[c-nsp] Cisco Friends

[Chris Welti]

On 04.08.2025 18:09, Mark Tinka via cisco-nsp wrote:
> On 8/4/25 14:09, Simon Leinen wrote:
>> Works nicely, like on the bigger routers (NCS-55A1 / Cisco 8000) as far
>> as I can tell.  We're using a relatively small feature set (IPv4+IPv6
>> routing, OSPFv2/v3+BGP, limited MPLS for L2 VPNS) and small routing
>> tables.  Our configurations tend to be rather static, and we mostly use
>> old-style management protocols (SNMP/SSH/CLI).
>
> How do you deal with OS upgrades, especially if you have tons of them 
> in the field?
>
> Mark.

Using the multi-step upgrade "install package replace" (or "install 
prepare" on the older IOS-XR versions), you can relatively painlessly do 
the time-consuming steps (copying/importing the ISO/package 
installation) before the actual upgrades. Then, when you are ready to do 
the upgrades during your maintenance window, you can just "install 
apply" and it is rather quick.
Still, I do prefer the replace one file approach in classic IOS.

Other than that, we only upgrade when really necessary (critical 
security bug, new feature). Luckily, that happens very rarely.

Chris.