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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/ComponentiWAN 2.0iWAN 2.1iWAN 2.1.1iWAN 2.2iWAN 2.2.1iWAN 2.3iWAN 2.3.1
IOS-XE3.14 3.16.13.16.216.3.3**

16.6.1

16.3.5c

16.8.116.10.1
IOS15.4(3)M1* 15.5(3)M115.5(3)M2a15.6(3)M215.7(3)MN/A***N/A***
WAAS5.5.1 5.5.35.5.5a6.2.3b6.2.3c6.4.1aTBD
iWAN APPNA 1.01.11.41.5.11.5^TBD
Prime2.2 3.0.23.13.1.53.23.1.5****TBD
LiveAction4.1.2 4.2.45.0.15.26.0.26.2TBD

 

*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

Comments
pdub206
Level 1
Level 1

This is a great summary and very helpful to understand which version of IWAN should be used for different use cases.  Thank you for writing it up!

vamikhai
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

Development confirmed, that Polaris 16.9 train will be supported for iWAN deployments as "long term" release, while 16.8.2 will have only bug fixes.

vamikhai
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

BU has confirmed, that "FlexVPN as underlay transport" was tested and supported in iWAN 2.2.1 (even not included into the release notes).

BU confirmed, that 16.8.x is supported for iWAN, even though 16.9.x is the recommended one.

 

iWAN 2.3 release notes (first version) - https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/solutions/Enterprise/Intelligent_WAN/release/notes/iwanrn-2-3.html  - and will be improved shortly.

ROCKY CHEUNG
Level 1
Level 1

Thank you for the iWAN versions and release summary, this is great info and resource for us to support our current iWAN deployment.  Please continue to update this info and we really appreciate your effort!

BTW, the previous iWAN 2.3 release notes (first version) link was broken.  

 

 

Releases 16.6.4 and 16.9.1 (tentatively 16.3.7, 16.8.1, 16.8.2 and 15.7(3)M3) are affected by bug CSCvm32630, thus highly NOT recommended for deployments.

 

Link to iWAN 2.3 release notes is https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/solutions/Enterprise/Intelligent_WAN/release/notes/iwanrn-2-3.html

vamikhai
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

Notes on supported releases:

 

15.7M+15.8M+15.9M are supported for iWAN 2.2.1 deployments.

Also for IOS devices we do claim interoperability with iWAN 2.3 as far as IOS branch do not need to run any 2.3 features.

Please note, that an IOS branch should be running only IOS devices and both should be on the same version.

 

Releases 17.x are also supported for iWAN Deployments (considered as iWAN 2.3).

vamikhai
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

Hello, team.

Please note, that iWAN EOL/EOS was announced - https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/cloud-systems-management/application-policy-infrastructure-controller-enterprise-module/eos-eol-notice-c51-744532.html

 

The last supported train for iWAN will be 17.3.

Please also note, that starting from December 2020 - in order to make the transition from IWAN to Cisco SD-WAN smoother and faster - Cisco has exclusive promo for existing Cisco IWAN Customers. For the promo details please contact your account team or Cisco sales person.

vamikhai
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

Please note, that iWAN is not supported on any of the Cat8000 devices (even if those are running 17.3)

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