A tiny microprocessor is currently causing huge headaches for managed service providers.

Over the past couple of weeks, news has been slowly emerging of a flaw in the clock signal component of Intel Atom C2000 series chips. Over time, the component is prone to degrading. Once the component has failed, the system stops functioning, will not boot, and isn’t recoverable. In other words, your device is bricked.

The Register reports the affected Intel Atom chipsets are as follows:

C2308, C2338, C2350, C2358, C2508, C2518, C2530, C2538, C2550, C2558, C2718, C2730, C2738, C2750, and C2758

Many manufacturers use the Intel Atom C2000 chips

So far, we know of 21 manufacturers who produce networking, server, and storage devices containing the Intel Atom C2000 chips. Below, we’ve collected all the information we’ve been able to find on which products contain the chip and may be susceptible to the clock signal issue.

To date, Cisco is the only company that has come forward with a field notice detailing which of their products are affected and how they will handle the issue.

According to multiple forum threads, a few other companies are quietly replying to support requests as they come in. But most have been noticeably mum on the issue.

It’s important to note that any problems related to the clock signal flaw are unlikely to appear before 18 months of use, and some products may not develop the issue at all.

Still, it would be wise for you to check inventories on your client networks for any of the products below, and to reach out to your vendor sales reps for more information on how to address the potential issue.

If you’re a current Auvik partner and would like a report of networking devices on your client networks possibly affected by the clock signal issue, please contact support. If you’re an MSP managing more than 200 endpoints and you’re not a current Auvik partner, contact [email protected] to discuss how we can help you identify affected networking devices.

Vendors and devices potentially affected by clock signal issue in Intel Atom C2000 chips

List last updated on March 14, 2017

Aaeon

Products affected: unknown

Advatronix

Products affected:

  • Nimbus 400

Source

ASRock

Products affected:

  • C2550D4I server motherboard
  • C2750D4I server motherboard

In December 2016, user ScHAmPi posted this response from ASRock support in a forum thread:

“Thank you for reaching out to us with your concern! Your Server board is using Intel Avoton CPU which is also listed in Intel’s errata announcement. … We provide 3-year manufacture warranty; if you ever experienced a sudden No POST with your board, please contact us. We can run a simple test to find the telltale sign. If the issue is confirmed that it may be related to the CPU, we will help you replace the board under our warranty policy.”

ASUS

Products affected: unknown

Cisco and Meraki

Products affected:

  • NCS1K-CNTLR
  • NCS5500 line cards
  • IR809/IR829 Industrial Integrated Services Routers
  • ISR4331, ISR4321, ISR4351
  • UCS-E120
  • ASA 5506, ASA 5506W, ASA 5506H, ASA 5508, ASA 5516
  • Cisco ISA3000 Industrial Security Appliance
  • Nexus 9000 series N9K-C9504-FM-E/N9K-C9508-FM-E/N9K-X9732C-EX
  • Meraki MX 84
  • Meraki MS350 series

Cisco will replace any affected gear that’s under warranty or covered by any valid services contract dated as of November 16, 2016. Instructions for requesting replacements can be found in the Cisco field notice from Feb 2.

Dell

Products affected:

  • S3048-ON
  • S4048-ON, S4048T-ON
  • S6010-ON
  • S6100-ON
  • Z9100-ON
  • C9010

Dell will replace any affected gear that’s under warranty or covered by a valid service contract.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)

Products affected: unknown

Statement from HPE: “To the best of our knowledge, our customers are not experiencing failures due to the Intel C2000 chip, which is deployed on a limited number of our products.” The company has not revealed any plans for dealing with faulty hardware should it become an issue.

Infortrend

Products affected: unknown

Juniper

Products affected:

  • MPC7E-10G, MPC7E-MRATE
  • MX2K-MPC8E, MX2K-MPC9E
  • EX9200-12QS, EX9200-40XS
  • FPC3-PTX-U2, FPC3-PTX-U3, FPC3-SFF-PTX-U1
  • CB2-PTX
  • PTX-IPLC-B-32
  • PTX-ILA-M-AC, PTX-ILA-M-CHAS

From the Juniper knowledge base, posted to Reddit /r/networking: “Juniper products with this supplier’s component were first placed into service in January 2016. … Juniper is working with the component supplier to implement a remediation.”

