While reviewing one of my remote office environments, I found a small edge router running antiquated, known-buggy code that Cisco has classified as “deferred”. For the uninitiated, when Cisco classifies an IOS release as “deferred”, that means that they don’t want you to run it because it’s known to be problematic. Some stability, security, or other critical issue has rendered the code to be unsuitable for production environments.Out of habit, I logged into Cisco’s site, and proceeded to download the latest code for this device. The idea was to bring this router up to something that’s known to be stable and vulnerability free, especially considering it’s Internet-facing.I can’t download the code. It looks like Cisco is matching CCO ID with associated SmartNet contracts.
In this video I show you how to download Cisco IOS images and Cisco VIRL images to run IOSv, IOSvL2. Download Cisco IOS image for GNS3 Hi dear all, that's really a great to share my. So without talking much here are the link where you can free download Cisco ios. Currently, it is not required to have Cisco account associated with service.
If the device you’re trying to download software for doesn’t match up with what’s covered in your contracts, your download will fail.I’m going to guess this enforcement has been going on for a while, and this is just the first time I’ve run into it. We have a number of large SmartNet contracts, so this has just never come up for me in the past. Now that it has though, I’ve got some issues with Cisco’s approach. This is a lousy way to enforce licensing agreements.
All this will serve to accomplish is growth in the warez and gray market for IOS images people need to get their jobs done. Not that I’m condoning that approach – I’m just pointing at the elephant in the room. I need to upgrade bad code Cisco shipped to me with a smile, but instead I’m stuck with the problems. In the auto industry, that would be called selling me a lemon. Therefore, Cisco is making me pay extra for the privilege of running code that isn’t borked.
That’s bad customer service, and it’s potentially bad for the Internet as a whole, depending on what sort of borked the code is. It’s really inconvenient. As if the IOS software download system isn’t painful enough to navigate, I am taken all the way to the end of the download process to discover I’m being denied access to the required image. Cisco, you need to do better. If you’re going to enforce licensing based on CCO/SmartNet associations, why not just present me with a list of devices you will allow me to upgrade/unbork? Obviously, you’ve got the data on the backend already, so don’t make me guess.
I’ve worked for multiple Cisco partners as well as large Cisco customers, and I’ve done my time in the SmartNet trenches. SmartNet contracts are one of the most poorly organized and administrated systems I’ve seen in the world of technology. New numbers are issued with every device unless you’re very explicit, and even then your instructions are often ignored.
Different coverage levels require different SmartNet contracts. Your VAR instead of YOU) can get coverage for a given serial number, and there’s effectively no central management for a specific organization. Migrating devices between contracts is a brutal process. Co-terminus agreements are a battle to obtain. When ordering coverage, there is no predictable means of notification as to the coverage level, when the contract started, the contract numbers, or associated serial numbers.
It’s an epic, end-to-end FAIL. And now I’m forced to maintain my Cisco infrastructure based on this foundation? I agree with everything Ethan has said here. SmartNet is great when it works but the administrative load to maintain it is unbelievable.
I’ve worked in one company with one contract admin per three engineers because the problem is so bad.Worse still, Cisco relies on buggy code being “found” in the field to feed back to the developers to fix – clearly their own testing isn’t good enough to produce reliable code.And partner based maintenance is even worse because it builds on the poor foundations of Cisco maintenance.Needs fixing. I just received an email on 10/17 informing me of the lock restricts that were put into place on 10/10. To be fair, there was an email indicating the change was coming sometime around end of Dec/beginning of January.Either way, it’s still a PITA.
Here’s a question though, if you have say a router not under SMARTNet and another one that is under, if they run the same base code train – what stops you from downloading? I’m thinking with regards to some of the different ISR routers. I mean, is there enough of a subtle difference in code bases across ISR models to make a difference?Also, the argument of just find an applicable PSIRT to your device so you can grab code is crap. I mean, sure that might work but it’s crappy that you have to try and circumvent the system that way. Furthermore, to Kurt’s point, how the hell are consultants supposed to support their customer base in the instances where they are providing support for the client?Just my two cents ?. I’ve been getting ‘warnings’ for about a year. I got the email a few weeks ago as well but have not had anything blocked yet.
I, too, am a consultant and its usually quite a hassle to get on to a customer’s contract, especially for a short engagement or when the customer is not even sure who in their organization can request new access for other parties.We also experience enormous amounts of pain in selling/registering SMARTnets. Considering the amount of margin a reseller makes on small contracts for low-end ASAs, small routers, switches, etc, it’s really not close to worth our time and yet we have to do it to ensure the customer has access to code updates and hardware replacement.Ryan Malayter says. What I don’t get is why people still continue to blindly throw money at Cisco given the audacious pricing and downward quality and support trends. There are so many good alternatives out there now: HP, Arista, Juniper, Force10, Extreme, Brocade. It’s not just “Cisco versus low-end crap” anymore. Vote with your dollars people.
