Introduction
The purpose of this document is to help you understand the IOS XR software release strategy and help you select the optimal IOS XR release for deployment in your production network.
| This content of this document, including the projected release dates, should be understood only as a guideline. I suggest that you always contact your account team at Cisco to obtain a the IOS XR suggestion for your specific deployment scenario. |
Official information on IOS XR releases is available in the "Guidelines for Cisco IOS XR Software"document.
What Is An Extended Maintenance Release (EMR)
For us at Cisco it is very important to deliver the new features and hardware that your network requires, while at the same time maintain the high software quality. We are continuously investing efforts to improve the quality of our software and hardware. We are adjusting our culture, processes and practices to achieve that goal.
One of the key concepts in the software quality plan is the Extended Maintenance Release (EMR) introduced in IOS XR for the first time with the release 4.3.4.
Extended Maintenance Release (EMR) criteria:
- No new software features
- No new HW support
- Incoming bug rate to drop by at least 90% from peak rate for that release.
- Zero critical bugs.
By choosing the EMR for deployment, you are making the optimal choice. We will be happy to work with you on EMR early field trials or any other way to help synchronise your upgrade/migration plan with the EMR release schedule.
By selecting the EMR you are not only making sure that you are getting the best quality release, you are also selecting a release with the highest deployment rate.
Benefit Of Upgrading To A Most Recent EMR
A comparison of XR 6.4.2 and 5.3.3 illustrates the benefit of upgrading to a recent EMR:
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Software Stability
- Improved Software Stability:
- Reduced number of SMU’s and SMU’s that need reboot. 59% Improvement, normalising by Installed base, in the last 3 years.
- 42% Improvement on Sev. 1&2 SW defects (2019 Vs. 2017).
- Improved system debuggability
Impact:
- Enhanced Network Availability
- Reduced Time to Restore
- Reduced Business Impact and operational costs
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Software Quality
- Improved SW Quality:
- Reduced Number of SW Incidents 58% Improvement of 6.4.2 Vs. 5.3.3. normalizing SW defects by Installed base (3 Years timeframe)
- 40% Improvement of 6.4.2 Vs. 5.3.4. (≈ 2 years timeframe)
- Improved system debuggability
Impact:
- Enhanced Operational Excellence
- Reduced time to Resolution
- Reduced Operational Cost
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Vulnerability Risk:
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New functionalities:
- New Features for new Services
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Is The Latest EMR Always The Suggested Release?
Until recently we were always suggesting the most recent EMR for general deployments. We have heard your concerns over changing the suggested release tag too quickly. We have hence decided to slow down the change in suggested releases tag. This does not change the concept of an EMR, everything stated in above section still stands. If you need the latest features, the most recent EMR is what you should consider. If you prefer to wait until a release has more exposure in the field, go for one of the suggested releases.
Managing Your IOS XR Install Base
Keeping your IOS XR installation up to date with is very important. We continue providing software patches through:
Support for CSM Server has officially been terminated in year 2022. Since this was never a commercial product, there was no official EoL notice.
Another benefit of deploying EMR is that more software patches are available compared to other releases. Number of software patches (SMUs) available per release is directly proportional to the number of our customers running the release. Also, on EMR we try to provide, when technically feasible, SMUs for issues affecting the usability of IOS XR, not only for critical issues directly impacting the services. Service Packs (SPs) are also built more frequently compared to non-EMR releases.
SMU and SP concepts are explained in the "Service Pack Overview for Routers that Run Cisco IOS XR" document.
Service Pack and/or SP-GISO schedule for a platform/release depends on multiple factors and hence there's no explicit schedule.
SMU vs SP vs GISO
Before the introduction of CSM Server, deriving the optimised SMU list for a given install base was a challenging task. Service Pack (SP) was introduced to deliver on operational simplicity.
On 32-bit IOS XR, SP is a single package that can be installed on the system regardless of the active base packages. For example, if BNG package is not active on the system, all BNG elements in the SP are ignored during SP activation.
