Field Notice: FN74250 - Cisco Firepower 1100 and 2100 Series Security Appliances: Some Solid State Drives May Experience Higher Than Normal Failure Rate - Hardware Upgrade Available

Some solid state drive (SSD) modules that are used in Cisco Firepower 1100 and Firepower 2100 Series security appliances might experience a higher than normal failure rate.

Some SSD modules that shipped from approximately October 2023 through February 2024 may experience a higher than normal failure rate due to a MOSFET marginality issue within the SSD. A failure of affected SSD modules is non-recoverable.

The SSD module will operate normally until failure.

After the SSD has failed, problem symptoms for the Cisco FPR1100 and FPR2100 Series platforms include:

• The failed SSD module will be non-functional, unable to store additional event files and the front panel SSD LED will illuminate amber.
• The security appliance might fail to pass network traffic.
• The FPR2100 device will be unable to boot to the operating system and will boot only to the ROM Monitor (ROMMON) prompt.
• The SSD failure will be shown in the error log file as one of the following messages:
• ERROR: primary SSD not detected or cannot access /sys/block/sda: no such file or directory
• Buffer I/O error on dev sda

Note: The SSD device inventory information will continue to be available using the CLI or management console.

Solution

Cisco recommends replacing affected SSD modules.

The Cisco Firepower 1100 Series and 2100 Series security appliances store the operating system software on the SSD module. A maintenance window is required to restore the production software version and operating configuration after an affected SSD is replaced.

For more information about replacing the SSD module, see the FPR1100 Series Hardware Installation Guide and the FPR2100 Series Hardware Installation Guide.

For instructions on how to reinstall the production software on the security appliance, see the Cisco Secure Firewall ASA and Secure Firewall Threat Defense Reimage Guide.

For information about requesting a replacement, see the Upgrade Program Information section of this field notice.

To find the serial number of the SSD module installed in a Cisco Firepower 1100 Series or 2100 Series security appliance, use the following Cisco FXOS commands:

firepower-chassis# scope chassis 1
firepower-chassis /chassis# scope server1
firepower-chassis /chassis/server#show inventory storage
Local Disk 1:
Vendor: INTEL
Model: SSDSC2BX80
Serial: BTHC7393066M800NGN
HW Rev: 0
Operability: Operable
Presence: Equipped
Size (MB): 200000  (Note: The SSD Size (MB) is 100000 for the FPR2110 & FPR2120)
Drive State: Online
Power State: Active
Link Speed: 6 Gbps
Device Type: SSD

The serial number of the spare SSD module can also be found on the sales order, the SSD module packaging, and on the SSD module serial number label.

To determine if a serial number is affected, see the Serial Number Validation section of this field notice.

Note: Affected SSD modules should be physically destroyed in an environmentally responsible manner using local recycling resources. Do not return affected SSD modules to Cisco.

Cisco offers a guided upgrade experience through the Secure Firewall Upgrade program. This program will provide environment-specific software upgrade guidance, a customized procedure to follow, and a customized pre-upgrade checklist. For additional information and to register for the upgrade program, see Get access to Cisco Secure Firewall LevelUp.