cisco asa upgrade

[Lovleen Arora]

Hi,

We have a 5520 in production running 8.2, and want to replace it with 5525-X. To achieve minimal downtime, we cannot do the software upgrade on the 5520 to 9.2 and then copy the config across to the 5525-X.

What we rather have to do is to load the config backup (Pre 8.3)  from 5520 directly to 5525-X (which is running 9.2.x) and then once the 5525-X is ready, changeover the cables across to 5525-X. but i think this method will skip some configuration and also would not replicate the 5520 config precisely to the 5525-x as the firmware versions are quite far away.

Is there a better way to achieve this requirement, other than manually changing each command.

thanks in advance.

Lovleen

[Marvin Rhoads]

I'm not sure the 9.2 software on the 5525-X will parse and convert the 8.2 running-configuration like the older boxes will do. You can certainly copy your running-config into startup-config on the new box and give it a try in the lab.

You can use all but the NAT and access-list pretty much as-is in the new unit. Those would have to be converted either by hand or using some third pay utilities like those provided at tunnelsup.com.

You can work with the partner you purchased the ASA from to get them to use the internal Cisco conversion tool for the configuration migration.

[johnlloyd_13]

hi,

i think option 1 is better:

- upgrade 5525-X to 9.2

- manually update ACL, NAT and other config from 5520.

- once 5525-X is ready, just move cables from 5520 to 5525-X.

if you do option 2, you can't load the 8.2 (pre-8.3) config directly on the 5525-X that's running 9.2.x.

you'll need to downgrade the 5525-X to 8.2 and move cables from 5520.

but this defeats the purpose of having a 5500-X next-gen FW running on 9.x code. so better do the painstaking process defined on option 1.

[Marvin Rhoads]

Hi John -

You cannot load an ASA 5525-X with 8.2 as the hardware requires the SMP image type and the minimum version that offers that is 8.6.

I was suggesting they try using the 5520 config file and manually copying it into startup-config (hidden file) on the 5525-X and then booting to see if the parser kicks in. (I'm not sure they embedded that conversion code on the SMP image types though.)

[johnlloyd_13]

hi,

good to know that!

i just thought you could just downgrade 5500-X to 8.2 just like the 5500 series ASA FW.