Introduction
This document describes a version roadmap of Cisco Intelligent WAN (iWAN) 2.x solution, it also includes dependencies on component releases and features introduced along with them.
Background Information
iWAN is a solution, that consists of several pillars:
- Transport independent design (DMVPN)
- Intelligent path control (PFRv3)
- Application Visibility and Control (WAAS + NBAR + ezPM)
- Security (Trusted boot, IPSec)
- Orchestration
As a solution, iWAN has its own version roadmap and sometimes it's not easy to identify component releases that can fit into particular iWAN setup.
Why is it Important to Know iWAN Version and Component Releases.
The iWAN version that you run is mostly determined by a set of features that are enabled on the compopents and device.
Solution's and individual component's versions must be aligned, as otherwise the setup becomes unsupported.
For example, in the next section you can see, that Multi-Tunnel Termination (MTT) feature was introduced with iWAN 2.2:
- This feature can be used only if respective components are run minimum required releases
- This feature might require additional configuration (another feature, that was not available in older release, like secondary route)
- MTT feature touches IOS-XE platform - so you need to run 16.3.3+ release on your Hub BRs
- If you want to be able to use IWAN APP for the feature configuration - you would need version 1.4
iWAN Solution Versions
Effective on the publication date, there are several iWAN releases.
Table 1. List of iWAN releases and component minimum requirements:
| Platform/Component | iWAN 2.0 | iWAN 2.1 | iWAN 2.1.1 | iWAN 2.2 | iWAN 2.2.1 | iWAN 2.3 | iWAN 2.3.1 |
| IOS-XE | 3.14 | 3.16.1 | 3.16.2 | 16.3.3** | 16.6.1 16.3.5c | 16.8.1 | 16.10.1 |
| IOS | 15.4(3)M1* | 15.5(3)M1 | 15.5(3)M2a | 15.6(3)M2 | 15.7(3)M | N/A*** | N/A*** |
| WAAS | 5.5.1 | 5.5.3 | 5.5.5a | 6.2.3b | 6.2.3c | 6.4.1a | TBD |
| iWAN APP | NA | 1.0 | 1.1 | 1.4 | 1.5.1 | 1.5^ | TBD |
| Prime | 2.2 | 3.0.2 | 3.1 | 3.1.5 | 3.2 | 3.1.5**** | TBD |
| LiveAction | 4.1.2 | 4.2.4 | 5.0.1 | 5.2 | 6.0.2 | 6.2 | TBD |
*15.5(1)T1+ train was supported as well.
** release 16.3.4 is not recommended for iWAN deployments due to defect CSCve98696; note 3.xS train is not supported on 2.2+ releases.
*** There are no iWAN 2.3 features, that could be ran on IOS; but IOS box could be a part of iWAN 2.3 domain.
**** Multi VRF PfR Monitoring is not supported.
^ DCA feature is not supported through IWAN App (should be configured on top or with a 3rd party tool).
iWAN 2.1.1 has had multiple maintenance releases and the release 2.1.1 MR3 has these minimum release requirements:
- IOS-XE - 3.16.5a
- IOS - 15.5(3)M5a
- WAAS - 5.5.5a
- iWAN APP - 1.3
- Prime - 3.1.4
- LiveAction 5.0.1
NOTE IOS-XE trains 3.17, 3.18, 16.1, 16.2, 16.4, 16.5 and 16.7 are not supported for iWAN deployments.
Upgrade process
Please be aware, that iWAN upgrade process needs to be followed neatly. We have seen multiple situations when not following the process was causing iWAN components going down.
The upgrade procedure is available here: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/solutions/Enterprise/Intelligent_WAN/upgrade/iwan-upgrade.html
iWAN Features/Capabilities Announcement History
This is a list of features introduced across iWAN releases:
iWAN 2.0 release:
- Date: Nov 2014
- Initial announcement of iWAN2.x
- Secure hybrid WAN
- PFRv3
- Application-based policies and optimization
- Scale up to 2000 sites
iWAN 2.1 release:
- Date: Mar 2015
- Multiple DC support
- Overlay route resiliency, next-hop load-balancing
- DC affinity
- CSR (path controller)
iWAN 2.1.1 release:
- Date: Mar 2016
- Hybrid WAN - up to 5 interfaces supported
- BGP overlay
- Path of last resort
- Path preference hierarchy
- SGT-based QOS classification
- CSR as branch device
- CSR Hub MC with scale - up to 2000 sites
- Disjoint topology
iWAN 2.2 release:
- Date: Mar 2017
- Per VRF monitoring and assurance (PFR/QOS/AVC)
- Routing adjacency between Hub BRs over DMVPN
- Multiple tunnel termination (MTT) on a single Hub BR
- PFR probe optimization
- Site-prefix splitting**
- DIA thread defense (Snort, ZBFW,NAT, OpenDNS)
- Object caching with DIA
iWAN 2.2.1 release:
iWAN 2.3 release:
- Date: Mar 2018
- Direct Cloud Access (DCA)
- AVC asymmetric path tolerance (SD-AVC)
- Scale up to 2500 tunnel (per Hub BR) with MTT support
iWAN 2.3 development (2.3.1 ?):
** Site-prefix splitting full support starting from the 16.9.2 and 16.10.1 releases.
Related Information
