Cisco ISR G2 / IOS Activation

Cisco officially released their new ISR G2 routers (860, 880, 890, 1900, 2900, 3900) today!

Official Announcement: Shortcut Redirect - Cisco Systems
Network World has a brief rundown: NEW Cisco Routers! ISR G2 | NetworkWorld.com Community

I found the new software activation for IOS 15.0 particularly interesting.

Although it will probably be a long time before any of these new routers will be necessary for certifications purposes, I wonder what effect this will have on the used equipment market. Briefly looking at the documentation it seems that each device will come pre-installed with a device specific license that will activate a certain feature set and can be upgraded by purchasing an upgrade license key from Cisco. This will likely inhibit the use of the routers for studying since we will be unable to upgrade to a higher feature set without relicensing the IOS. Of course it's always been against Cisco's EULA to do this, so I'm not sure how much we can complain.

Hopefully the current generation routers that can run 15.0 will not use this activation process. I find it likely that we will see 15.0 features on the exams long before ISR G2 routers are need for studying.

Find more posts tagged with

Free for TechExams community: Cybersecurity salary guide

Compare cert salaries and plan your next career move

Button

Comments

tiersten

Yeah. They've had IOS 15.0 up on CCO for the new routers for a while now.

The software licensing feature is already in the newer switches, PIX/ASA firewalls and IOS-XE/IOS-XR routers. The last time it was discussed people were worried about the requirements for cert people. One idea which would be nice if Cisco implemented it is that they have some training licenses which are restricted in terms of throughput or maximum connections whilst still allowing all the various features to be used. You'd be able to use it in a lab but wouldn't want to actually use it in a production environment.

kalebksp

Ah, I didn't realize this had been discussed before.

A training IOS would be a good idea. Though I would be surprised if it actually happened.

tiersten

kalebksp wrote: »

Ah, I didn't realize this had been discussed before.

Nah. It was just a brief mention when 15.0 was released. Don't think anybody actually talked about it.

kalebksp wrote: »

A training IOS would be a good idea. Though I would be surprised if it actually happened.

It would be nice but I also doubt it'd ever happen. Some sort of cheap hardware option as well would be nice but that is even less likely to happen but I can dream

All that would happen is that more people will start using Dynamips with a 7200 platform. There is currently a roadblock for implementing any of the newer architectures because of all the Cisco ASICs in the newer systems. This means that eventually Dynamips will stop working for new IOS releases...

isrexperts

The ISR G2 Platforms provide a 60 Day Evaluation License which allows customer to try out functionality in upgraded feature sets. For more information please visit: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10616/index.html

Also, I wish to confirm that the current generation routers that can run 15.0 will not use this activation process.

mikej412

isrexperts wrote: »

The ISR G2 Platforms provide a 60 Day Evaluation License which allows customer to try out functionality in upgraded feature sets. For more information please visit: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10616/index.html

Also, I wish to confirm that the current generation routers that can run 15.0 will not use this activation process.

Thanks for the good information -- you truly are an ISR Expert

tiersten

isrexperts wrote: »

The ISR G2 Platforms provide a 60 Day Evaluation License which allows customer to try out functionality in upgraded feature sets. For more information please visit: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10616/index.html

Also, I wish to confirm that the current generation routers that can run 15.0 will not use this activation process.

Ahh. Thats nice. Thanks for the info!

chmod

Hi TE experts,

I have a question i recently update a cisco 1841 to IOS 15, I still don't get how the licensing system works.

This is the output of the show license command:

#show license
Index 1 Feature: ios-ips-update
Index 2 Feature: IOS-WAAS-TEST
Period left: Not Activated
Period Used: 0 minute 0 second
License Type: Evaluation
License State: Not in Use, EULA not accepted
License Count: Non-Counted
License Priority: None
Index 3 Feature: SSL_VPN

I used to have and advancedsecurityk9 image 12.4-25 t4(something like this), working just fine i upgraded and everything is working just fine but i'm not for what i'm entitled for, i still have those router under contract(smartnet), do i have to pay something extra? is this stuff going to stop working suddendly one day?