[c-nsp] Cisco 7201 -- Differences between the 12."2" images and the usual 12.4/15 images?

[Lamar Owen]

On Mar 8, 2010, at 4:44 PM, Gert Doering wrote:

> For mainstream platforms (7200, not NPE-G2) with mainstream IOS  
> versions
> (few letters), I have found it to be quite useful.

Oh, I certainly find it to be useful.  But compare 12.4(18c) (which is  
what TAC sent me last year for a IOS security fix) and 12.4(25c) on a  
3845, which is pretty recent hardware.  It shows that 12.4(25c)  
supports OSPF (among the total of 817 features) but that 12.4(18c)  
does not.  In fact, FN lists 805 features (out of the 817 total) that  
12.4(25c) supports but 12.4(18c) does not, listing only 12 features in  
common.

Oh, and 12.4(18c) actually does support OSPF, among those 805 features  
that FN says it does not support.

The 12 features in common?
AppleTalk Access List Enhancements
ATM Mode for Two-Wire SHDSL
IP SLAs - Application Performance Monitor (APM)
IP SLAs - DLSW+ Operation
IP SLAs - Frame Relay Interfaces
IP SLAs - Reaction Threshold
IP SLAs - Scheduler
IP SLAs - SNA LU2 Echo
IP SLAs - TCP Connect Operation
IP SLAs - UDP Echo Operation
IP SLAs Responder
Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) (802.3ad) for Gigabit  
Interfaces
TCP MSS Adjust

I'll not post the whole 805-line list of 12.4(25c) unique features  
(per FN), but suffice to say it includes basic stuff like:
Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)
CDP (Cisco Discovery Protocol) Version 2
CEF/dCEF - Cisco Express Forwarding
Classless InterDomain Routing (CIDR) IP Default Gateway
Enhanced IGRP (EIGRP)
Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE)
IEEE 802.1Q VLAN Support
IEEE 802.1Q VLAN Trunking
IP Routing
PPP
RADIUS
SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol)
Transparent Bridging

to mention just a few.  Which makes it difficult to determine what the  
real differences between these two images (which should be minimal;  
when comparing 12.4(23) with the same 12.4(25c), only two features are  
listed as unique to 12.4(25c): Class-Based Packet Marking  
Enhancements, and Security and QoS features:(802.X and ToS for QoS ).   
But comparing 12.4(18) with 12.4(18e) is even worse, listing only one  
feature (TCP MSS Adjust) in common, and with 12.4(18) having more  
features (by a large number) than 12.4(18e).  Perhaps it's related to  
the lettered rebuilds, I don't know.  I haven't yet found any non- 
lettered 12.4(x) in spot-checking that shows that kind of difference.   
It's not limited to 3845; for 7200, the diff between 12.4(18c) and 12.4 
(25c) (IP/FW/IDS IPSEC 3DES) is similar.

I'd really like it to be as useful as it could be, but at the moment  
it is less useful than it could be.  Perhaps by only using to compare  
unlettered mainline releases..... but even then, I've seen odd stuff  
in really old releases.

And in my own use, since I have old hardware that takes S train (12000  
GRP, 7500) or E train (8500 (I know, I know, but you don't look a gift  
switch in the packet processors!)), it can be pretty frustrating.

But FN isn't at this time apparently one of Cisco's flagship  
resources; you have to dig to find it on the www.cisco.com website.