Field Notice: FN - 63740 - IPS-4240 and IPS-4255 Sensor Appliances - Some Appliances Might Fail to Boot Up After a Software Upgrade or Power Cycle - Replace on Failure

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	13-Feb-15	Initial Release
10.0	11-Oct-17	Migration to new field notice system
10.1	23-Aug-18	Updated the Defect Information Section

Products Affected

Affected Product ID	Comments
IPS-4240-DC-K9
IPS-4240-K9
IPS-4255-K9

Defect Information

Defect ID	Headline
CSCvf34445	There were no defects filed with this field notice at the time of publication.

Problem Description

Some Intrusion Prevention System (IPS)-4240 and IPS-4255 sensors might fail to boot up after a software upgrade or other user actions where the board requires a power cycle operation.

Background

Cisco has been working with some customers on an issue related to memory components manufactured by a single supplier between 2005 and 2010. These memory components are widely used across the industry and are included in a number of Cisco products.

Although the majority of Cisco products using these components are experiencing field failure rates below expected levels, some components may fail earlier than anticipated. A handful of our customers have recently experienced a higher number of failures, leading us to change our approach to managing this issue.

While other vendors have chosen to address this issue in different ways, Cisco believes its approach is the best course of action for its customers. Despite the cost, we are demonstrating that we always make customer satisfaction a top priority. Customers can learn more about this topic at Memory Component Issue web page.

PLEASE NOTE: The products listed in this Field Notice have lower than expected failure rates. This assessment is based on actual usage of affected memory components, observed field failure rates and product replacements since 2012.

A degraded component will not affect the ongoing operation of a device, but will be exposed by a subsequent power cycle event. This event will result in a hard failure of the device, which cannot be recovered by a reboot or additional power cycle. For these reasons, additional caution is recommended for operational activities requiring the simultaneous power cycling of multiple devices. This issue has been observed most commonly on devices that have been in service for 24 months or more.

Problem Symptom

If the suspected hardware has been in operation for approximately 24 months, the IPS sensor might fail to boot up due to memory failure during a power cycle event. This is caused by one of more of these actions:

• Upgrade the software
• Power up after installation
• Recover from a power outage

Note: This issue does not affect the IPS sensors while they are in operation. The sensor failure might occur after one or more of the actions listed is executed.

Workaround/Solution

Normal SmartNet and warranty entitlement rules remain in place and are applied by the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) if you experience a failure in one of the products listed in the Field Notice. In other circumstances, such as out of warranty or out of contract, Cisco encourages you to raise your concern directly with your Cisco account team.

Fix on Failure Replacement Guidelines: Request Return Material Authorization (RMA) product through normal service support channels.

How To Identify Affected Products

Enter the show inventory command in order to obtain the Product ID (PID). If the CLI is not available, physically inspect the device in order to locate the PID. The PID for the IPS-4240-DC-K9 sensor is shown as IPS-4240-K9.

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
• By telephone

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