CISCO ASA 5510 ASA/ASDM upgrade

You have to upgrade between the minor version., so from 7.0.4, you go to any 7.1 then any 7.2 then any 8.0.

Once you have done that you can upgrade ASDM straight to 6.3

Thanks for the prompt response. So If I upgrade 7.0.4 to 7.1 and 7.2 all the way to 8.0, do I not need to upgrade ASDM to 5.1 and 5.2 etc...before getting to 6.3?

Does ASDM 5.0.4 read ASA 8.0?

Thanks.

Nuttytech...based on what you're saying I would need to upgrade ASDM to each version as well, which is what I thought I had read.

I guess my main quesiton is whether or not I need to do all the inbetween upgrades such as 7.0.4 to 7.0.5 and 7.0.6 etc...before getting to 7.1.1. Can I go straight from 7.0.4 to 7.1.1 and then 7.2.1 and 8.0.5?

This is the link to Cisco which walks you through the entire process.
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6120/products_configuration_example09186a008067e9f9.shtml

 I did not see anything that states that you can directly upgrade the ASDM. It does note however that ASDM 6.x is supported only on ASA software image 8.x and later.

Ok - thanks. I will try this and give points once I have confirmed this works.

on another note, dont go all the way the the newst 8.3, as it has other memory requirements and major config changes.
Always read the readme for the image versions, they are on Cisco's website.

Backup your config before you do that and i mean by using shell and tftp

so even if you run into problems, you can always go back the same way

Comments posted were directly from Cisco.com and have been used, by myself and countless others, with NO problems. There are always different ways to do things and the shortest is not always the best for people without total experience working with Cisco's IOS. Telling folks what to do and how to do it are two totally differnent things. Remember, we are trying to help people with less experience than ourselves and comments like yours Shirkan are just totally uncalled for and you have been reported for abuse.

Shirkan,

Taken from the 8.2.x release notes at http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/security/asa/asa82/release/notes/asarn82.pdf

Upgrading Between Major Releases
To ensure that your configuration updates correctly, you must upgrade to each major release in turn.
Therefore, to upgrade from Version 7.0 to Version 8.2, first upgrade from 7.0 to 7.1, then from 7.1 to 7.2,
and finally from Version 7.2 to Version 8.2 (8.1 was only available on the ASA 5580).

Your comments do not match Cisco's recommended upgrade procedure.

Sorry, forgot about the old 7.0 version, yes u r right till u get to 7.2 its a bit of a hassle.
Wasnt thinking bout that since 7.0 is like barely out of beta and thats how many years go ???

Sorry for sounding a bit harsh, had a bad moment that minute cause some of my coworkers just messed up a big router configuration and client was on my butt chewing it
You can still go all the way directly, just gotta fix the incompatible parts afterwards manually
if that is not possible due to inexperience with the ASA, yes, going through the Cisco recommended steps is the better way

Thank you all for your comments. I am scheduled to do the upgrade overnight tonight, and will be back here with results after.

I prefer to use the ASDM for the upgrades, as I am definitely not that experienced in Cisco products. Even though it would take a little longer I would prefer to upgrade to each different version as recommended by Cisco.

You'll be hearing from me tomorrow, hopefully with good news. :-)

Thanks again.

I feel that, given the question, the first answer I gave was correct. No mention was made in the original question about requiring to use ASDM to upgrade the device. As ASDM is not necessary to upgrade, it is possible to upgrade the os using the command line and then upgrade ASDM to the compatible version at a later point.

I disagree. InteraX's response almost led me to believe that I could simply upgrade ASDM to tha latest version. He assumed that I was not going to use ASDM, but why would you assume I would not want to use it? I am cleary not an expert at this, and therefore using ASDM is obviously the easiest option for me.

He also did not directly respond to my question, where I asked about needing to upgade from 7.0.4 to 7.0.5 before going to 7.1.1 etc.... He stated that I should upgrade between "minor" versions, but then says 7.0.4 to 7.1.1. To me that's a major version. Minor version was what I was asking for.

If you look at my follow up questions to the first two responses, I clearly did not get the answer I was looking and had to follow up with my additional questions.

I appreciate InteraX's response but chose not to give points largely because it was not a clear answer and almost led me down the incorrect path of upgrading directly to the latest version of ASDM, which would have been very troublesome to me.

Therefore I believe my previous awarding of points are accurate.

Thank you.

cfgchiran,

If you re-read my initial answer, I mention the upgrade path as upgrading the os and then upgrading the ASDM. I agree there was an assumption of using the command line. That is a perfectly normal and the most widely used method for managing cisco devices. If you read Cisco's documentation about version numbers, they are as follows. major.minor.release. This info can also be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cisco_IOS#Versioning. Therefore, my original answer is I believe correct given the information supplied in the original question.

My original post is below for clarification.

You have to upgrade between the minor version., so from 7.0.4, you go to any 7.1 then any 7.2 then any 8.0.

Once you have done that you can upgrade ASDM straight to 6.3

InteraX,

While I appreciate the answer, if you look at the answer I chose for most points, it is the only that directly stated that I need not do the inbetween releases.

Your assumption of not using ASDM was incorrect. Among "masters" and "wizards" that maybe the case, but I am clearly neither. You should have at least stated that ASDM can be upgraded directly if using the CLI.

But I will give you some credit since it did lead to nuttytechs clarification of your answer, and thus providing me with the ultimate solution.

I would like to re