UCS Code Versions: How to choose . . .

Turns out Cisco released a new version of code, 1.2(1b) on 3-26-10 for supporting the new M2 blades as well as some bug fixes, etc.  We had an internal discussion today on whether or not we should stay the course with 1.1(1l) or jump up to 1.2(1b) code.  In the end we decided to stay with 1.1(1l) for 2 reasons.

1.  The 1.1 code has been revised/updated 12 times (I think that is what the L means) so my gut tells me it is stable.  The 1.2 code has probably been updated 2 times (that is why the B?).  I could be off base on this, maybe someone can comment if this is not the correct way of interpreting the numbering.

2.  Support for the M2 blade.  I expect to have some M2 blades in the environment by June/July timeframe.  By then I suspect I will want to be upgrading the code to something newer anyway, so I probably will not be saving a step.

Being the UCS product itself is new and the industry continues to move forward with new CPU, etc. I would suspect it is reasonable to plan on upgrading the firmware/code of a UCS system 2 to 4 times per year.  This would depend on your organization’s growth, but here I suspect things will continue as they have been, heavy on the growth side.  It keeps it fun.