Cisco Integrated Services Routers Generation Two (ISR G2) 1900, 2900, and 3900 Series support services on demand through the use of software licensing. The Services on Demand process enables customers to realize operational savings through ease of software ordering and management. When an order is placed for a new ISR G2 platform, the router is shipped with a single universal Cisco IOS Software image and a license is used to enable the specific feature set packages, as shown in Figure 1.
There are two types of universal images supported in ISR G2:
- Universal images with the "universalk9" designation in the image name - This universal image offers all of the Cisco IOS Software features, including strong payload cryptography features, such as IPsec VPN, SSL VPN, and Secure Unified Communications.
- Universal images with the "universalk9_npe" designation in the image name - The strong enforcement of encryption capabilities provided by Cisco Software Activation satisfies requirements for the export of encryption capabilities. However, some countries have import requirements that require that the platform does not support any strong cryptography functionality, such as payload cryptography. To satisfy the import requirements of those countries, the npe universal image does not support any strong payload encryption.
With the ISR G2 devices, IOS image selection has been made easier because all features are included within the universal image. Features are activated through licensing. Each device ships with Universal image. The technology packages IP Base, Data, UC (Unified Communications), and SEC (Security), are enabled in the universal image using Cisco Software Activation licensing keys. Each licensing key is unique to a particular device and is obtained from Cisco by providing the product ID and serial number of the router and a Product Activation Key (PAK). The PAK is provided by Cisco at the time of software purchase. The IP Base is installed by default.
Figure 2 shows the suggested migration for the next generation ISRs from the IOS 12 (IOS Reformation Packaging) to IOS 15 (Simplified Packaging).