Field Notice Overview

Field Notice Overview

Cisco publishes Field Notices to notify customers and partners about significant issues in Cisco products that typically require an upgrade, workaround or other user action. Field Notices are posted to the Product Support pages on www.cisco.com. Notifications are sent via email to the users who have opted in via My Notifications, which allows users to customize the notifications they wish to receive.

Note: Field Notices do not contain security vulnerability-related issues. Security vulnerability notifications are addressed by Cisco PSIRT in accordance with the Security Vulnerability Policy. Users can view the latest Cisco security advisories and alerts on our website, and can subscribe to one or more notification options.

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What is Field Notice Impact Rating?

The purpose of this categorization system is to give you clearer guidance on the level of urgency for your required actions. There will be four distinct types of Cisco Field Notices: Critical, High, Medium, and Low.
  • •  Critical – The product or offering may experience downtime or might be at risk of affecting services. Urgent attention and response are likely required.
  • •  High – The product or offering may degrade or might have potential degradation. This likely necessitates customer attention and response based on individual deployment scenarios.
  • •  Medium – The product or offering may partially degrade. Issues may affect system performance or functionality but are less likely to pose an immediate risk to customer networks. These require taking actions in due course of time based on individual deployment scenarios.
  • •  Low – The product or offering is unlikely to experience disrupted functionality. These issues are minor in nature and can be addressed when convenient.

As part of our ongoing efforts to improve customer experience with our field communications, effective August 1, 2024, an Impact Rating will be applied to all new Field Notices and to any revisions to existing Field Notices henceforth.

Click here to know more about Field Notice Impact Rating.


What information is shared in Field Notices?

Field Notices are officially published in English-only and provide information that includes, but is not limited to, products affected, defect identification numbers, problem symptoms, workarounds, and solutions. More specifically, the primary components of a Field Notice are:
  • •  Title – A structured line that indicates the Field Notice number, a high level description of the issue and the recommended actions.
  • •  Products Affected – List of Affected Product IDs that are impacted by this issue.
  • •  Problem Description – A brief description of the issue.
  • •  Defect Information – Bug ID that can be used to look up the bug via the www.cisco.com Bug Search Tool.
  • •  Background – History of the issue and possible derivations.
  • •  Problem Symptom – A description of what may occur with the system and any behaviors or indicators that you are experiencing the problem.
  • •  Workaround/Solution – An expanded next step description to avoid the problem or to correct the situation.
  • •  How to Identify Affected Products (optional) – If appropriate, a description of steps to take to identify if your hardware is exposed to the problem.

A Field Notice can also include several optional fields which help users understand additional information about the problem and how to find the technical information for the affected products.


How does Cisco generate Field Notices?

When Cisco identifies a product issue, we analyze the issue, evaluate corrective actions if necessary, and if urgent action is needed from the users, we develop and publish a Field Notice to communicate the information.

Cisco uses the following process to publish Field Notices:
  • 1.  We classify newly identified product issues based on functional, operational, or product impact.
  • 2.  We assess the potential scope and impact to our customer install base and service inventory.
  • 3.  We ensure Cisco is ready to deploy and implement the required workaround or solution.
  • 4.  We use a consistent methodology to draft, approve, and publish a Field Notice.

What should you do if you experience an issue highlighted in a Field Notice?

Customers should follow the recommended actions in the “Workaround/Solution” section in the Field Notice. This will offer the best way to recover from an issue they are experiencing or mitigate risk of an issue. Often, the recommended actions may include solution approaches to avoid hardware replacement (RMA) or hardware upgrades. Recommended actions that involve these approaches include, but are not limited to:
  • •  Configuration changes
  • •  Software upgrades
  • •  Firmware upgrades

Some Field Notice solutions guide customers to perform hardware replacements as the best way to resolve an issue. Recommended actions that involve these approaches include actions such as hardware replacements. Customers can request replacements through an upgrade form available at the end of the Field Notice when it applies.

When considering configuration changes, software and/or firmware upgrades, customers must make their own determinations regarding implementing any recommendations in Field Notices. In all cases, customers should ensure that the devices to be upgraded contain sufficient memory and confirm that current hardware and software configurations will continue to be supported properly by the new release or solution. If the information is not clear, customers are advised to contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) or their contracted maintenance providers.


How do Field Notices differ from other Cisco product and product issue notifications?

