Upgrading my router from 2800 to 2900 series, will the IOS images match up?

Matthew Brennan · ‎03-17-2014

I have a Cisco 2821 running "c2800nm-advipservicesk9-mz.124-3i.bin" IOS image. All of my routers use the advanced IP services images. I was going to replace this unit with a 2901 or 2921 but the only options I get for IOS images are "c2900-universalk9-mz.SPA.151-4.M6.bin" which are for Universal IP Base IOS images. I use a lot of crypto and ipsec tunneling and I can't find anything to let me know if these images are compatible. I tried the side by side comparison and a lot of the features don't match but I don't know if they are now renamed as my IOS image is pretty dated. I also remember having to pay for licensing with the advanced IP images. Anyone help me out here?

Karsten Iwen · ‎03-19-2014

The image on the 2900 is always a "universal" that includes all features. But in your case you need at least the Security-license. So when you buy your new router, you should order a security-bundle which has the right license out of the box:

CISCO2901-SEC/K9
CISCO2911-SEC/K9
CISCO2921-SEC/K9

Richard Burts · ‎08-26-2014

The original poster asks "will my images match up". If you are looking for a 1 to 1 match between old images for 2800 and new images for 2900 there is not a 1 to 1 match. As Karsten has explained the 2900 uses the Universal image where all of the features are already in the code, which is a quite different approach than the 2800 where it is a different image when you move from IP Base to Advanced IP Services. With the new Universal image the functionality is already in the code and you just must get the correct license to enable the code.

In the larger sense the images should be pretty compatible. Certainly the crypto and IPSec tunneling are supported in the Universal image when you have the Security license. There are probably some new features introduced in the 2900 that were not in the 2800 and perhaps some old feature in the 2800 is not in the 2900. But in general you should not encounter any incompatibility issues as you upgrade from 2800 to 2900.

HTH

Rick

HTH

Rick