Cisco ios and later release, how can we tell?

[sarahr202]

Hi everybody

Please consider the following excerpt from my book:

"With Cisco IOS Software Release 12.1(13)E and later, VLAN IDs might be in the range of 1 to 4094, except in the case of reserved VLANs. With Cisco IOS Release 12.1(11b)E or later, you can remove VLAN 1 from a trunk port. Even after removing VLAN 1 from a trunk, the trunk interface continues to send and receive management traffic. For example, CDP, VTP, Port Aggregation Protocol (PAgP), and DTP all use VLAN 1, regardless of the existence of VLAN 1 on the port."

How can we tell if certain ios is later release than ios 12.1(13) E?   For example  if we have windows OS like  windows 95. windows 98. windows 2000 etc  we can tell  which windows OS is most latest.

thanks and have a great weekend

[Leo Laohoo · Accepted solution]

How can we tell if certain ios is later release than ios 12.1(13) E? 

I generally look at the number inside the "brackets".  The higher the number the later.

If you have access to Cisco Software Downloads, it keeps "tracks" of what you are downloading.  It will also "inform" you that you've LAST downloaded, for instance, an IOS for the 2960S version 15.0(1)SE and the latest one available is 15.0(1)SE2.  Both versions are HTML links so if you click on the newer version the page will take you to the download page.

[Reza Sharifi · Accepted solution]

Hi Sarah,

If you do a "sh ver" on the switch or router, it will tell you what version of IOS you are running.  I can tell you that 12.1(13)E is pretty old.  After 12.1 revisions came 12.2, 12.3 and 12.4.  Now days for routers the latest is IOS 15 with multiple revisions. For example, here is a link to the 2800 series IOS versions.

http://www.cisco.com/cisco/software/release.html?mdfid=279120798&flowid=7533&softwareid=280805680&release=15.1.4M3&relind=AVAILABLE&rellifecycle=MD&reltype=latest

HTH

[Richard Burts · Accepted solution]

Reza

Your answer is correct for router IOS. But as I read the question it starts with 12.1(11b)E and is dealing with VLAN IDs which are aspects of Catalyst OS. For CAT OS there are not any 12.3, 12.4, or 15. The release numbering and the associated capabilities of the release are quite different between router IOS and Catalyst IOS.

HTH

Rick

[Reza Sharifi]

Rick,

I understand there are different releases for different platforms.  I wasn't really trying to list every single IOS for every platform here but rather provide an example.   If she clicks on the link I provided above, this will show the IOS versions for the 2800 series.  Now, if she clicks on product at the top of the same page, that will take her to the product list, from there she can pick only platform she wants and go from there.

HTH

Reza

[Kishore Chennupati · Accepted solution]

Sarah,

As the gentlemen have advised, higher the number more recent the IOS. If you access the downloads section on the cisco website and look for an IOS you will be able to see the IOS's list in order of their evolution.

HTH

Kishore