Field Notice: FN74051 - Cisco Nexus 9500 Series Switches NXOS EPLD with SUP A+ or SUP B+ V02 Requires Manual Power Cycle After Upgrade - Software Upgrade Recommended

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Updated:November 13, 2023

Document ID:FN74051

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Notice

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Products Affected

Affected Product Name	Description	Comments
N9K-SUP-A+	Supervisor for Nexus 9500
N9K-SUP-A+=	Supervisor for Nexus 9500
N9K-SUP-B+	Supervisor B+ for Nexus 9500
N9K-SUP-B+=	Supervisor B+ for Nexus 9500

Defect Information

Defect ID	Headline
CSCwh02830	Manual power cycle required while upgrading NXOS N9K-C9500 switch with SUP A+/B+ HW rev 1.0

Problem Description

After an NXOS electronic programmable logic device (EPLD) upgrade, Cisco Nexus 9500 Series Switch supervisor SUP A+ or SUP B+ V02 may not be able to boot until a manual power cycle is performed.

Background

A small batch of N9K-SUP-A+ and N9K-SUP-B+ supervisors have a voltage regulator module (VRM) that has a firmware defect. The VRM is responsible for powering the supervisor. Due to this firmware defect, the supervisor will hang after an EPLD upgrade of the supervisor or system controller. The upgrade requires a power cycle of the chassis.

This issue will not be seen with a software reload, an upgrade or downgrade of Cisco NXOS Software (not EPLD), or a manual power cycle of the chassis.

Problem Symptom

After the upgrade of an EPLD of the supervisor or system controller of a Cisco Nexus 9500 Series Switch, the N9K-SUP-A+ or N9K-SUP-B+ supervisor will be in stuck condition. There will be no response from or output on the console.

In a chassis with dual supervisors, the active supervisor will be stuck in powered-up state. The chassis may be able to boot using the standby supervisor in active state.

In a chassis with a single supervisor, the active supervisor will be stuck with no output on the console.

Workaround/Solution

Workaround

A manual power cycle of the chassis or an online insertion and removal (OIR) of the stuck supervisor is required to recover from the stuck state.

Solution

There are two options to mitigate this issue.

Option 1: Upgrade to a fixed Cisco NXOS Software release.

The new firmware with the fix for this issue will be included in the following Cisco NXOS Software releases:

10.2(6) and later
10.3(4) and later
10.4(2) and later

See the Cisco Nexus 9000 Series NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide, Release 9.3(x) for instructions.

Option 2: Upgrade the VRM firmware using an SMU.

This option is for the following Cisco NXOS Software releases:

10.2(3)
10.2(4)
10.2(5)
10.3(1)
10.3(2)
10.3(3)
10.4(1)

Go to the Cisco Software Download Center to find the appropriate SMU:

Nexus 9504 Switch: https://software.cisco.com/download/home/286195223/type/286278856/release/10.3(3)
Nexus 9508 Switch: https://software.cisco.com/download/home/285956854/type/286278856/release/10.3(3)
Nexus 9516 Switch: https://software.cisco.com/download/home/286195224/type/286278856/release/10.3(3)

SMU nxos64-cs.CSCwh02830-1.0.0-10.3.3.lib32_64_n9000.rpm can be used for the following Cisco NX-OS Software releases on switches that have EX, FX, or GX cloud-scale line cards:

10.2(3)
10.2(4)
10.2(5)
10.3(1)
10.3(2)
10.3(3)
10.4(1)

SMU nxos64-msll.CSCwh02830-1.0.0-10.3.3.lib32_64_n9000.rpm can be used for the following Cisco NX-OS Software releases on switches with R-Series line cards:

10.2(3)
10.2(4)
10.2(5)
10.3(1)
10.3(2)
10.3(3)
10.4(1)

To install the appropriate SMU, copy the SMU to the bootflash: file system for the switch and execute the following commands, which activate the fix immediately. This is a hot patch.

install add bootflash:<SMU_filename> activate 
install commit

Note: These instructions apply only to this type of SMU.

How to Identify Affected Products

This issue affects only a subset of N9K-SUP-A+ and N9K-SUP-B+ V02 supervisors.

N9K-SUP-A and N9K-SUP-B are not affected by this issue.

Enter the following command to check the product identifier (PID), version identifier (VID), and the corresponding serial number (SN):

Switch# show inventory module 27 ; show inventory module 28

NAME: "Slot 27",  DESCR: "Supervisor Module"

PID: N9K-SUP-A+          ,  VID: V02 ,  SN: FOCXXXXXXXX



NAME: "Slot 28",  DESCR: "Supervisor Module"

PID: N9K-SUP-A+          ,  VID: V02 ,  SN: FOCXXXXXXXX

Note: For a chassis with single supervisor, the above command will only give output for one slot.

Serial Number Validation

Cisco provides the Serial Number Validation Tool to verify whether a device is impacted by this issue. To check the device, enter the serial number in the Serial Number Validation Tool.

Important: For security reasons, you must click the Serial Number Validation Tool link that is provided in this section. Do not copy and paste the link into a browser. Use of the Serial Number Validation Tool URL external to this field notice will fail.

Revision History

Version	Description	Section	Date
1.1	Updated to hardware vs software FN, no changes to any content.	—	2023-NOV-09
1.0	Initial Release	—	2023-OCT-31

For More Information

For further assistance or for more information about this field notice, contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) using one of the following methods:

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