PA-445 stability?

[AnthonyWall]

Anyone else having issues with PA-445 stability? We're doing our 2nd RMA in less than 6 months on a PA-445 that just randomly restarts. It's on dual independent electrical circuits (with UPSs). After the first RMA it did it again and support said it needed an updated OS to resolved the issue (11.1.4). Same issue again (still on 11.1.4) and this time it's an RMA.

[BPry]

I would assume that you're actually running into software issues and not actual hardware issues, the PA-445 being a newer platform and requiring 11.1 you're kind of bound to run into more issues than normal. Has TAC noted what they're seeing in the logs that correlate with the restarts?

[AnthonyWall]

No, TAC called and just said they're going to RMA the unit and to supply shipping info in the ticket.

[Brandon_Wertz]

Like @BPry mentioned 11.1 is a newer OS and could be more prone to stability problems, but if this is a software issue that's causing the 445 to reboot a hardware RMA won't fix your problem.  I'm not saying it's this, but 10.2 does have a software kernel panic that causes firewalls to reboot (PAN-241497).  I'm not sure if 11.1 has the same trigger condition, but maybe?  

[delliott_6784]

I have a client who is going through the exact scenario you have described with PA-445's.  2 RMAs in  a row.  The faulty PA-445's were experiencing high utilization for no reason before going dark and eventually rebooting every 1-5 hrs.  There must be a bad lot out there. 

[Cory.Kramer]

We have had a 150% failure rate with these so far. Put in an HA pair in beginning of October and am in the process of doing my 3rd RMA as we speak. FYI NBD support when you file the claim they day before Thanksgiving, means you will not get the replacement unit until Dec 2nd, even if your RMA processes well before the 5pm cuttoff. I have 13 more of these sitting on my desk, but now thinking of leaving the 820s in place a few more months until things shake out. Tried both 11.1.4-h1 and 11.1.5-h1

[EddyHofmann]

Did the RMA fix it?

I had a client who RMA'd the same FW 2 times.

[AnthonyWall]

Just opened our 6th case in 10 months on this 445 that's been RMA'd twice already. The requirement for SFP has gone away for this firewall and our vendor is working swap us to a PA-440, which has been rock stable on 10.x.x at all of our other locations. And OS 11 is super slow on this 445. It acts like our old 2xx series!!