Cisco 9300/3650 should we move on past Everest 16.6.9 now?

[dadya06]

We had avoided moving since the Call Home/Smart Licensing was a bit hokey in the beginning requiring a VM to be running. Has it improved? We are only using Network Essentials level on our devices. If we did upgrade where is the sweet spot? Two of our latest devices came with Amsterdam 17.03.05 installed. Thanks

[Leo Laohoo]

Even if the 3650 is running 16.6.X, something more sinister than CSL is running in the background & waiting to crash the stack:  An expired QuoVadis Root CA 2 certificate (FN - 72323 - Cisco IOS XE Software: QuoVadis Root CA 2 Decommission Might Affect Smart Licensing, Smart Call Home, and Other Functionality).

The only way to escape this is to downgrade to 3.6.X or 3.7.X.

[Edson A. Hernandez]

I suggest using the offline mode. Just keep in mind that offline mode require a bit more manual work because the report needs to be generated on the switch and manually uploaded to CSSM, and from there get the ACK file and upload it back to the switch so that the switch becomes aware that CSSM acknowledged the license usage report.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/lan/catalyst_slr/b-169-9000-series-SLR-cg/b-169-9000-series-SLR-cg_chapter_00.html