topic Re: ASA5520 Memory Upgrade in Network Security

ASA5520 Memory Upgrade

kfolkman — Mon, 11 Mar 2019 17:36:12 GMT

Just bought an ASA5520, opened the box to upgrade the memory to 2 GB to support 8.3, and discovered that the unit only has 1 memory module connector. I thought all the ASA5520 units came with 4 slots? There are hole patterns for the other 3 slots, but nothing installed on the circuit board. As it is, the most I can load the unit with is 1 GB (ASA5520-MEM-1GB), but there are not any suggested 2 GB modules. If my console output didn't show ASA5520, I'd wonder if I didn't have a 5510 board installed in a 5520 chassis. Any one else seen anything like this? These are so hard to find right now, that I hate to have to return it to my reseller, as I don't think I can get a replacement for a couple of months. Any possible 3rd party memory fixes for this?

Re: ASA5520 Memory Upgrade

Panos Kampanakis — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 21:22:39 GMT

Only older 5510's had 4 slots.

The rest should have only 1 slot.

For memory replacement you will just need to load the new memory on the existing slot.

To be honest there was one more case that I heard a 5520 having 4 slots.

For the 3rd party memory...it is not officially recommended.

I hope it helps.

Re: ASA5520 Memory Upgrade

skint — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 10:01:45 GMT

Hi,

Just verify that the RAM currently installed is STEC variety and then find the specs. I assume that the 5520 and 5510 are using the same bus, so it probably needs PC2700 registered ECC non-buffered RAM CL 2.5.

This is my bet on what's installed with ASA5520-MEM-1GB and this STEC RAM or equivalent should work as the ASA5520-MEM-2GB replacement:

http://www.stec-inc.com/products/industrial/data_sheets/61000-03730-104.pdf

Make your own call on the 3rd party components.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/prod_warranty09186a00800b5594.html

-skint

Re: ASA5520 Memory Upgrade

kfolkman — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 18:49:39 GMT

Well, it appears that the 5510 and 5520 have different buses. From what I can see, the ASA5520 and ASA5540 share the same bus and memory requirements. Got some approved Cisco memory in today, but the unit will still not boot. Not sure where to go next.

Re: ASA5520 Memory Upgrade

kyle woodhouse — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 22:21:02 GMT

Has anyone else seen this? I too have this problem. I have a few ASA5520's here and it seems some of them have 4 memory slots and some have 1 memory slot. All Cisco documentation says this unit has 4 memory slots and even 1 TAC engineer i talked to said the unit should have 4 slots.

I think its possible there is a new logic board design on some of these units and maybe TAC isnt aware of it yet or something.

Either way im not sure how im supposed to install the 2GB memory kit into this unit with only 1 memory slot as the kit is 2 sticks of 1GB.

kfolkman im in the same boat as you so if you figure it out please let me know.

Thanks,

Re: ASA5520 Memory Upgrade

Jennifer Halim — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 04:49:45 GMT

Please open a TAC case to get it further investigated. Thanks.

Re: ASA5520 Memory Upgrade

kfolkman — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 20:56:11 GMT

Kyle,

We ended up returning the unit and getting another from a different vendor that had four slots, so the upgrade went without difficulty. I have heard that any ASA5520 units shipped after the first of May this year should all have 4 slots, but there is still some inventory out there in sealed boxes that you won't know about until you open them. Had a friend with a similar experience with ASA5505 units and memory upgrades, as well. He couldn't get the memory upgrade to work there either, and he has since informed me that Cisco TAC confirmed a couple of bugs relating to memory issues in 8.3, but that nothing is yet described or confirmed by Cisco.

Re: ASA5520 Memory Upgrade

Panos Kampanakis — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 21:53:45 GMT

As halijenn suggested I believe this is worth opening a TAC case to get it further investigated.

Re: ASA5520 Memory Upgrade

Jerome Tissieres — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 09:14:35 GMT

Do you have any news about this from the TAC?

Thanks,

Jerome

Re: ASA5520 Memory Upgrade

kfolkman — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:00:56 GMT

Since we got a replacement unit that had all four DIMM sockets, we have not contacted TAC, and probably will not about this issue. I'd love to have the time to pursue this, but any ASA5520 units manufactured after April 1 of this year apparently do not have a problem as all DIMM slots have sockets for memory, so you can use the 512 MB modules and get to 2 GB that way. That's what we finally ended up with, and it works fine now. If for any reason yo have an older unit that hasn't yet been upgraded to the new revision OS, you should probably contact TAC after first determining if your unit has less than four DIMM sockets before the upgrade.

