Cisco 9200 IOS-XE upgrade with or without NPE

[johnlloyd_13]

hi,

i'll upgrade a cisco 9200 switch and noticed there's two flavors: plain IOS-XE and with NPE. which one do i choose?

https://software.cisco.com/download/home/286320176/type/282046477/release/Gibraltar-16.12.4

cat9k_lite_iosxe.16.12.04.SPA.bin

cat9k_lite_iosxe_npe.16.12.04.SPA.bin

per checking NPE, we don't run IPSEC or SSL VPN on the switch. is safe just to go with the plain IOS-XE (without the NPE)?

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/ios-nx-os-software/ios-packaging/product_bulletin_c25-566278.html

[Leo Laohoo]

I'd rather go with the firmware that supports encryption.  You just won't know if you may need it in a jiffy and rebooting the stack is not an option.