Lanner

Products affected:

  • NCI-200
  • NCA-1210
  • FW-7525, FW-7526
  • FW-7551
  • FW-7571, FW-7573
  • UP-2010

Source

NEC

Products affected: unknown

Newisys

Products affected: unknown

Netgate

Products affected:

  • SG-2220
  • SG-2440
  • SG-4860
  • SG-8860 1U
  • XG-2758 1U

Source

Statement from pfSense on Feb 7: “Although most Netgate Security Gateway appliances will not experience this problem, we are committed to replacing or repairing products affected by this issue for a period of at least 3 years from date of sale.”

NETGEAR

  • ReadyNAS 3130
  • ReadyNAS 3138

Statement from NETGEAR posted to Spiceworks forum on Feb 12: “We consider issues such as these very serious. We are currently assessing the specific risk of this issue on two products and expect to share the results of our assessment with the impacted customers within a week. We stand by the products with our warranty program”

Quanta

Products affected: unknown

Online and Scaleway

Products affected:

  • Dedibox SC 2016
  • Dedibox XC 2015, XC 2016
  • Scaleway C2S, C2M, C2L
  • Scaleway VC1S, VC1M, VC1L

Statement from Online: “Our statistics, including the oldest servers, do not show significant rates of failure but we remain extremely vigilant.” They will replace all faulty hardware.

Seagate

Products affected:

  • NAS Pro

Sophos

Products affected:

  • XG/SG 125
  • XG/SG 135

Statement from Sophos on Feb 10: “If deployed XG/SG 125 or XG/SG 135 hardware fails to boot, please notify Sophos customer support. To date, Sophos has seen low failure rates with hardware containing the Atom C2000 chip. Rest assured that Sophos stands behind all our products and will correct hardware issues that may arise as a result of Intel’s Atom C2000 processor.”

Supermicro

Products affected:

  • SYS-5028A-TN4 server
  • SYS-5018A-MHN4, SYS-5018A-MLHN4, SYS-5018A-MLTN4, SYS-5018A-LTN4, SYS-5018A-TN4, SYS-5018A-FTN4 servers
  • SYS-5038MA-H24TRF microcloud server
  • A1SA7-2750F motherboard
  • A1SA2-2750F motherboard
  • A1SAi-2750F, A1SAi-2550F, A1SRi-2758F, and A1SRi-2558F motherboards
  • A1SRi-2358F motherboard
  • A1SAM-2750F, A1SAM-2550F, A1SRM-2758F, and A1SRM-2558F motherboards

Source

Synology

Products affected:

  • RS2416+/RS2416RP+
  • RS815+/RS815RP+
  • DS1815+
  • DS1515+
  • DS415+

Source

Statement from Synology on Feb 18: They are extending the warranty of affected products by one year.

On Feb 9, user generious posted in a Synology forum with this reply he received from Synology support about the issue:

“Synology has not currently seen any indication that this issue has caused an increase in failure rates for DiskStation or RackStation models equipped with Intel Atom C2000 series processors compared to other models manufactured in the same time frame not equipped with the affected processors. It is safe to continue to use your device, however should you encounter any issues, our support teams will do everything they can to expedite your ticket. Technical Support can be reached via www.synology.com/ticket.”

ZNYX Networks

  • B1 TOR security switch
  • B1-n TOR switch
  • ZX2000

List compiled from ZNYX product data sheets.

To the best of our knowledge, this list is accurate and up to date as of March 14, 2017 but it may still contain errors. Please check with your vendor service reps for full details.

And if you have corrections, updates, or new information to add, please contact us—you can leave a comment below or send email to blog [at] auvik [dot] com. We will make updates as we have them.

If you’re a current Auvik partner and would like a report of networking devices on your client networks possibly affected by the clock signal issue, please contact support. If you’re an MSP managing more than 200 endpoints and you’re not a current Auvik partner, contact [email protected] to discuss how we can help you identify affected networking devices.

Media and blog sources

Forum discussions

  • Reddit, Feb 13 | Juniper is next on the oh sh!t clock signal club
  • Reddit, Feb 5 | Intel CPU failures — Have you heard from any vendors other than Cisco
  • Spiceworks, Feb 4 | Important Cisco hardware failure notification, other vendors also affected!
  1. Yaroslav Avatar
    Yaroslav

    https://www.dell.com/support/article/ru/ru/rubsdc/QNA44095/networking-clock-signal-qa?lang=EN

    Reply
    1. Jennifer Tribe Avatar
      Jennifer Tribe

      Thanks for this link, Yaroslav. I’ve updated the article with the new information for Dell.

      Reply

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