Field Notice: FN - 72304 - ISR 1000 with ROMMON 17.6.1 Cannot Be Downgraded to Earlier Versions - Software Upgrade Recommended

Notice

THIS FIELD NOTICE IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS AND DOES NOT IMPLY ANY KIND OF GUARANTEE OR WARRANTY, INCLUDING THE WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY. YOUR USE OF THE INFORMATION ON THE FIELD NOTICE OR MATERIALS LINKED FROM THE FIELD NOTICE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. CISCO RESERVES THE RIGHT TO CHANGE OR UPDATE THIS FIELD NOTICE AT ANY TIME.

Revision History

Revision	Publish Date	Comments
1.0	26-Jan-22	Initial Release

Products Affected

Affected OS Type	Affected Software Product	Affected Release	Affected Release Number	Comments
NON-IOS	IOS XE ROMMON Software	16.12	16.12(3r), 16.12(5r)
NON-IOS	IOS XE ROMMON Software	16	16.12(1r), 16.12(2r), 16.12(8r), 16.2(1r), 16.2(2r), 16.3(2r), 16.4(3r), 16.7(1r), 16.7(3r), 16.7(4r), 16.7(5r), 16.8(1r), 16.9(1r), 16.9(4r), 16.9(5r)

Defect Information

Defect ID	Headline
CSCvw99927	ISR4K check PAK license support

Problem Description

New and remanufactured units manufactured after 2021-08-29 (YYWW = 2535) will have ROM Monitor (ROMMON) Version 17.6.1 on the device. Once the unit is received with ROMMON Version 17.6.1, it cannot be downgraded to an earlier ROMMON version. New units will not run old code, and therefore cannot be downgraded. This requires customers to use Cisco IOS^® XE Release 16.9 or later.

Background

In ROMMON Version 17.6.1, changes were implemented to conform to Cisco licensing requirements and the ROMMON cannot be downgraded to earlier versions.

New and remanufactured units will ship with ROMMON Version 17.6.1 on the device. New and remanufactured units cannot downgrade to any ROMMON version earlier than Version 17.6.1.

ROMMON Version 17.6.1 is compatible with Cisco IOS XE Releases 16.9 and later.

Problem Symptom

On a new unit with ROMMON Version 17.6.1 (YYWW = 2535), if an attempt is made to load a Cisco IOS XE release earlier than Release 16.9, the system will not boot.

If an attempt is made to downgrade the ROMMON to a version earlier than ROMMON Version 17.6.1 you will see an error.

Here is an example of an error symptom when you attempt to downgrade ROMMON Version 17.6.1 to Version 16.12(1r).

Router#upgrade rom-monitor filename boot

Router#upgrade rom-monitor filename bootflash:C1100-rommon-1612-1r-SPA.pkg r0

Chassis model C1101-4P has a single rom-monitor.

 Upgrade rom-monitor

 Target copying rom-monitor image file

 Warning - Didn't find capsule file.

 Booted : 1

Selected : 1

Reset Reason: 0

ERROR: File //tmp/rommon_upgrade/capsule.bin does not exist! Upgrade aborted

Router#

Workaround/Solution

Upgrade to Cisco IOS XE Release 16.9 or later.

Customers should qualify and upgrade to a Cisco IOS XE release (Release 16.9 or later) that is compatible with ROMMON Version 17.6.1.

For More Information

If you require further assistance, or if you have any further questions regarding this field notice, please contact the Cisco Systems Technical Assistance Center (TAC) by one of the following methods:

• Open a service request on Cisco.com
• By email or telephone

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