Dell VEP/VMWare Edge/Velo Cloud SD-WAN/VeraCloud VEP1400/VEP1400-X firewall units
- Thread starter j_h_o
- Start date
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I have been doing some binary analysis on the CPLD and PIC to see which one is proxy'ing what to which device since the differences between the VEP and VEP-X make it kinda hard to help everyone with things that seem similar but are quite different. I haven't really bothered to clean them up and add some readme context but I'll do that if there's enough interest in this sort of thing.
Since there are no self-service updates for the VEP, those become non-issues. That leaves the following:
- How to disable the watchdog on VEP
- How to gain access to all network ports on VEP
If you boot to DiagOS and type the following, you'll see the documented settings:
nvramtool -r
There is nothing specific for the Wi-Fi module and/or fan checks. The only useful variations are disabling POST completely, or keeping POST enabled, but allowing boot to continue when POST fails.
I don't remember the history on 0x56 which appears to be undocumented. Maybe I did some experimentation. The following works for me:
nvramtool --write --reg=0x54 --val=0x01
nvramtool --write --reg=0x55 --val=0x09
nvramtool --write --reg=0x56 --val=0x00
We already know both of those, I documented them in 2023 here. I'm more interested actually using the features provided (i.e. the brownout monitor, the separate fan controller vs. the one in the PIC, the bank switching, flashing via the CPLD skipping the BIOS, controlling the port LEDs, reading the registers containing the boot specs (hot/warm/cold, reset cause, bank selected), maybe write an OpnSense plugin for the embedded switch since support is already built into FreeBSD anyway etc. The CPLD is also only ~20% used leaving a lot of free space for whatever you want to implement there, it's wired up to nearly everything. As for the two DIP switches in the flash CS path and the 2 buttons with GPIO inputs, those interact with practically everything except the C3000. You can reset/repower almost every device independently while the OS is running, which wouldn't be great on the active storage or the SoC but is great when you're debugging something and don't want to reboot (especially since the devices tend to be remove operated).
Hello All!
Sorry to comment on this with it being an older post, but with some recent market trends, tons of these devices are showing up on eBay.
I ended up buying a 620 and a 610. I have been working on the 620, and managed to get it installed with DiagOS, and then installed VyOS. One issue that I am having is that it appears to not be seeing all of the interfaces on the device, and within VyOS only sees eth0 and eth1, where in DiagOS it sees 5 and 6.
Regardless of which OS I boot into, I also see a similar error about the HW:
Sorry to comment on this with it being an older post, but with some recent market trends, tons of these devices are showing up on eBay.
I ended up buying a 620 and a 610. I have been working on the 620, and managed to get it installed with DiagOS, and then installed VyOS. One issue that I am having is that it appears to not be seeing all of the interfaces on the device, and within VyOS only sees eth0 and eth1, where in DiagOS it sees 5 and 6.
Regardless of which OS I boot into, I also see a similar error about the HW:
- [ 4.302991] ixgbe 0000:05:00.1 eth1: MAC: 6, PHY: 0, PBA No: 000500-000 [ 4.309745] ixgbe 0000:05:00.1: e8:b5:d0:03:c3:85 [ 4.314589] ixgbe 0000:05:00.1 eth1: Enabled Features: RxQ: 4 TxQ: 4 FdirHash vxlan_rx [ 4.332691] ixgbe 0000:05:00.1 eth1: Intel(R) 10 Gigabit Network Connection [ 4.353904] ixgbe 0000:07:00.0: HW Init failed: -17 [ 4.358960] ixgbe: probe of 0000:07:00.0 failed with error -17 [ 4.378906] ixgbe 0000:07:00.1: HW Init failed: -17 [ 4.383955] ixgbe: probe of 0000:07:00.1 failed with error -17 [ 4.392529] ixgbe 0000:05:00.1 e3: renamed from eth1 [ 4.403032] ixgbe 0000:05:00.0 e2: renamed from eth0
- vyos@vyos:~$ lspci | grep -i ethernet 05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection X553 10 GbE SFP+ (rev 11) 05:00.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection X553 10 GbE SFP+ (rev 11) 07:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection X553 1GbE (rev 11) 07:00.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection X553 1GbE (rev 11) vyos@vyos:~$
So, after posting this and basically having given up, I put the plate back on the router, and rebooted it. One thing that I was curious about is that while in DiagOS, it was showing Eth5 and Eth6, where in VyOS it was saying 0 and 1, so it was making me wonder if it was detecting copper ports 5 and 6, not the SFPs. I plugged my laptop into 5 and 6, and got a link light. Out of curiousity, I plugged into port 4, and also got a link light. I ran a ifconfig, and now all of a sudden, all of the interfaces are showing..
