBlanc wrote:
> Cisco only does safe harbor on a few select devices.  Being as how
> this group is made up of a lot of service providers and enterprise
> networks, does anyone know the latest stable version of code for any
> or all of the following:
> 
> 2651XM
> WS-C3550-24-PWR
> WS-C3560-24PS-S
> Catalyst 3560-48TS

I think the reason people are unwilling to give any advice on this (also
cf. your later questions) might be because the question is hard to
answer precisely for even low grades of precision.

For the 2651XM you have a huge lot of possibilities for different
versions (depending on amount of RAM), and which one suits your needs
would vary with what features you want to use. Without any information
regarding the latter your question is incomplete.

We have been using 12.2(40) mainline with several 2600s with no problems
for a long time, though not with XM models. They're primarily 2610s used
as RTR queriers and responders, and the a few devices for DLSw+
termination.

Regarding the L3 switches: I was once told an expert I respect a lot
(non Cisco employee) to generally use the newest supported version and
hope for the best. We currently use (as the customer) a few hundreds of
3560s running 12.2(35)SE5 IP Services as multi VRF-Lite CPE devices in
"branch offices". The only bug that has bitten us so far is that
interface counters don't show drops (e.g. OutDiscards).

We use lots of 3560s currently running 12.2(50)SE1 and SE3 IP Base and
only doing L2. No problems so far. (And OutDiscard counters work.)

We also have a handful of 3550s running 12.2(50)SE3 IP Base; this is not
supported, but we haven't had any problems so far. We replace them with
3560s on occasion. (The 3550 was IMHO a better platform though.)

Remember that if you are using the 3550s for anything critical you
really should use a supported release.

-- 
Peter





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