IOS 15.2.2E2, 15.2.2aE1 or 15.2.3E1

[ciscoprolin]

Hi Folks,

we plan to upgrade our Cisco 2960X and 2960S Switches to a 15.2. Version as we're confronted with the traceback and Link may go down randomly with GLC-T in uplink ports bugs.

We also have some mixed stacks made up of 2960S and 2960X Switches.

Do you have any experiences/recommendations for these IOS Versions ? Which one would you opt for ?

We are ogling with Version 15.2.2E2 as this one goes for both platforms 2960X and 2960S.

Any hint and experience greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Thorsten

[adwang_bing]

I can tell you right now, avoid all three of those releases.  They all have the OIR SFP bug where after a random period of operation, SFPs will stop functioning because the switch can't read them correctly.  Even though 15.0(2a)EX5 is technically a "maintenance interim" release, it is the most stable release available.  I have been either upgrading stacks running 15.2(3)E code or 15.0(2)EX5 code to 15.0(2a)EX5 and have not seen any issues for the last 4 months.  Be aware, another caveat you may bump into is that post upgrade, you may have to cold boot the switch stack as some switches may come up with the %ilet-1-authentication_fail error upon boot.  If you power off the switch via unplugging it from its power source and then plug it back in, the error will clear post upgrade.  This is an unwanted "gotcha" of the upgraded process.  About 50% of the stacks that I had on 15.2.3E code hit this bug.  The issue I have with going with 15.2.3E1 is that there is no verification via the "resolved" caveats section that states that the bug effecting GLC-T optics specifically is fixed in this release  I retract this statement, just checked release notes and the bug search tool that show that the GLC-T OIR/time out bug(s) have been resolved.  So it is more than likely that the bug still exists.