Great news! I'll bet you're relieved? You should be able to see all the network ports even in the BIOS.
I've updated 10x 640/680 units and getting all the ports recognized was a frequent problem. I've 'tried' lots of things. In retrospect, I don't think pressing any buttons helped. The best approach is to reload the latest CPLD image and BIOS with the NVRAM option-- even if they're already current. I believe it comes down to some configuration that eventually gets reset.
I've noticed the recent surge in 620s on eBay. I still have saved searches. We used to see more 640s. For future buyers, I'd still recommend holding out for a 640 or even 680. You get more cores and 32GB vs 8GB RAM. I'd also avoid the 'N' versions without Wi-Fi. You may not need the Wi-FI, but the associated mini-PCIe slot can be used for other things like an NVMe SSD. Some of these units have had the stock SATA SSD removed. That 240GB industrial SSD is worth something. I also question exactly how they're removing the SSD without removing the CPU heatsink and repasting.
In Q4 of 2025, I got a 640 for $39 and 6x 680s for $58 each. That includes shipping, but not tax. I know memory prices are crazy right now, but these units usually fly under the radar because few sellers explicitly call out the specifications. Many of these units are being sold by recycling companies. They have no clue what they are or how to test. The 6x 680s had an original BIN of $500. I suggest lowball offers. You may be pleasantly surprised.
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You already got it working, but if you press the button on the PCB closes to then power plug long enough, the device will power off.
When powered on again, all interfaces will be available.
So, I've been struggling with having most of the nvme disks recognized in the mini pcie slot, boot fails with the following APIC issue:
Does it ring a bell to anyone who successfully replaced the mini pcie card ? I have already updated the nvram values (0x54 to 0x56)
Code:
98, 98, 9D, 9D, 02020004, 9C, 9C, 02020003, 92, 92,
PciBusStart(02010000): A0, A0, !!!! X64 Exception Type - 0D(#GP - General Protection) CPU Apic ID - 00000000 !!!!
RIP - 000000007DB7C81A, CS - 0000000000000038, RFLAGS - 0000000000010246
ExceptionData - 0000000000000000
RAX - 000000007F651EF0, RCX - 000000007F63BB70, RDX - 0000000000000000
RBX - 0000000000000000, RSP - 000000007F63BAA0, RBP - 00000000000F4240
RSI - 000000007F63AAD0, RDI - 000000007AC30098
R8 - 0000000000000000, R9 - 0000000000000000, R10 - 0000000000000180
R11 - 000000007F63BB28, R12 - 000000007F63BBA0, R13 - 0065004E00200074
R14 - 0000000000000000, R15 - 0000000000000004
DS - 0000000000000030, ES - 0000000000000030, FS - 0000000000000030
GS - 0000000000000030, SS - 0000000000000030
CR0 - 0000000080000013, CR2 - 0000000000000000, CR3 - 000000007F33A000
CR4 - 0000000000000668, CR8 - 0000000000000000
DR0 - 0000000000000000, DR1 - 0000000000000000, DR2 - 0000000000000000
DR3 - 0000000000000000, DR6 - 00000000FFFF0FF0, DR7 - 0000000000000400
GDTR - 000000007DBCA310 0000000000000047, LDTR - 0000000000000000
IDTR - 000000007CACA018 0000000000000FFF, TR - 0000000000000000
FXSAVE_STATE - 000000007F63B700
!!!! Find PE image (No PDB) (ImageBase=000000007DB79000, EntryPoint=000000007DB792A0) !!!!I've used multiple NVMe drives without issue, but that error does look vaguely familiar.
What adapter are you using? I've used both the 2242 and 2280 varieties from AliExpress.
Can you get into the BIOS? This looks more like a file system problem than hardware. What's currently on your NVMe drive?
You said most. Does that mean you've gotten at least one NVMe to work?
What adapter are you using? I've used both the 2242 and 2280 varieties from AliExpress.
