Installation guide

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Cisco ASA 5500-X Series Hardware Installation Guide

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Chapter 1 About the ASA 5500-X

Solid State Drives

You must install a Cisco Solid State Drive (SSD) for use with the some software modules. Only Cisco

SSDs are supported. You can install one SSD in the ASA 5512-X, ASA 5515-X, and ASA 5525-X. You

can install two SSDs in a RAID 1 configuration in the ASA 5545-X and ASA 5555-X.

Note When you install an SSD for the first time, you must reload the ASA and then re-image the installed

module.

The SSD is hot-swappable. The SSD resides in a carrier, which you install into the drive bay. You can

use the SSD with an AC or DC power supply. See Install and Remove a Solid State Drive for a Services

Module, page 4-22 for more information.

Alarm LED

The ASA 5500-X performs autonomous environmental monitoring, polling all external sensors and

monitoring operating conditions. In the event of damage to certain internal components, or surpassed

temperature thresholds, the system activates an alarm LED to notify you of a critical condition. For

example, the alarm LED is activated by firmware in the event of various critical over-voltage and

over-temperature conditions, as well as when the ASA has missing or unrecognized internal chip

components. When the alarm LED lights, you can find details about the system condition from the

system message that appears on the console, or by entering the show environment or show controller

pci CLI commands.

Note If you remove one of the power-supply modules from an ASA with redundant power supplies—in other

words, one with two power supplies installed—the Alarm LED will light. To turn off the light, you must

power-cycle the chassis; that is, turn it completely off and then turn it back on. See Power Supply,

page 1-14 for more information about the redundant power-supply configuration. See Remove and

Install the Power Supply, page 4-14 for more information about removing a power supply.

ASA 5500-X I/O Cards

The ASA 5500-X six-port GigabitEthernet interface cards extend the I/O capabilities of the

ASA 5525-X, ASA 5545-X, and ASA 5555-X models by providing additional GigabitEthernet ports.

The I/O cards provide the following benefits:

• Segmentation of network traffic into separate security zones

• Fiber-optic cable connectivity for communications over long distances

• Load-sharing of traffic, and protection against link failure, using EtherChannel

• Support for Jumbo Ethernet frames of up to 9000 bytes

• Protection for Active/Active failover, and for full-mesh firewall deployments against cable failure

For information about installing an I/O card in your ASA, see Chapter 4, “Maintenance and Upgrade

Procedures for the ASA 5500-X.”