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Cisco names Micron as supplier of SSDs that make Nexus and Firepower kit snooze

Drive looks to be an industrial model, so probably not a wider threat

Cisco has named Micron as the supplier of solid-state disks that put themselves to sleep after 28,224 hours of operation.

Switchzilla warned that flimsy firmware could fell some of its Nexus 9000 and 3000 devices back in February 2021, and last week issued Field Notices warning that some of its Firepower security appliances also had the problem.

The issue saw devices become unresponsive until restarted, but the problem recurred after a further 1,008 hours of operation.

The permanent fix is updated firmware, encapsulated in an OS update.

Recent updates to the Field Notices name the source of the problem: the Micron M500IT NAND Flash SSD, model “MTFDDAT064SBD” to be precise.

A Micron data sheet [PDF] describes the device as a 2016-vintage 64GB drive built on 20nm MLC NAND Flash sporting a SATA interface and offering three million hours mean time to failure.

We mention that last figure as it is well short of the 28,224 hours after which the M500IT puts itself to sleep inside Cisco devices, perhaps suggesting that it is Cisco’s firmware and/or OS at fault rather than any mess made by Micron.

Whoever is to blame for the bug, the M500IT appears not to have been sold as the kind of drive you’d pop into a server, so the issue may well not be widespread outside of Cisco’s appliances. ®

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