Downloading IOS software

[ccnguy]

Hello,

I have just set up a new lab and am looking for a newer version of ios for a 2620 router. I have a friend in the industry that says that I need to purchase a license to download ios. Is this true? I read that if you have say 100 routers and you have purchased the feature pack for them then you can download the ios as long as it is the same feature set. If smartnet is purchased for some of the routers then you could obtain login and password for cisco downloads. I did not know that you need to purchase for all routers?

Thanks

 

[jneiberger]

You must have SmartNET contracts in place if you want to legally download images from CCO, and that's true no matter how many routers you have. And, you can only download images with the same feature set.

For example, let's say you purchased a license for a 2620 IP IOS and then also got a SmartNET contract for the router. You could legally download updates with the IP-only feature set but you could not legally download any other feature sets, e.g. IP PLUS, IP PLUS 3DES, etc.

 

[ccnguy]

So if the main routers were covered by smartnet but the smaller one's were not because this is a hardware contract and who cares about the little guys then still an ios could not be downloaded for the smaller routers? Even if the smaller routers all had feature packs purchased for them?
Then what is the benefit of the feature pack?

Thanks

 

[jneiberger]

If you purchase a software license for a router then you may use that software on that router. If you later want to upgrade, for any reason, then you must have a SmartNet contract or you'll have to buy a software license for the new version.

If you're changing feature sets then you'll have to buy a new license whether or not you have a contract.

That contract status of a different device has no bearing. Just because I have a 24x7x4 contract on my 7513 and 6513 doesn't mean that I'm automatically eligible for software upgrades on the 120 Cisco 2620XMs in my network.