Re: ASA5520 Memory Upgrade

Andrew Ossipov — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:27:14 GMT

To close the loop on this, the only shipping configuration of all ASA5520 and ASA5540 units is with 4 DIMM slots (regardless of the manufacturing date). Only some ASA5510 units may have a single DIMM slot.

Andrew

Re: ASA5520 Memory Upgrade

Jerome Tissieres — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 20:31:07 GMT

Sorry but I have two ASA5520 with exactly that problem. There's the place and the pins for 4

slots but only one physical slot. Here's a picture ;

I'll open a TAC case asap.

Jerome

Re: ASA5520 Memory Upgrade

kfolkman — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 20:39:05 GMT

This is exactly the same configuration I had on two differnet ASA5520 units, without all the sockets installed. Luckily we were able to return those units to our reseller and get one that had all four sockets. The party line may be that all the 5520 units shipped with four sockets, but I've had conversations with at least three other users with a similar problem. I do know that someone told me that the problem was corrected in all shipments after April 1 of this year, to coincide with the release of 8.3.

Re: ASA5520 Memory Upgrade

kyle woodhouse — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:39:49 GMT

Ya that looks like the one i have too. I actually have two 5540's like this and two 5520's.

Cant find the purchase history on them so i dont think i have smartnet on them. I was just kinda hoping that a field notice might pop up eventually giving some background on maybe this being a batch of serials that were manufactured with the wrong design.

If anyone finds any new info let me know. Thx,

Re: ASA5520 Memory Upgrade

ckelly — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 16:11:33 GMT

I have two 5520s that are about to (try) and get 2G installed. They are about 2 yrs old, so I'll report here when I get one open and get a look-see. There's two DIMMs in the upgrade boxes, so it'll be nice if there are sufficient slots.

Message was edited by: ckelly@hsutx.edu Looks like our units are 2006 vintage and they have the required DIMM slots.

Re: ASA5520 Memory Upgrade

ericb_summit — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 21:18:49 GMT

We are in the same boat. One of our ASA 5520 has 4 DIMM slots, one has 1 slot. sh ver and sh module is exactly the same between the 2 units.

We have an open TAC case in which the resolution is to upgrade to 8.3. We'll escalate this issue there to see where it leads. Glad we are not the only ones with this funny surprise.

Thanks

Re: ASA5520 Memory Upgrade

Magnus Mortensen — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 03:46:36 GMT

Eric,

If you have that SR # handy where you ran into the memory slot issue, please go ahead and PM me the number. For everyone else, please open an SR if you run into this issue so we may look into these further.

Thanks as always!

Magnus

Re: ASA5520 Memory Upgrade

ericb_summit — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 14:21:24 GMT

Are you sure the 5520's take ECC RAM? I looked up the model number of the RAM that I removed the 2 x 256MB RAM that was previously in my ASA5520 with 4 slots. It was not ECC. I read furthermore that the 5505's won't boot with ECC RAM; not sure if this holds for the 5520.

Upon further research, I found 2GB PC3200 RAM CL 2.5 actually exist, but only ECC. I could not find non ECC 2GB DDR PC3200 CL 2.5 in one stick.

Anyways, our cisco certified partner claims to be able to source Cisco approved RAM that is 2GB in 1 stick. This fascinates me because I couldn't find mention anywhere that a single stick of 2GB is a supported config for ASA 5520. If the RAM comes in, and it works, I will post back the model number so that the rest of you may benefit.

Re: ASA5520 Memory Upgrade

ericb_summit — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 14:32:28 GMT

Jerome -- did you get anywhere with your TAC case?

Re: ASA5520 Memory Upgrade

Andrew Ossipov — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 15:44:17 GMT

Hello Eric,

Please note that the only certified ASA5520 memory upgrade kit configuration is two 1GB DIMMs (Cisco part number ASA5520-MEM-2GB). I strongly discourage you from using any third-party upgrade kits as we had seen them cause problems in production environments.

Andrew