Cisco uses several methods to deliver product and issue related information to our Customers and Partners, such as Security Advisories, Software Advisories, End of Life Notices, etc. Each form of communication serves a specific purpose, but may overlap from time-to-time. Field Notices are structured so that they can be used as a stand-alone document and/or in conjunction with other customer-facing documents.
  • •  Security Advisories
  • •  Software Advisories
  • •  End-of-Life Notices

What is the purpose of the Serial Number Validation (SNV) Tool?

Field Notices provide information on known issues for Cisco products identified by a list or range of serial numbers. The SNV Tool provides the ability to determine whether the serial number(s) of your product is “Affected” or “Not Affected” by the Field Notice by inputting a serial number(s) into the tool. The results of the tool are returned in a tabular format, with an indication displaying “Affected” or “Not Affected” in front of each of the serial numbers.


Where can the Serial Number Validation (SNV) Tool link be found?

The SNV Tool’s link can be found within the Field Notice document, in either of these sections: Workaround/Solution, How to Identify Affected Products, or Serial Number Validation.

Note: The SNV Tool link is mentioned in a Field Notice only upon availability of the affected range of product information in the SNV Tool.


How do I use the Serial Number Validation (SNV) Tool?

If the Field Notice has a SNV Tool link included, complete these steps:
  • 1.  Click the Serial Number Validation Tool link within the Field Notice to access the tool.
  • 2.  Enter the serial number(s), separated by comma or space, in the search box and click Submit to verify whether or not the unit(s) is affected by the Field Notice.
  • 3.  If the list you are entering exceeds 100 serial numbers, complete these steps to upload the list in the tool:
    •      a.  Create an Excel file (or generic CSV format) and enter the list of serial numbers in a single column. Save the file on your local computer.
    •      b.  In the SNV Tool, click Browse and choose the Excel file with the list of serial numbers.
    •      c.  Click Upload and wait for the upload to complete.
    •      d.  Click Submit and wait for the results to populate.
  • 4.  Click Download to export the result into a spreadsheet.

Note: If the serial number entered shows up as affected, refer to the Field Notice and follow the directions in the Workaround/Solution section.


How can customers request a replacement for a unit affected by a Field Notice?

Once the user verifies their unit is affected by an issue described in a particular Field Notice, use the following steps to request a replacement:

  • 1.  Open the Field Notice and use the Products Affected table and/or Serial Number Validation Tool and additional conditions mentioned in the Field Notice to determine whether the unit is affected by the issue.
  • 2.  If the unit is affected, go to the Upgrade Program Information section of the Field Notice, and click the provided link to request an upgrade.

Note: Upgrade requests must be submitted through the specific Support Case Manager (SCM) link provided within the Field Notice.


How can customers use the Upgrade Program?

To submit an Upgrade request, follow these steps:

  • 1.  Open the Field Notice that describes the issue affecting your unit. (You will be required to log in to cisco.com.)
  • 2.  Verify whether the Products Affected and Problem Description mentioned in the Field Notice match the issue.
  • 3.  Use the Serial Number Validation Tool as described in How do I use the Serial Number Validation (SNV) Tool? to confirm if your unit is affected or not.
         Note: The Serial Number Validation (SNV) link is mentioned in a Field Notice only upon availability of the affected range of product information. If the SNV link is not available in the Field Notice, move to step #4.
  • 4.  For affected units that the Field Notice recommends replacement, follow the direction and link provided in the Upgrade Program Information section.
  • 5.  Once the request is submitted, the user will receive the Service Request #. Updates to the status will be provided through Service Request updates or by checking the RMA status. For further details on Replacements, refer to Field Notice Affected Hardware replacement FAQ (sharepoint.com).

 

Notifications

Get notified when new Field Notices are published via My Notifications.

Specific Campaigns

Certain third-party memory components could exhibit higher-than-expected failure rates in a small number of Cisco products. (September 2024)

Cisco products are transitioning from a QuoVadis Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Certificate Authority (CA) to a CA provided by IdenTrust. (April 2022)

Mexico's IFT implemented nation-wide dial plan changes that may affect some Cisco Unified Communication and Router products. (August 2019)

Clock Signal Component

A clock signal component issue can affect certain Cisco security and router products. (February 2017)

Memory Component

Some memory components manufactured between 2005 and 2010 can affect certain products. (February 2014)