Tips for freeing up memory on ASA 5505?

[johnnylingo]

Got an ASA 5505 with the standard 256MB memory.  I recently upgrade from 8.2.5 to 8.4.4, and converted over the NAT rules.  Problem is, I'm now running very low on memory (RAM):

ASA5505# sh mem

Free memory:          21776768 bytes ( 8%)

Used memory:         246658688 bytes (92%)

-------------     ------------------

Total memory:        268435456 bytes (100%)

The ASA doesn't do anything too fancy.  Just 1 VPN and 4 inside hosts.  Is there any easy way to free up memory, or do I just have to bite the bullet and upgrade to 512MB? 

[johnnylingo]

Well I guess one solution is downgrade to 8.3.2.  I was able to reclaim over 80MB:

ASA5505# sh ver | inc Software Version

Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software Version 8.3(2)

ASA5505# sh mem

Free memory:       103909976 bytes (39%)

Used memory:       164525480 bytes (61%)

-------------     ----------------

Total memory:      268435456 bytes (100%)

[Julio Carvajal]

Hello Johnny,

The problem is that you cannot run any version on the 8.3 or higher level with that amount of memory.

Your asa might work for a while but after a while you will start seeing the issues, so or donwgrade to the 8.2 path or upgrade the flash.

Here is the link this is explained:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/vpndevc/ps6032/ps6094/ps6120/product_bulletin_c25-586414.html

Regards,

Julio

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[Karsten Iwen · Accepted solution]

Is that your personal-use ASA? Then I would upgrade it with cheap ebay-memory. I did that with my own ASAs as well and they run great. But if you use that ASA for business and also want to have the ASA under support, you should invest the money for the cisco-upgrade. The 8.4-software is really worth the money for the upgrade.

-- 
Don't stop after you've improved your network! Improve the world by lending money to the working poor:
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[johnnylingo]

I don't see any major features in 8.4 I was too interested in, so my plan was to just run 8.3

However, 8.3 resulted in crashes every few days, and also the NAT configuration was tricky to understand related to exemptions.

I ended up upgrading to 8.4 and dealing with only 20 MB free on my ASA 5505.  It's just for a home lab :-)   If it gets to be a problem, I'll look in to 3rd party memory.

[johnnylingo]

Well I found a quick way to free up memory easily: remove or limit the web deploy packages for AnyConnect.  These are always copied from flash to memory after the ASA boots in order to speed up downloads to the end user. 

ASA5505# sh mem

Free memory:          20441016 bytes ( 8%)

Used memory:         247994440 bytes (92%)

ASA5505# sh run webvpn
webvpn
enable Outside
anyconnect image disk0:/anyconnect-linux-64-2.5.6005-k9.pkg 1 regex "Linux"
anyconnect image disk0:/anyconnect-macosx-i386-2.5.6005-k9.pkg 2 regex "Intel Mac OS X"
anyconnect image disk0:/anyconnect-win-2.5.6005-k9.pkg 3 regex "Windows NT"
anyconnect enable

ASA5505# conf t

ASA5505(config)# webvpn

ASA5505(config-webvpn)# no anyconnect image disk0:/anyconnect-linux-64-2.5.6005-k9.pkg

ASA5505(config-webvpn)# no anyconnect image disk0:/anyconnect-macosx-i386-2.5.6005-k9.pkg

ASA5505(config-webvpn)# no anyconnect image disk0:/anyconnect-win-2.5.6005-k9.pkg

ASA5505(config-webvpn)# exit

ASA5505(config)# exit

ASA5505# sh mem

Free memory:          42469064 bytes (16%)

Used memory:         225966392 bytes (84%)

Yay!  No more memory warning messages!

[Jouni Forss]

Hi,

My home ASA is an 5505 model running 8.4(3) with 256MB memory

ASA# show memory

Free memory:          46586616 bytes (17%)

Used memory:         221848840 bytes (83%)

-------------     ------------------

Total memory:        268435456 bytes (100%)

Also I think there is also an official Cisco document that states what we see in this table below

5505	Unlimited (inside hosts=Unlimited)	256 MB	512 MB	ASA5505-MEM-512=
5505	Security Plus (failover=enabled)	256 MB	512 MB	ASA5505-MEM-512=
5505	All other licenses	256 MB	256 MB	No Memory Upgrade Needed

So seems to be just fine with this amount of memory for the even with never softwares provided that you use it with a small network of max 10 users. (Or does this perhaps include also some of the licenses with more users than 10)

Then again I dont personally use it for any AnyConnect VPN at this point.

So far I have had no problems

- Jouni