When to Upgrade IOS

[dancarroll]

How often should the IOS in a Catalyst 3550 be upgraded. Have a couple of 3550-48-EMI switches setup with vlans that basically work with their associated routers (firewalls) to relay traffic around and between our different subnets. They are now 2 years old with the original IOS - 12.1(22)EA1a. How do I know which versions of the IOS I could or should possibly upgrade to?

[henniae]

Some folks like to follow the rule "if it ain't broke don't fix it". Others like to keep current with the latest and greatest. There is no real hard fast rule.

Cisco does stop supporting code versions after predetermined lengths of time. Cisco also stops supporting hardware after predetermined lengths of time. It all depends how much risk you can tolerate.

I run 121-22.EA6 on my 3550's. This code version has been scrubbed by a dedicated support team of Cisco support engineers. These selections are based on what the top 500 Cisco customers are running in their networks.

In the end the choice is really yours. Do you want what has been working for the last 2 years or risk new code that could introduce errors and bugs?

Al

[dancarroll]

Definitely believe in not fixing 'what ain't broke' but do like to get the best functionality I can out of my systems. Guess I should have asked if there was anything good in the newer versions of the IOS for these boxes. Would like to stay current with any security fixes and anything that may improve the functionality or operations of my systems.