Table Of Contents
Product Bulletin, No. 1216
Definitions
Milestone Purposes
Customer Impact
For More Information
Product Bulletin, No. 1216
Channel Interface Processor and Channel Port Adapter Microcode Software Releases 22 and 24 End of Sales and End of Engineering Milestones
This product bulletin serves as formal notification that Channel Interface Processor (CIP) and Channel Port Adapter (CPA) microcode software releases associated with Cisco IOS" Release 11.2 and 11.2BC will reach End of Engineering milestones as shown in Table 1.
Table 1 End of Engineering Milestones for Release 22 and 24
Microcode Milestone
|
Date
|
Impact
|
Release 22 End of Engineering
|
01/31/2001
|
Will no longer receive any additional maintenance releases
|
Release 24 End of Engineering
|
01/31/2001
|
Will no longer receive any additional maintenance releases
|
Note: 
If the End of Engineering date for Cisco IOS Release 11.2 is extended beyond January 31, 2001, the End of Engineering date for microcode Release 22 will be similarly extended.
The End of Engineering and End of Sales dates for CIP and CPA microcode releases will now be associated with the End of Engineering and End of Sales dates for their associated Cisco IOS releases. For example, when the End of Engineering for Cisco IOS Release 12.0 is announced, the End of Engineering for microcode Release 26 will also apply. The purpose of this change is to enter a mode of support for the microcode releases that is similar to the mode of support for Cisco IOS software.
Table 2 shows the relationships between current Cisco IOS releases and their associated microcode releases.
Table 2 Cisco IOS and Associated Microcode Releases
Cisco IOS Release Number
|
Microcode Release Number
|
Release 11.2
|
Release 22
|
Release 11.2BC
|
Release 24
|
Release 12.0
|
Release 26
|
Release 12.1
|
Release 27
|
Definitions
The following definitions apply to these milestones:
•End of SalesæAfter this milestone date, the software release can no longer be ordered. Releases that reach this milestone are still available through the Field Service Organization (FSO) and Cisco Connection Online (CCO) for customers under maintenance contract or for Customer Service Engineering (CSE) support until they reach the End of Life milestone.
•End of EngineeringæAfter this milestone date, no scheduled maintenance releases will be produced for the major release. Releases that reach this milestone are still available through FSO and CCO for customers under maintenance contract or for CSE support until they reach the End of Life milestone.
•End of LifeæAfter this milestone date, a minimum of one year following End of Engineering, the software release is no longer officially supported by CSE and is removed from CCO.
Milestone Purposes
Moving Cisco IOS microcode releases through these milestones serves several purposes:
•To simplify the task of selecting and ordering software for customers and account managers by reducing the number of releases concurrently available
•To encourage customers to take advantage of the advanced features in the current release of Cisco IOS software
•To help focus our development resources on recent releases in order to continue delivering timely, high-quality software releases
•To improve software support by reducing the number of versions currently available
Customer Impact
This news will have the greatest impact on customers who have settled on older microcode releases as their "standard" router network software. Important issues to note follow:
•Customer Engineering (CE) will still answer technical questions regarding Cisco IOS Release 11.2 and 11.2BC.
•To utilize an obsolete release on hardware platforms ordered in the future, customers can maintain the software on a TFTP server at their site and utilize netboot procedures. In most instances, this should not be a major issue because most customers likely keep software backups at their site to have a quick retrieval mechanism in case of emergency.
•The migration path for customers who are currently on Release 11.2 and 11.2BC is Release 12.0 and later 12.0 maintenance releases.
For More Information
Any questions about this product bulletin should be directed to ibd-pm-team@cisco.com.
