ASA 5515-X not addressing all CPU cores/memory?

[Brian Moore]

Hello all,

I appologize if this has been answered somewhere, but I've been googling the heck out of this and haven't seen this addressed anywhere.

I have a new ASA5515-K9 running code version 8.6(1)2 for personal lab use, and the output of the "show cpu core all" and "show memory" commands don't appear to match what is physically in the box.

For example, the processor is the intel i3-540 with 2 cores/4 threads, yet it appears the OS is only using 1 core, as shown below:

ASA5515X# sh cpu core

Core      5 sec  1 min  5 min

Core 0     0.0%   0.6%   0.3%

Furthermore, Cisco states the 5500-X series run a 64-bit OS, 8.6.1, yet it seems to only be addressing 4GB of memory:

ASA5515X# sh mem

Free memory:        3477981888 bytes (81%)

Used memory:         816985408 bytes (19%)

-------------     ------------------

Total memory:       4294967296 bytes (100%)

The hardware is correctly identified in the output of "show version" and during bootup, as follows:

Sh Ver:

Hardware:   ASA5515, 8192 MB RAM, CPU Clarkdale 3059 MHz, 1 CPU (4 cores)

                 ASA: 4096 MB RAM, 1 CPU (1 core)

Bootup:

CPU Type: Intel(R) Core(TM) i3 CPU         540  @ 3.07GHz, 3059 MHz

Total Memory:8192 MB(DDR3 1333)

System memory:624 KB, Extended Memory:3573 MB

So in summary:

1. Why does "show cpu core" and "show cpu core all" only show 1 core? I was expecting output similar to https://supportforums.cisco.com/thread/2158189

ASA23-19(config)# show cpu core

Core      5 sec  1 min  5 min

Core 0     0.4%   0.2%   0.2%

Core 1     0.4%   0.3%   0.2%

Core 2     0.2%   0.1%   0.0%

Core 3     0.2%   0.0%   0.0%

2. Why does only 4GB of 8GB appear to be available in "show memory"?

3. Why does "show version" display two seemingly separate hardware specs?

ASA5515, 8192 MB RAM, CPU Clarkdale 3059 MHz, 1 CPU (4 cores)

vs

ASA: 4096 MB RAM, 1 CPU (1 core)

Thanks in advance for any input.

[Karsten Iwen · Accepted solution]

Not all ressources in the Box are available to firewalling. There are reserved ressources for the software-module for IPS.

[S M85 · Accepted solution]

this was a documentation bug.

CSCtz55372

these are the right specs.

[Brian Moore]

Thank you for your responses. I didn't anticipate 3 out of 4 threads and half the memory being reserved for IPS features that aren't in use/configured. Given that firewall + IPS throughput on the 5515 is rated by Cisco for at least 200Mbps less traffic than firewall-only throughput, I had assumed there was no hardware explicitly reserved/dedicated to IPS.

I'm glad to atleast know everything's working as intended.

Thanks again!

[MooreIT01]

Interesting, I guess it really doesn't matter if it performs well with the resources allocated.  Sander, can you link the spec's posted above?  I can't seem to find that info in the data sheets etc.

[S M85]

No I ca'nt give you the link. It is internal documentation that I got from the engineer that I was working on a case. I was also wondering like Brian why the resources where not adressed correctly. This is the explanation: they are shared resources. You can't find this in the documentation that's why I'm sharing this with you. Please look into bug id CSCtz55372 .

[ldeanwebb]

Hello Cisco,

It's almost 4 years later... still no mention of this in the documentation. What's the status on the documentation update?

[infrateam]

Cisco : Why has this not been addressed yet? You are misleading your customers. I'll raise a TAC case to have this resolved if it's not picked up. 

Thanks