For many organizations, managing multiple vendor’s gear over a transition period can be less painful and costly than blindly continuing on with Cisco just because they’re Cisco.Cisco doesn’t have a unified OS image or management toolset anyway – managing devices from their different product lines is just as much of a headache as managing gear from multiple vendors.Microsoft has learned and improved greatly in recent years because customers stopped upgrading or went to alternative platforms. Keep Cisco honest, and they’ll be forced to do the same.
Microsoft tried this years ago and got shouted down for not allowing pirated boxes to get patched. Obviously not as big a problem on Ciscos until someone compiles a list of boxes vulnerable to one-packet kills and starts laughing as they bounce 1300 small companies repeatedly around the world.I’m more worried about the logistics of maintaining large Cisco environments.
It was already a headache on about 57 levels, now it’s 58. Probably was for years, but my last Cisco shop was really uniform so we didn’t notice.Remember when a CCIE meant you could download IOS? Ethan.Spot on. Thank you, I sometimes feel I am alone shouting in the dark about Cisco’s appalling Smartnet maintenance processes.
This whole code download restriction is just the latest in a long line of issues that I’ve faced as a Cisco partner.We manage maintenance accounts from a number of vendors including Cisco, Bluecoat, RSA, Juniper, HP, IBM, Cybertech, Expand, Dell, Tripwire and Tipping Point and I can honestly say that “managing” Cisco maintenance processes takes more time than all of the rest of the vendors combined.If anything, it has got even worse with the maintenance requirements on UC products. Cisco charge for software support (called ESW) and subscription (called UCSS) services over above traditional hardware support contracts. No issue with paying for this, however Cisco’s internal processes just don’t work.As an example, I have bought Communications Manager version 6, and the relevant software support and subscription services which entitles me to upgrades. Guess what, I can’t download Comms Manager version 7 or 8 as apparently I’m not entitled to it. Because according to someone at Cisco, the entitlement process doesn’t understand ESW/UCSS.
I have to manually ask the entitlements department for each and every file I want to download, and they then send me a download link. Plain redicuclous.It gets worse. Cisco’s new licensing model for UC includes license bundles that allows multiple products to be purchased by a single part code. For example, I can buy Comms Manager, Unity Connection (voicemail) and IP Communicator (soft phone) using something called Workspace licensing. ESW/UCSS needs to be purchased on this too, but guess what, the entitlement process doesn’t understand this either and I can’t download any of the above products even though I’ve paid Cisco a load of money for exactly this.Sorry, this is turning into a rantThere is another Smartnet alternative (other than buying solutions from a vendor that can actually provide decent processes) called Smartcare. This is designed for SME clients and relies on an appliance being installed on the customer’s network and reporting back to Cisco what is installed.
Our experience is that the overall process is a little better than Smartnet, however the issues with entitlement downloads still remain.Barry.
Lets say you have a Cisco router that’s running an out of date IOS version and want to get a more recent image. It’s safe to say you’ll want to avoid resorting to piracy, Perhaps you don’t want to spend the money on a SMARTnet subscription. There’s a way to legally obtain an updated version that many people over look, security updates.As it stands, states that (emphasis mine):As a special customer service, and to improve the overall security of the Internet, Cisco may offer customers free of charge software updates to address security problems. If Cisco has offered a free software update to address a specific issue, noncontract customers who are eligible for the update may obtain it by contacting the Cisco TAC using any of the means described in the Contact Summary section of this document. To verify their entitlement, individuals who contact the TAC should have available the URL of the Cisco document that is offering the update.Great!
So we can probably get free updates if they fix a security issue, so what next? To identify what vulnerabilities are present in the version of IOS you’re running. Paste in the output of the “ show ver” command and you’ll be presented with a list of vulnerabilities affecting your device.With that information, including the output of the “show ver” command and the list of vulnerabilities and you will be sent a one-off link to obtain the latest IOS image for your device, free of charge. After 2 years of this post, i can say it still works.After sending few emails with the TAC i just got from them the lastest firmware for my cisco router.Just a mention for anybody that is trying to obtain free firmware from TAC. After 2-3 emails, they said i cannot ever obtain a free firmware from them, but i just copy-pasted the following lines from any cisco security advisory, from the Obtaining Fixed Software section:“Customers Without Service ContractsCustomers should have the product serial number available and be prepared to provide the URL of this advisory as evidence of entitlement to a free upgrade.
Customers without service contracts should request free upgrades through the TAC.”. I’m currently struggling with this. I emailed them 6 days ago and again 2 days ago. Included all the required information but didn’t get any response, not even an automated one.(This is about an AP I just bought which shipped with outdated firmware affected by the infamous KRACK vulnerabilities. I honestly didn’t know you need a service contract just to download firmware updates without having to beg for them.
I mean it’s not a $$$$$ router, just an access point for 200 bucks Seriously, Cisco?). Still working!I have two separate devices I came into possession of recently, since I’m currently studying for my CCNA. I had two separate tickets in to TAC engineers (for a Cisco 2800 router and a 3560 8-port switch). My first email this morning was sent late last night after midnight. They got back to me a few hours later and the back and forth emails started at about 9:30 when I woke up this morning. Just now, at about 4PM I downloaded both IOS images for both devices after they sent me a special link to download them.Now I gotta learn how to update both devicesThanks for this information!