On 64-bit IS XR, SP is a tarball containing the optimised set of production SMUs posted to date. User should unpack the tarball and install only the RPMs of interest individually or by re-packaging them into a new tarball. For better alignment to the SP concept, from year 2021 onwards the 64-bit SP is provided in a form of a Golden ISO image.
You can build your custom GISO using gisobuild, but you can also make use of the SP-GISO that we are publishing for 64-bit and XR7 EMR releases. SP-GISO includes all base packages and all SMUs posted to date.
64-bit vs 32-bit vs XR7 IOS XR
The 64-bit flavour of IOS XR is available for ASR9000 starting from XR release 6.1.2. Up to and including IOS XR major release 6.6.x, there is no different release number for the 32-bit and 64-bit IOS XR. The 64-bit software packages are designated by the 'x64' in the package name (e.g. ASR9K-x64-iosxr-px-6.1.2.tar). Split between 32-bit and 64-bit release numbering starts with IOS XR major release 7.0.x. As a consequence, the 7.x.x releases are available only for 64-bit capable platforms. Support for 32-bit IOS XR on ASR9000 continues with 6.7.x, 6.8.x, etc.
For more information, including the required minimum hardware for running 64-bit IOS XR on ASR 9000 platform, refer to the "Cisco ASR 9000 Series IOS XR 64 Bit Data Sheet".
IOS XR platforms that run the 64-bit IOS XR (aka eXR) are: ASR9000, some models of NCS540, NCS560, NCS5000, NCS5500, some models of NCS5700.
IOS XR platforms that run XR7 are: 8000, some models of NCS540, some models of NCS5700.
XR7 is also a 64-bit IOS XR based on linux, but it doesn't include virtualisations. From practical perspective it means that there's no more Admin and XR VM, the IOS XR runs directly on linux.
Suggestions For Year 2023
Following table shows the suggested releases for general deployment in calendar year 2022. We may decide to provide a further release update (e.g. 7.5.3) for some specific deployment scenarios on specific platforms. If you would like to know whether your deployment scenario falls into that category please reach out to your account team at Cisco.
| Platform |
Release |
Comment |
| 8000 |
7.5.3, 7.7.2 |
7.5.3 is an EMR only for 8000
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| ASR9000 64-bit |
7.5.2, 7.7.2 |
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| ASR9000 32-bit |
6.8.2 |
- Last release for A9K-RSP440 is 6.4.2 (EoS-EoL notice)
- Last release for ASR9k 2nd generation line cards (aka Typhoon) is 6.7.3, except asr9001.
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| CRS |
6.7.4 |
6.7.4 was released only for CRS |
| NCS540 |
7.5.2, 7.7.2
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| NCS560 |
7.5.2, 7.7.2 |
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| NCS5000 |
7.5.2 |
These releases are for standalone use of NCS5k. For satellite use, refer to ASR9k SW suggestion.
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| NCS5500 |
7.5.2, 7.7.2, |
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NCS5700
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7.5.2, 7.7.2 |
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| NCS6000 |
7.2.2 |
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| XRv9000 |
7.5.2, 7.7.2 |
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The following table shows the IOS XR EMR schedule planning:
IOS XR tentative release schedule
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Disclaimer: future release dates and numbers are tentative and may change without notice.
(*) LA == Limited Availability. If you need access to this release please contact your account team at Cisco
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| Release |
FCS
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Comment |
| 7.5.3 EMR |
2022-09-20 |
- EMR for Cisco 8000
- Not a General Availability release for other platforms.
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| 7.7.2 EMR |
2022-10-30 |
EMR for all IOS XR routing platforms |
| 7.8.2 EMR |
2022-03-17 |
EMR for all IOS XR routing platforms
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7.9.2 EMR
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2022-Q3/Q4 |
EMR for all IOS XR routing platforms
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We hope you find this document useful. Happy roll-out of IOS XR!
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