Cisco Viptela SD-WAN customers are experiencing SD-WAN network downtime from an expired hardware certificate in what Redditors described as "the most Cisco thing ever."

The certifications on Cisco Viptela vEdge 1000, vEdge 2000 and Edge 1000 SD-WAN hardware, which Cisco acquired for $610 million in 2017, have expired after their predetermined 10-year period, and users are being vocal online about the significance of the outage and the potential impacts on businesses worldwide.

In a statement on Twitter, Cisco said it's "actively working" to address the issue of the hardware certification expiration and apologized for "the challenge this is creating." The vendor plans to continue communicating with customers via "established channels" and says it is "developing and testing solutions."

Some Cisco customers credit this incident to a lack of preventative efforts to make a new certification available before the existing one expires. "Name a worse combination than Cisco and losing track of cert expirations – I'll wait," one user wrote, adding that this isn't the first time a wireless certification issue "caught [Cisco] with their pants down."

In December of last year, the image signing certification expired on Cisco's IOS-based access points (APs). This caused image downloads from wireless LAN controllers (WLC) including Cisco AireOS and C9800 to fail because APs were prevented from joining the controller. Initially Cisco advised customers to "manually set the WLC date/time to a date before December 2, 2022," which was three days before the certificate expired.

With this SD-WAN outage, Cisco similarly recommended users manually change the date and time on the devices and extending timers, but that strategy feels more like a band-aid than a true solution to Cisco's customers. "Corporations with Viptela networks and telecom clients are all hands on deck working around the clock to save whatever can be saved," another user shared.

As for a resolution, Cisco expects a certificate replacement will be the most effective fix, but the vendor is still "in the process of testing and validating the procedure for controllers and remote devices to clearly outline what is required to restore service."

According to Q1 2020 data, Cisco reported more than 20,000 SD-WAN customers across both its Viptela and Meraki SD-WAN offerings.

In response to a request for comment, Cisco directed SDxCentral to the vendor's statement on Twitter.