TAC Recommended AireOS Builds

Introduction

This document describes the way in which the customers can find the most reliable Wireless LAN Controller software available. The Cisco Wireless TAC (Technical Assistance Center) recommends AireOS builds from each train of released AireOS software. These recommendations may be updated on a weekly basis.

Contributed by Aaron Leonard, Cisco TAC Engineer.

Escalation Builds/Maintenance Interims

In some cases, the TAC recommended build might be an escalation or maintenance interim/beta build. Such builds are not available on CCO (Cisco.com), but have important bug fixes (beyond what is available in CCO code), and will be operational in production at customer sites for several weeks.

In order to request a TAC recommended escalation/maintenance interim build, open a Cisco TAC case on your Wireless LAN Controller contract.

Caution: If you are planning to upgrade AireOS WLC from an older code train to a recommended release and have IOS AP's in your deployment, please take a look at this article prior to performing the upgrade

TAC Recommended Builds

AireOS 7.0

TAC recommends 7.0.252.0 (latest CCO release).  No further 7.0 releases are planned.  The recommended migration path is to AireOS 8.0, if the hardware supports it.

AireOS 7.4

TAC recommends 7.4.150.0 (latest CCO release).  No further 7.4 releases are planned.  The recommended migration path is to AireOS 8.0.

AireOS 7.6

TAC does not recommend any 7.6 CCO release, and Cisco does not plan to release any more 7.6 maintenance releases on CCO. The recommended upgrade path for AireOS 7.6 customers is to 8.0.

AireOS 8.0

For AireOS 8.0 customers, TAC supports 8.0.152.0.  No further 8.0 releases are planned for CCO.

• 8.0.150.0 and 8.0.152.0 are susceptible to the AID Errors problem.  This is fixed in 8.0MR5esc, available from TAC.
  

AireOS 8.1

8.1.131.0 is the final maintenance release of AireOS 8.1, and is deferred. The recommended upgrade path for AireOS 8.1 customers is to 8.3 or, if feasible, 8.5.

AireOS 8.2

For deployments that require features or hardware introduced after 8.0, TAC supports 8.2.170.0.  8.2.170.0 is compliant with the mandatory ETSI regulatory update.  No further 8.2 releases are planned.

•  8.2 releases are not susceptible to the AID Errors problem.

AireOS 8.3

For deployments requiring features or hardware introduced after 8.2, TAC recommends 8.3.143.0.  The 8.3.143.0 release replaces 8.3.141.0 and earlier releases in order to comply with the mandatory ETSI regulatory update.

Please do be aware that, if running 8.3.14x.0 on AP2802/3802, you are likely to see CDP-4-DUPLEX-MISMATCH log messages from the APs' switches.  These error messages are spurious and can safely be ignored (CSCvi02106 ).  For more information, see the Field Notice.

No 8.3 releases are susceptible to the AID Errors problem, although some 8.3 escalation images are.

AireOS 8.4

AireOS 8.4 is a short-lived release with no maintenance planned, and is deferred.  Any deployment that requires post-8.3 features or hardware should run 8.5 instead.

AireOS 8.5

For deployments that require support for new features and hardware introduced after 8.3, TAC recommends AireOS 8.5.135.0, which is compliant with the mandatory ETSI regulatory update.

AireOS 8.6

AireOS 8.6.101.0 is a short-lived release with no maintenance planned, and is deferred.  Customers who require new features that are unavailable in 8.5 will need to run 8.7.

AireOS 8.7

AireOS 8.7.106.0 is a BU and TAC supported release, and is compliant with the mandatory ETSI regulatory update.  8.7 is a short-lived release with no maintenance planned.  Customers who require new features that are unavailable in 8.5 will need to run 8.7 or 8.8.

AireOS 8.8

AireOS 8.8.100.0 is a BU and TAC supported release.

Mobility Express

For Mobility Express deployments, TAC recommends using the 8.5.131.0 or 8.5.135.0 release.

Note on ETSI Compliance Software Changes

In June 2018, Cisco issued new releases of AireOS 8.2, 8.3, 8.5 and 8.7, to comply with new ETSI regulations.  See this article.

Note on AID Errors

• On APs with many client roaming events, after some time, association attempts may be rejected with status 17, and AID errors ("All the AIDs are in use" or "Association identifier ... is already in use")
  
  • This is fixed via CSCve81314 (local mode APs) and CSCve81269 (FlexConnect APs).
  • Fixes are available in latest 8.3, and 8.5 and above.
    
  • 8.2 is not susceptible to these bugs.
    
  • 8.0MR5esc images with the fixes are available from TAC upon request.
  • More details in the Field Notice

General AireOS Release Recommendations

For general AireOS Release Recommendations, see:

• Guidelines for Cisco Wireless Software Release Migration Bulletin
• Software Research

Related Information

• Use the TAC Recommended AireOS discussion thread in Cisco Support Community
• Technical Support & Documentation - Cisco Systems
• Cisco Wireless Solutions Software Compatibility Matrix for information on which releases support which hardware platforms