Field Notice: FN70549 - ASA5506, ASA5508, and ASA5516 Security Appliances - Some RMA Replacements Might Fail Due to a Rework Process Issue - Replace on Failure

Some Adaptive Security Appliances (ASAs) provided as Return Material Authorization (RMA) replacements might fail in operation due to a rework process error that resulted in the omission of a proactive fix.

Due to a rework process error, some ASA5506, ASA5508, and ASA5516 security appliances that were provided as RMA replacements might be missing a proactive fix. The affected RMA replacements were shipped from spare depots to customers between April 2018 and July 2019. Manufacturing new units that shipped from spare depots or shipped by direct order fulfillment are not affected by this issue.

Affected security appliances will function normally on installation, but product failures are expected to increase over time. After the security appliance has failed, the unit will no longer function, will not boot, and is not recoverable.

The security appliance no longer functions and the system fails to boot. There will be no output from the console port.

In addition, the LED status indicators on the security appliance illuminate as follows:

• Power LED is green.
• Status LED is amber and blinking.

Customers with affected products (see the How to Identify Affected Products section) should contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) to request a replacement unit. A valid Cisco support contract is required to open a TAC Service Request.

For customers who request replacements, note that the license activation key is tied to the ASA chassis serial number. Contact the Cisco Licensing Team in order to have your current license transferred to the replacement chassis serial number. The Cisco Licensing Team will ask for the Product Authorization Key reference number and current serial number. For more information about ASA licensing, see Cisco ASA Series General Operations CLI Configuration Guide, 9.6.

In order to determine whether your product might be affected by this issue, examine the chassis serial number of the security appliance.

The chassis serial number can be obtained from the CLI or through visual inspection of the security appliance. For units that have already failed due to this issue, a visual inspection of the security appliance or review of the Sales Order documentation is required.

CLI

Enter the show inventory command to obtain the chassis serial number (SN) of the appliance:

asa> show inventory

Name: "Chassis", DESCR: "ASA 5508-X with FirePOWER services, 8GE, AC, DES"

PID: ASA5508 , VID: V01 , SN: JMX1234ABCD

Note: In order to avoid Cisco bug ID CSCtz56314 (ASA5500-X Chassis Serial Number Not Visible from CLI), do not use the show version command.

Visual Inspection of the ASA Security Appliance

The serial number information is located on the bottom surface of the appliance.