015 Cisco IOS naming standard

Cisco IOS naming format.

HARDWARE:
The first part is quite self explanatory, hardware is the hardware supported by the IOS.

FEATURE SET:

• This is where you can find out the features supported by the IOS.
• the new naming convention of Cisco IOS uses word e.g. Entbase,advipserive etc, some older version still use letters to describe the features.
• The "Legacy naming convention" can be quite confusing as compared to new naming convention.
• Cisco distributes IOS packages according their features as show in diagram below.

Note: The higher the features set, the more features it has. You can check the features of Cisco IOS image with the tool provided by Cisco.
Access the tool at cisco site, and you can search by features, IOS image name, platform, product code, and you can even compare features between images.

For the legacy naming convention, you can find it formated as yyyy, where the y can be replaced by the following letters:

• b - For Apple talk support
• c - For CommServer lite (CiscoPro)
• g - For ISDN subset (SNMP, IP, Bridging, ISDN, PPP, IPX, and AppleTalk)
• i - For IP sebset (SNMP, IP, Bridging, WAN, Remote Node, and Terminal Services)
• n - For IPX support
• q - For asynchronous support
• t - For Telco return (12.0)
• y - For reduced IP (SNMP, IP RIP/IGRP/EIGRP, Bridging, ISDN, and PPP)
• (c1003 or c1004)
• z - For managed modems
• 40 - For 40 bit encryption
• 50 - For 50 bit encryption

MEMORY LOCATION and COMPRESSION FORMAT
This section tells you from which memory location the IOS and what format of compression it uses. Check the following for the formats:

• f - flash
• m - RAM
• r - ROM
• l - the image will be relocated at run time

And these are the compression types:

• z - zip compression
• x - mzip compression
• w - “STAC” compression

MAINTENANCE RELEASE and INDIVIDUAL RELEASE
These shows the release version number of the IOS image.

RELEASE
The last part shows whether the image is T Release (new feature release identifier), S (individual release), or XR (modular packages).
 

You need also consider the amount of DRAM of the device. The higher the version and features of an IOS, the more DRAM you need.

K9 is the software feature code.
The K means "kitchen sink" (enterprise for high−end) (same as BX). Not used after Cisco IOS Software Release 10.3
K9 -Greater than 64−bit encryption. On Cisco IOS Software Release 12.2 and up.

There is a Safe Harbour release for each of the products which is essentially a Cisco validated release.  Below is the link:

Safe Harbour Release

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/partner/netsol/ns504/networking_solutions_program_category_home.html

IOS Release Naming

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/iosswrel/ps1818/products_tech_note09186a0080101cda.shtml