ASA 5506x no longer shows the "ASA FirePower..." tab under Configuraton

[lysida.santiago1]

I used to be able to view the "ASA FirePOWER" tab on the bottom left hand side of the Configuration once I log in to ASDM however, now it disappeared. I cannot see the 3 tabs anymore (see attached).

I can still log in to the FirePOWER using putty and the SFR module shows it's Up.

Mod SSM Application Name Status SSM Application Version
---- ------------------------------ ---------------- --------------------------
sfr    ASA FirePOWER           Up       5.4.1-211

Mod Status Data Plane Status Compatibility
---- ------------------ --------------------- -------------
1    Up Sys  Not Applicable
sfr  Up         Up

Please assist.  Thank you in advance!

Lysida

[lysida.santiago1]

Hi Jetsy,

It is a Cisco ASA 5506X, it's new outside the box when I configured it.  It worked fine when I was consoled in but when we deployed it on site, I am no longer able to see the "ASA FirePOWER tabs".

I am using ASDM only to manage the FirePOWER.  Thank you!

Lysida

[FINSVE-CISCO]

The same problem appears to me, no ASA Firepower configuration tab only in home tab.

I upgraded java from 1.7 to 1.8 151. then the Firepower config tab appears.

[johnaceti]

Try upgrading java then go in via webstart.

[korender]

I was affected by the missing Firepower Tabs and missing Firepower Configuration Button immediately following the initial configuration suggested in the Cisco Quick Start Guide for my ASA 5506-Xs. I also had trouble with the Startup Wizard not displaying the ASA Firepower Basic Configuration step. This was quite a headache trying to figure out.

I simply have to wait for the Firepower module to complete initialization prior to expecting to see the Firepower tabs and the Firepower Configuration button in ASDM. Apparently it takes the Firepower module an extremely long time to initialize and communicate with ASDM. Although I can login to ASDM just fine immediately after a reboot the Firepower module is not communicating with ASDM immediately. I can logout of ASDM and log back in a couple of minutes after a reboot and then the Firepower Status tab will be available but none of the other Firepower tabs nor the Firepower Configuration button will available. I can logout of ASDM again and log back in a few minutes later and everything is as it should be with all Firepower tabs and the Firepower Configuration button. It can take quite a few minutes for proper communications between the ASDM and the Firepower module after a reboot. I have seen it take over 10 minutes for the Firepower tabs and Firepower Configuration button to become available after a reboot of the 5506. If you do not see all of the Firepower tabs and/or the Firepower Configuration button logout of ASDM and then log back in after 10 minutes or so and see if things have changed. Also, if you see 11 steps in the Startup Wizard instead of 12 steps then logout of ASDM and give the ASA a few minutes.

Hope this helps those of you that are struggling with all of the Java updates, other suggestions and reboots of ASDM. There really should be some kind of informational popup warning in ASDM telling users that the Firepower module has not yet completed initialization and/or cannot communicate with ASDM when this is occurring.

[Steve Krantzman]

I know this thread is older, but this solution may help others in the same situation.

My ASA 5506 with FirePOWER was configured and running correctly for over two years. Then I was suddenly struck with this problem, and neither the ASA or my workstation which runs ASDM had any configuration changes. Long story short (after much digging), my problem was the Sourcefire var directory was 100% full.

root@Sourcefire3D:/var/sf/SRU# df -TH
Filesystem     Type      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/root      ext3      4.0G  829M  3.0G  23% /
devtmpfs       devtmpfs  1.2G   82k  1.2G   1% /dev
/dev/sda1      ext3      104M   38M   62M  38% /boot
/dev/vda7      ext3       41G   40G   0G  100% /var
none           tmpfs     1.2G  5.5M  1.2G   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs          tmpfs     1.2G     0  1.2G   0% /dev/cgroups

If you have Rule Updates, and/or Geolocation Updates, with "Recurring Weekly Updates" enabled, your var directory will eventually fill up.  When this happens, not only will you not be able to view the FirePOWER tabs and configuration in ASDM, you will no longer receive those updates, as there is not any room to store additional updates.

The solution is to free up space in the var directory. I found a post on how to do this safely here https://community.cisco.com/t5/firepower/module-disk-usage-high-unmanaged-disk-usage-on-volume/m-p/3846304/highlight/true#M13292. In there Barrett Cowan provided the best solution which I show in part below:

---

1. /var/sf/SRU/
   • Delete all Sourcefire_Rule_Updates but last couple
2. /var/sf/sru/ (notice the case difference)
   • Delete all vrt folders but last couple
3. /var/sf/updates/
   • Delete all unwanted updates
4. /var/sf/vdb/
   • Delete all VDB Fingerprint Database files but last couple
5. /var/common/
   • Delete everything
6. Everything can be deleted under the following directories
   • /var/sf/detection_engines/<some GUID>/backup/
   • /var/sf/detection_engines/<some GUID>/instance-1/backup/
   • /var/sf/detection_engines/<some GUID>/instance-2/backup/
7. If you’re feeling frisky, and have some time … /var/sf/upgrades_backup/
   • Delete all old backups

After deleting everything above, run the following command if you’re not able to just reboot the module

1. pmtool restartbyid diskmanager

   ---

After performing these steps, my var directory free space is as follows:

/dev/vda7      ext3       41G   17G   23G  43% /var

I should note that the tabs did not reappear in ASDM right after reboot. I logged into the Sourcefire module (via SSH), then relaunched ASDM and the FirePOWER tabs were now visible, but more importantly, both the recurring Rules and Geolocation Updates were able to run again.

I believe that periodic disk cleanup of the var directory should be part of every ASA 5506X admin's maintenance duties for the device to function properly.