showing 4GB instead of 12GB RAM

[AK002]

Hi Team,

We are having cisco ASA 5585x applicance with 12GB RAM

But after booted up into IOS it is showing only 4GB of RAM

is there any possible issue??

IOS version : 8.25

Regards,

Arun

[Jouni Forss]

Hi,

I would have to guess that the problem is the IOS version since we have multiple ASA-5585-X units running 8.4(x) units without any problems related to the RAM. Atleas the new X -Series datasheet lists those units as 64bit OS so maybe you would need 8.3 or higher software on the unit.

If this unit is still not in production I would suggest booting it up to some 8.4(x) or 9.x software level and checking the output of the "show version" and/or "show memory" again

- Jouni

[AK002]

Hi jouni,

Thanks for the reply..

We are having another HA pair in some other location but it's showing 12gb running in 9.0 versions..

So is there any document regarding this IOS version behaviour for RAM.

Regards

Arun

[Jouni Forss · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Its only a guess.

The ASA5500-X Series devices that came later (models 5512-X - 5555-X) have a datasheet that mentions that the ASA OS is 64bit. These all run at minimum 8.6 software level which corresponds other platforms softwares 8.3 - 8.4 (Original ASA5500 Series) , 8.5 (ASASM) and 8.7 I guess also that was to my understanding (ASA v1000)

So its just my guess that the older 8.2 software wont even support that much memory. Pretty much like when you compare the Windows OS and their RAM support based on the version of the OS.

Or perhaps its some bug?

- Jouni

[Karsten Iwen · Accepted solution]

Jouni is right with his guess, this is from the 8.2(5) release-note:

• Only 4 GB of memory is available in ASA 8.2(5) for the ASA 5580 and 5585-X platforms.
• All available memory in multi-core platforms (ASA 5580 and 5585-X) in ASA 8.2(5) are also available in ASA 8.4(1). To take advantage of the enhanced capability, you should upgrade your devices to the ASA 8.4.4(1) release.

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[Marvin Rhoads]

Great answers guys.

For the OP - I would strongly recommend moving to 9.x code level. You will be much better served by running a current revision and be able to use a richer feature set as well as availing yourself of all the hardware capacity.

Note the 64-bit images all have "smp" (symmetric multiprocessor) in the image name - that's an easy way to tell they are 64-bit and will allow you to use the newer CPUs to their fullest.

[yogesh.suryawanshi]

Hi All,

I agree here that upgrading it with 9.x code will show it with 12GB.

Default shipment of 5585-x comes with 12GB ram only.

It you still unsure about it , rebload firewall durig post , you will see memeory as 12GB (6 slots with 2 GB each).