Availability of NSO 5.5 without service contract?

[Torbjørn]

The DevNet Expert software list includes NSO 5.5. This is as far as i can see not available under Network Services Orchestrator Free Trial. I don't feel confident in practicing on the available free version as it is on a different major version number than the one listed in the software list. Is there any way to get access to 5.5 as a local install without a service contract?

[u.avsec]

The available version is newer so I don't think you would be missing out on most basic features. Understanding the difference between 6.0 and 5.5 would also be a good part of learning experience too. Most obvious difference is concurrency. If that gives you an issue you can switch it off in individual package yang.

5.5 might have been available as trial in the past, I don't recollect. In any case, it doesn't seem that they keep publicly available archive of demo versions.
Maybe you can try and find out if there are publicly available dCloud labs that have older versions of NSO running.

Other than that, I would say you are out of luck.

[bigevilbeard · Accepted solution]

You cannot get a free trial on older software as far as i know @Torbjørn ​  without a contract. Typically with versions, it is a minimum requirement. I saw a few folks using version 5.5, when however 5.7 was the latest without issues. I would check the release notes https://developer.cisco.com/docs/nso/guides/#!nso-6-0/nso-6-0 - but the only major change i can see is Optimistic Concurrency introduced.

In creation of the exam the open source/community versions of all the software listed are noted as being sufficient for studying. Or use the devnet sandboxes for your hands on outside of the CWS.

I also replied here too https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/s/topic/0TO3i0000008jY5GAI/devnet-certifications-community

Good luck with your studies!