[c-nsp] When do you upgrade IOS?

[Mark Tinka]

On Friday, February 17, 2012 06:08:00 AM Justin M. Streiner 
wrote:

> I would also add "vendor-mandated obsolescence" to that
> list.  Cisco sunsets software in much the same way they
> sunset hardware.  They will make an end-of-life
> announcement for software version XYZ, stating the dates
> that engineering releases will stop, and the date that
> TAC support will cease.  In some environments, running
> supportable code is less of an issue, but our
> environment pretty much requires that we be in a
> position to ask for vendor support if we determine we
> need it, which puts some burden on us to remain
> 'supportable'.

In my experience, it's always been the case that by the time 
code is EoL, we've likely already moved on, as we've been 
hit by a couple of bugs that have forced us to move anyway.

That said, I understand that simpler environments may not 
find themselves in a similar position, and could end up 
running EoL code for much longer, even though it's riddled 
with known bugs.

Upgrading IOS and IOS XE is easy. Upgrading IOS XR is a 
pain. Even more painful than upgrading Junos. So one might 
also consider "pain" vs. "benefit".

> When we need to :)

Well, I know one or two CCIE's who once advised a CEO that 
all routers must be rebooted once a year, as a standard, 
even though there was no technical reason to do so. That it 
was good business, and helped to get rid of the "dust" that 
had formed over time :-).

Mark.
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