IOS XR Release 5.3.4 for ASR9000 and CRS

[Aleksandar Vidakovic]

[toc:faq]

IOS XR Release 5.3.4 Introduction

IOS XR release 5.3.4 is a supplemental Extended Maintenance Release for the ASR9000 and CRS platforms. The previous EMR 5.3.3 maintains the EMR status. IOS XR release 5.3.4 is the Cisco suggested software release for all ASR9000 and CRS deployments.

The driver for XR release 5.3.4 was to provide a leaner 5.3.x SW package for the older generation of ASR9000 and CRS cards because beyond XR release 5.3.x these older generation cards are not supported. The end goal is much more than that: XR release 5.3.4 enhances the quality of 5.3.3 release by:

• Hardening target areas:
• A9K-VSM-500 infrastructure
• BNG:
• special attention to PWHE and Satellite as subscriber access interfaces
• Geo-Redundancy
• FPD
• EnvMon on ASR9K
• Infrastructure hardening on CRS
• Integrating selected SW fixes:
• Released 5.3.x Production SMUs
• Selected customer found SW defects (bug scrub, early trial, 5.3.x deployments)
• fixes for SW bugs found during 5.3.4 test cycle

XR Release 5.3.4 Content and Delivery

Feature content of XR release 5.3.4 is identical to 5.3.3. 

Early Trial

Early trial is closed with the posting of the release. 

[eric.follos]

So where is 5.3.4 in comparison to 5.3.3?  Based on the timing does it line up with fixes in 5.3.3 SP4?

[Aleksandar Vidakovic]

5.3.4 is much more than 5.3.3 SP4. We have included fixes for issues found in internal 5.3.4 hardening and fixes for issues found in 5.3.x deployments.

[gogie]

Hello Alexander,

Does it makes sense to ask for 534 EFT or official version will appear on CCO by 15 Sept?

Regards

George

[Aleksandar Vidakovic]

hi George,

5.3.4 FCS may slip a little (~1 week). If you have a setup already available for testing 5.3.4, I can share the latest pre-release version with you. Pass me your CCO ID via private message and I'll take care of the rest.

regards,

Aleksandar

[eric.follos]

Hello Alexander,

5.3.4.15I in the lab.  Any updates on when this release should be available?  

Thanks,

Eric

[Aleksandar Vidakovic]

Hi Eric,

we are integrating some last minute fixes to avoid the need for day-1 SMUs. The new date is October 7th.

I realise this making the completion of the validation and rollout planning very difficult for you and all other customers. My apologies for the delay. We are doing our best to make this a release of a solid quality.

Regards,

Aleksandar

[Nsight_Transport]

Alexsander - last week we moved to 5.3.4 on a 9001 running 5.1.3 SP9.  We had a BGP peering interface configured as a bundle.  After the upgrade the bundle's mac address changed:

d867.d93e.7922

-changed to-

d867.d93e.7923

...the content provider we peer with was using a static mac configuration on its side, so needless to say, this quick upgrade became a rather lengthy outage by the time we were able to get to the content providers noc to have them make the changes.

Is that expected behavior?  I've never really payed much attention to the mac's on interfaces, so maybe this is common with XR upgrades in general?  Just curious as to why that happened and hoping you had some ideas.  Thanks

~Dan

[Anoop Kalikot Veetil]

Hi Dan,

Yes, this is an expected behavior and is documented. If required you could do static mac on bundle.

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/routers/asr9000/software/asr9k_r5-1/interfaces/configuration/guide/hc51xasr9kbook/hc51lbun.html#pgfId-1011834

RSP2 based systems (RSP4G, 8G) do not change the bundle MAC address across reloads. But RSP440 based systems including Cisco ASR 9001 Series Router might change the bundle MAC address across reloads.

regards/Anoop

[Nsight_Transport]

Thanks.  Appreciate the quick reply.

~Dan

[lukas.tribus]

Can you confirm both 5.3.3 and 5.3.4's "End of SW Maintenance" is August 2017 and that 6.2.3 EMR's FCS is August 2017 as well?

Thanks

[smailmilak]

Hi,

Eddie Chami wrote:

"You can expect Service Pack(SP) and SMU support till Aug 2018. This is why we want many customers on 5.3.4."

You can find it in this discussion.

[lukas.tribus]

thanks!

[Rich R]

Hi Aleksandar

• Hardening target areas:

   - FPD

Please could you elaborate on exactly what the FPD changes are?

Thanks and kind regards

Richard

[Aleksandar Vidakovic]

hi Richard,

on asr9k the most notable change is the shorter FPD upgrade time. To make use of this, you would have to upgrade the IOS XR first before upgrading the FPD. There was also about a dozen bug fixes related to FPD.

Please refer also to https://supportforums.cisco.com/document/13116771/fpd-101-asr9k-platform.

regards,

/Aleksandar

[Rich R]

Thanks Aleksandar.