How much time does 8.2 software have?

David Williams · ‎01-15-2013

I've been reviewing software revisions for the Cisco ASA 5500 family. We have a few clients running 8.2 and the jump to 8.3 will require significant effort to make sure everything translates properly. There are no features in 8.3 that these clients require so it seems in their, and our, best interest to let them ride the 8.2 software until an upgrade is necessary to continue receiving security patches. I have looked for EOL notifications but have not found anything for 8.2. I have also placed an inquiry with our SE at Cisco, but I thought I would ask if anyone knows anything about how much time 8.2 has before we could expect to see an EOL notification.

Jouni Forss · ‎01-15-2013

Hi,

Here is some information related to 8.1 Software.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/vpndevc/ps6032/ps6094/ps6120/end_of_life_c51_640618.html

Table 1. End-of-Life Milestones and Dates for the Cisco ASA 5500 Series Adaptive Security Appliance Software Release 8.1

Milestone	Definition	Date
End-of-Life Announcement Date	The date the document that announces the end of sale and end of life of a product is distributed to the general public.	January 15, 2011
End-of-Sale Date	The last date to order the product through Cisco point-of-sale mechanisms. The product is no longer for sale after this date.	July 16, 2011
Last Ship Date: OS SW	The last-possible ship date that can be requested of Cisco and/or its contract manufacturers. Actual ship date is dependent on lead time.	October 14, 2011
End of SW Maintenance Releases Date: OS SW	The last date that Cisco Engineering may release any final software maintenance releases or bug fixes. After this date, Cisco Engineering will no longer develop, repair, maintain, or test the product software.	July 15, 2012
End of New Service Attachment Date: OS SW	For equipment and software that is not covered by a service-and-support contract, this is the last date to order a new service-and-support contract or add the equipment and/or software to an existing service-and-support contract.	July 15, 2012
End of Service Contract Renewal Date: OS SW	The last date to extend or renew a service contract for the product.	October 11, 2015
Last Date of Support:	The last date to receive service and support for the product. After this date, all support services for the product are unavailable, and the product becomes obsolete.	July 31, 2016

HW = Hardware OS SW = Operating System Software App. SW = Application Software

I can't seem to find the same for the 8.2.

Though I would consider that there are still alot of users happily going about with the very old PIX firewalls running software 6.x or even older. Not saying its a good thing but it work.

And considering 8.2 is the latest software before the BIG NAT change I would imagine it will stay in use for a long time for those that dont want to learn/adopt the new NAT format.

- Jouni