Solved: Cisco WSA S170 doesn't boot after power off

Alexandr Gilevich · ‎01-05-2016

Good day everyone.

I've got a problem with Cisco Web Security Appliance S170. After last power off the appliance refuses to boot properly.

Console just gives me "Starting AsyncOS services ... " output, that is all.

Alarm LED if off, top HDD LED flashes green/amber. According to documentation flashing amber HDD LED might mean software RAID building, however WSA stuck in this process for more than 3 days, I suppose it's stuck forever. I tried to start WSA with one HDD to avoid RAID building, but still no luck.

I've uploaded mp4 video that demonstrates front LEDs, appreciate any help.

Regards, Alexandr

Paul Cardelli · ‎01-10-2016

Yes it was the hard drive raid rebuild for us, only the rebuild was on a faulty drive. We had some turn over, so the alert emails were not going to us. We worked a TAC case with Cisco to resolve it, but the RMA unit failed the same way 2 weeks later. We then converted our backed up config to a virtual appliance. We RMA the second unit but have not powered it up yet. Plan to use it in our lab for testing.

I have a feeling you might need to open a TAC case sooner rather then later. If anything they can get you going in the right direction, and worst case get you a new unit quickly.

View solution in original post

Paul Cardelli · ‎01-07-2016

I recommend opening a TAC case. I have had a couple S170 RMAs a few months ago same model, 2 weeks apart. We ended up migrating to a VMware appliance and have not had any issues since.

The hardware issue we were having was related to the hard drive failures.

Alexandr Gilevich · ‎01-10-2016

Hello, Paul. Unfortunately I can't open a case. Front panel 'Alert LED' is off, so I suppose there are no hardware issues with appliance, but the problem might be related to HDD software RAID. I wonder if it fixable.

Paul Cardelli · ‎01-10-2016

Yes it was the hard drive raid rebuild for us, only the rebuild was on a faulty drive. We had some turn over, so the alert emails were not going to us. We worked a TAC case with Cisco to resolve it, but the RMA unit failed the same way 2 weeks later. We then converted our backed up config to a virtual appliance. We RMA the second unit but have not powered it up yet. Plan to use it in our lab for testing.

I have a feeling you might need to open a TAC case sooner rather then later. If anything they can get you going in the right direction, and worst case get you a new unit quickly.

John · ‎01-10-2016

Try to open a cisco tac for possible RMA. I have experience this in our WSA S170. In our case the HDD RAID is degraded.

Alexandr Gilevich · ‎01-10-2016

Hello, John.

Thanks for reply, but I can't open a case. I may have the same issue, what was TAC solution for your degraded HDD RAID ?

John · ‎01-10-2016

Hello Alexndr,

Raid is rebuilding and corrupted due to multiple reboots/shutdowns that were performed before while the disk in slot 1 was performing re-sync after you replaced it.

Alexandr Gilevich · ‎01-10-2016

Okay, and did you manage to fix it ?

John · ‎01-11-2016

yes. cisco tac rma-ed our appliance.