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Cisco IOS-XE with SDWAN Feature Upgrade

Today I am going to talk about the Viptela SD-WAN functionality on the Cisco IOS XE Routers. Now you can have the same vEdge SD-WAN functionality on the Cisco devices. If you have Cisco IOS-XE devices in your environment, you just need to upgrade the IOS and you will ready to use the SD-WAN features.

 What and when these SD-WAN features are there in Cisco IOS devices ?
Cisco done excellent job to incorporate the SD-WAN features in Cisco IOS-XE devices.IOS XE SD-WAN image provides SD-WAN functionality on IOS XE Routers. 
Fig 1.1- Viptela SD-WAN on Cisco IOS-XE devices

Today (Aug, 2018) that includes Cisco ASR routers, Cisco ISR routers. Below are the models where Cisco launches SD-WAN features.
    • ASR 1001-HX and ASR 1001-X
    • ASR 1002-HX and ASR 1002-X
    • Cisco ISR 4000 Routers 
    • ISR 4221
    • ISR 4321
    • SR 4331
    • SR 4351
    • Cisco ISR 1000 Routers 
    • C1111-8P, C1111-8P LTE EA, C1111-8P LA
    • C1117-4P LTE EA, C1117-4P LTE LA
As you are already aware Cisco routers do support wide variety of Network Modules to begin with below modules are supported on latest release (IOS XE SDWAN Software Release 16.9.1) –
    • NIM-1GE-CU-SFP
    • NIM-2GE-CU-SFP
    • NIM-1MFT-T1/E1
    • NIM-2MFT-T1/E1
    • NIM-4MFT-T1/E1
    • NIM-8MFT-T1/E1
    • NIM-ES2-4
    • NIM-ES2-8
    • NIM-LTEA-EA
    • NIM-LTEA-LA
    • NIM-VAB-A
    • NIM-VAB-M
    • SM-X-4X1G-1X10G
    • SM-X-6X1G
Before you proceed with upgrade it required you to focus on both software and hardware requirement as follows – 

Software Requirement: Lets talk about the Software versions which includes the Software of the IOS and the SD-WAN controller software with other features.

ROMMON Software version : 
  • ASR 1000 – 16.3 (2r)
  • ISR 4000 – 16.7 (3r)
  • ISR 1000 – 16.8 (1r)
Other Software Features :
  • SD WAN Controllers software should be 18.3 
  • If both vEdges and IOS-XE SDWAN Router coexist – minimum software on vEdge required is 17.2.1 or higher 
  • If vEdge and IOS XE SDWAN router is at same site – vEdge router should have 18.3 software version
  • Get the Chassis ID and Board ID using show crypto pki certificates CISCO_IDEVID_SUDI command 
  • Add Router Serial Number to PnP Portal 
Hardware Features :
  • DRAM Requirement :SR 4000 – 4GB (minimum) recommended to have 8 GB and ASR 1000 – 8GB
  • Boot-flash size minimum – 1.5 GB 
  • Remove all unsupported modules from the router before upgrade
Steps that are involved to upgrade the router – 
    • Download IOS XE SDWAN Software from Cisco Website
    • Install the Software on router 
    • Add the Router to PnP Portal