ASA 5540 upgrade from 7.0(8) to 9.1(7.16)

[Rps-Cheers]

HI everyone；

There is a firewall which model is ASA5540,and it's software release is 7.0(8).
Thesedays,the ASA has reloaded and there is no reason.So,i want to upgrade the ASA to a recommand software version.
I have found the recommand software is 9.1.7 on cisco,and i don't know how to upgrade it,whether there will be a Intermediate version? i have check the release note 9.1(x),and find out this:
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/security/asa/asa91/release/notes/asarn91.html#pgfId-763574

Whether i can upgrade the ASA to 8.4(5),and then upgrade to 9.1.(7.16)?Please give me some suggestions,thank you very much.

[Marvin Rhoads]

You can do that they way you indicated. The upgrade to 8.4 is a bit tricky since a fair amount of syntax changed (NAT and ACL mostly).

However random reloads after so many years on that very old version are most likely not due to software. It is more likely hardware problem.

The ASA 5540 is very near end of support and you would be better served in the long term by replacing the hardware.

[Rps-Cheers]

hello，
thanks for your reply！
and i also know the nat and acl will have different.So，if i upgrade to 8.4，whether the nat and acl config in 7.0（8）will be discarded，and i need reconfig it？And is there any other attentions？
thanks.

[Marvin Rhoads]

They are not discarded - the command parser will attempt to translate them correctly for you. It will generate a text file (on the ASA's disk0:) of any commands it has a problem translating. Be sure to look at that file carefully and address every issue that's reported.

However many people aren't happy with the results and find it better to throw them out and start from scratch. It's also a good opportunity to clean up your configuration and get a better understanding of what all the lines do.