Great news.... ASA 512MB upgrade successful!

T

tangoseal

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Just general information for anyone who cares

If you own an ASA 5505 series and have a need to upgrade the RAM to 512MB for ASA 8.4+ operating system (which is required) I have successfully done so for $16.00.

I used Corsair Value Select DDR1-400 3-3-3 512MB kit.

part number: VS512MB400/EU G

The ASA booted up without a hitch over 10 times. I am going to turn off my 1921 router and use the ASA for the next week and test its overall stability to certifiy thsi $16.00 upgrade.

Here is a link for those who want to order this upgrade....
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000234UQA/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i03
 
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You can also use a 1 GB stick. That's what I used in mine. Just a word of caution, it depends on which version of the ASA5505 you have and if it'll accept the stick or not. There's a thread on DSLreports with people's successes/failures. It may boot properly, but issue a "reload" command from the CLI to verifiy that it will reboot properly and not hang on POST and go into an endless loop. A cold boot will work, but you need to test the reload command.

I tried probably ~ 12 sticks of DDR before i found one that worked on POST and after using the reload command on it about 10 times in a row without problems. It is now rock-solid.
 
Unless you have the ul with sec plus 512 mb should easily be enough. Congrats.
 
Jay_oasis said:
Unless you have the ul with sec plus 512 mb should easily be enough. Congrats.
Click to expand...

Yup in my sig. I have Security Plus fully loaded and unlimited hosts model.

I wasn't able to successfully enable certain services with 8.4 unless I had a 512 even thought it would still load the OS.

Also about 1GB of RAM, there is no need for 1GB in this model of ASA, it doesn't have the throughput, switching, VPN power, or any other service that would utilize that much ram like its big bro the 5510. However given the fact that 1GB of ram is like $20 it doesn't hurt one bit.

Yes I will do reload testing so dont hold your breath now I guess on my recommendation until I certify it can reload without looping and over and over.
 
Yeah, I rarely ever hit over about 380 MB memory usage on my 5505. I had a GB stick so why not :p
 
Okay ....17 reloads later,,, switched operating system back and forth 5 times, 100% solid.

I'd say on my ASA it was a solid and cheap and good to go upgrade.

so far so good.

and usr/home ... even on my home (main router firewall) 1921/sec with all services turned up I can possibly turn up I dont come close to consuming all 512MB of ram built in. That little router is a beast.

I installed another 1921 at a client of mine as their main router and they have a 100mbps Comcast account and it just chews up the internet and spits it out as fast as comcast can shell it out to them. This is one fast little router for sure.

The asa did great too at that business when it was their main firewall / wannabe router and it did quite well on that internet connection though wouldn't come close to the performance of the 1921 in throughput across the board. ASA is still one of the nicest firewalls I have ever used in its size class and that is why I wanted to show her some love and give her a little more memory.

Now I wish there was a way to configure my ASA as a VPN device for my home network behind my 1921 as I really want to use the SSL VPN licenses (I own 2) with my cellphone.
 
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Forward port 443 to your ASA and leave it in transparent mode. Buy a cheap SSL certificate and you're good to go.
 
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