Can you get into the BIOS? This looks more like a file system problem than hardware. What's currently on your NVMe drive?
You said most. Does that mean you've gotten at least one NVMe to work?
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I'm using the righthand adapter.
I believe I had some bios issues, since then I reset the bios values default and forced link speed to 8GT/s, it looks like it's recognized now. Let's see how it holds through reboots.
Edit: it did not survive reboot, and now it looks like my primary bios image is corrupted -_-
I believe I had some bios issues, since then I reset the bios values default and forced link speed to 8GT/s, it looks like it's recognized now. Let's see how it holds through reboots.
Edit: it did not survive reboot, and now it looks like my primary bios image is corrupted -_-
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Keep at it. I think you'll recover. Once you get everything working, it should be clear sailing. Due to the age of the product, we probably won't see any more updates. There's no way that connecting 1 PCIe lane and 3.3V power has corrupted the BIOS. With these units, it's all about the configuration.
For now I can still boot with the old bios version, 3.48.0.9-4, but 3.48.0.9-23 fails directly, sometimes with memory test errors (which don't show up with the old image).
I've reinstalled a fresh version of DiagOS, trying to see if I can update the bios again.
I've reinstalled a fresh version of DiagOS, trying to see if I can update the bios again.
No luck at this point, it tries to start twice with 3.48.0.9-23 and then falls back to the stock 3.48.0.9-4. The box can boot on -4, but since it's a recovery mode I need to manually select the boot override, which is far from being convenient.
Also removing the CMOS battery did not help.
Also removing the CMOS battery did not help.
Welp, I shouldn't have tried to flash to a lower version of the bios, it is bootlooping now, with no POST display even.
For the ones that successfully flashed the bios chip directly (I recall seeing something in this thread, but with no details), do you have a quick how-to of what should be done ?
For the ones that successfully flashed the bios chip directly (I recall seeing something in this thread, but with no details), do you have a quick how-to of what should be done ?
I think I may be too late...
Do you still have the Wi-Fi module removed? If so, during your troubleshooting, did the NVRAM values get reset to defaults? If you capture the boot sequence, can you see why it's failing? What you're describing is exactly what I'd expect if POST fails. I'm pretty sure it tries 3 times before falling back to the second BIOS slot. Yes, that's a very annoying wait and worse if you miss the BIOS prompt.
Do you still have the Wi-Fi module removed? If so, during your troubleshooting, did the NVRAM values get reset to defaults? If you capture the boot sequence, can you see why it's failing? What you're describing is exactly what I'd expect if POST fails. I'm pretty sure it tries 3 times before falling back to the second BIOS slot. Yes, that's a very annoying wait and worse if you miss the BIOS prompt.
I did try putting back the wifi module, also clearing CMOS by removing the battery, also removed the sodimm I added back then.
The NVRAM values were still the overwritten ones to skip PCIE check, at least what `nvramtool` would report, before I ran the bios update.
Now it's not even pushing anything to the serial port, it's bootlooping and the led stays red. The sequence I receive over serial (each line is printed after the fans spin up, then the device likely reboots) is some variation of
00
00 FE FE
00 E0
00 FE
00 FE FE
00 F0
00 E0
00 FE
00 FE FE
00 FC
00 FF FC
00 FE
The NVRAM values were still the overwritten ones to skip PCIE check, at least what `nvramtool` would report, before I ran the bios update.
Now it's not even pushing anything to the serial port, it's bootlooping and the led stays red. The sequence I receive over serial (each line is printed after the fans spin up, then the device likely reboots) is some variation of
00
00 FE FE
00 E0
00 FE
00 FE FE
00 F0
00 E0
00 FE
00 FE FE
00 FC
00 FF FC
00 FE
What firmware did you last load? If you lived closer, I'd just trade you for an already updated unit. I hate to see people suffer. 
I've never managed to screw up so bad that I needed to manually program the FLASH. I could definitely program the IC. I just don't know how to extract the binary from the Dell package. I don't know what unique parameters might be in reserved areas.
I've never managed to screw up so bad that I needed to manually program the FLASH. I could definitely program the IC. I just don't know how to extract the binary from the Dell package. I don't know what unique parameters might be in reserved areas.
The last one I tried to load is 3.48.0.9-16. From the other side of the pond is a bit far away for a trade indeed