UCS C240 M4 end of life

UCS C240 M4 support dates

Where the UCS C240 M4 stands today

Cisco's C240 M4 support page now says Cisco no longer supports the model, and the dates behind that come from the amended EOL12709 bulletin, which the C240 M4 shares with the C220 M4 and C460 M4. Its Last Date of Support and its End of Vulnerability/Security Support both fell on 29 February 2024, so Cisco no longer provides security remedies for the platform. The commercial milestones came earlier: the end-of-life announcement on 16 August 2018, End-of-Sale on 14 February 2019, Last Ship on 15 May 2019 and End of Service Contract Renewal on 12 May 2023. The End of SW Maintenance Releases date, 14 February 2020, applied only to the IMC software, according to the bulletin.

Because Cisco sets these dates per product ID and the bulletin has a single milestone table, every C240 M4 reached the same end on 29 February 2024. Your chassis PID (UCSC-C240-M4SX, -M4L, -M4S or -M4S2) is still worth checking, though, since it determines which C240 M5 Cisco lists as the replacement, and Table 2 of EOL12709 confirms the match. The NEBS variants are on the same bulletin, and one of them, UCSC-C240-M4SNEBS=, has no listed replacement.

What still works after Cisco support ends

For firmware, the C240 M4 is in its final state. IMC software maintenance releases stopped on 14 February 2020 and security remedies stopped on 29 February 2024. No further fixes are released for the C240 M4. Under Cisco's security vulnerability policy, PSIRT accepts reports against products that have passed their Last Day of Support, but analysis, fixes, disclosure and CVEs all stop.

What firmware is already published is a separate question. The C240 M4 SFF spec sheet included ongoing BIOS, driver and firmware downloads in the no-contract Unified Computing Warranty, next to three years of parts cover, without saying whether that access outlasts the warranty or the Last Date of Support. On the service side, Cisco's renewal window shut on 12 May 2023, so hardware cover for a C240 M4 can now only be arranged outside Cisco, for example through server third-party maintenance.

• Maintenance releases of the IMC software ended on 14 Feb 2020 and security remedies ended on 29 Feb 2024. Cisco releases no further fixes for the C240 M4. (cisco.com)
• For products past their Last Day of Support, Cisco PSIRT accepts vulnerability reports but will not analyse, fix or disclose them, and issues no CVEs. (sec.cloudapps.cisco.com)
• Cisco's C240 M4 SFF spec sheet lists 'Ongoing downloads of BIOS, drivers, and firmware updates' among the coverage supplied under the no-contract Unified Computing Warranty, alongside three-year parts coverage. It does not say whether this continues after the warranty or the Last Date of Support. (cisco.com)

What a maintenance contract needs to cover on the UCS C240 M4

The drive configuration decides most of a C240 M4 contract, and Cisco's spec sheet notes that the SFF backplane is not field-upgradeable, so the chassis you have is the one you will be maintaining. The four versions are an SFF 24-drive chassis with an expander backplane, an SFF 16-drive chassis with an integrated expander and an SFF 8-drive direct-connect chassis without an expander, each able to take up to two NVMe SSDs, plus an LFF 12-drive chassis with an integrated expander for 3.5-inch SAS/SATA drives. Only the 24-drive SFF version supports the two optional internal SATA boot drives on riser 1, which are managed in AHCI mode with OS-based software RAID and should be listed on the contract separately.

Expansion is up to six PCIe 3.0 slots on two risers, a dedicated 12G SAS modular RAID slot, an mLOM slot and two Intel i350 1GbE LOM ports, and the CIMC controller is reached via its 1GbE dedicated port, the onboard LOM ports or a Cisco VIC. The SFF spec sheet lists supplies of 650 W AC, 1200 W AC (800 W on 100-120 V), 1400 W AC for 200-240 V only, or 930 W -48 V DC, fitted 1+1, so spares must suit both the supply and the site voltage. Field Notice FN70545 also names the C240 M4: listed 400 GB and 1.6 TB SSDs go offline at 40,000 power-on hours unless drive firmware C405 has been applied through HUU releases 4.1(1f), 4.0(2n) or 3.0(4p) and later, and Cisco offers no proactive replacement. What third-party maintenance covers sets out the general scope of such a contract.

Extend or refresh the UCS C240 M4?

Keeping a C240 M4 on maintenance is easiest to justify for storage that is stable, backed up and not exposed to untrusted networks, because the hardware can still be repaired while the security position cannot improve: Cisco ended security remedies on 29 February 2024. Before extending, check whether any FN70545 drives still run older firmware, since a listed drive that reaches 40,000 power-on hours without C405 goes offline.

Refresh has a clear Cisco path. EOL12709 maps each chassis to a C240 M5 equivalent, M4SX to M5SX, M4L to M5L, and M4S or M4S2 to M5S, and the support page names the UCS C240 M5 as the replacement. The catch is timing: the M5 itself reaches its Last Date of Support on 31 October 2028 under EOL15060, so a like-for-like move to a C240 M5 now leaves around two years before that model also passes its Last Date of Support. That can still suit a site that wants the closest equivalent chassis as a short bridge, but a longer-term refresh would look beyond the M5.

• Field Notice FN70545 (version 2.0, 30 Jun 2023) lists the UCS C240 M4 among affected products. Listed 400 GB and 1.6 TB SSDs fail and go offline at 40,000 power-on hours (about 4.5 years) unless drive firmware C405 is installed via the HUU (C-Series 3.0(4p), 4.0(2n) or 4.1(1f) and later). Cisco says proactive replacement is not available. Check whether any affected drives still run older firmware. (cisco.com)
• Cisco's support page marks the C240 M4 'End of Support', states 'This model is no longer supported by Cisco', and names the UCS C240 M5 as the replacement. (cisco.com)
• Cisco's bulletin maps each C240 M4 chassis to a C240 M5 equivalent: M4SX to M5SX, M4L to M5L, and M4S/M4S2 to M5S. The M5 itself reaches its Last Date of Support on 31 Oct 2028 under EOL15060. (cisco.com)

Keep your UCS C240 M4 covered

Tell us how many you run and when your current cover ends, and we will come back with a like-for-like maintenance quote for that estate. Your model and its support status are attached to the enquiry automatically, so there is nothing to re-type.

Related models

The C240 M4 and the UCS C220 M4 are on the same bulletin and share every date, so a mixed estate of the two went out of Cisco support on the same day. Before the C240 M4 came the C240 M3, the previous 2RU generation by inference rather than by anything the bulletin says. For the forward view, the UCS C240 M5 end of life page covers the model Cisco mapped the M4 chassis onto.

• UCS C220 M4 end of lifePast the vendor’s last date of support
• UCS C220 M5 end of lifeEnd-of-life announced — vendor support still available
• UCS C240 M5 end of lifeEnd-of-life announced — vendor support still available

Look up another model in the server & network end-of-life checker, or read what third-party maintenance covers.

Questions people ask about the UCS C240 M4

Sources

Every date, rule and specification above was checked against these on 8 October 2026 by an independent verification pass. Vendors revise lifecycle notices; this page is re-checked by 8 January 2027.

1. Cisco EOL12709 (Amended, updated 24 Aug 2019): End-of-Sale and End-of-Life Announcement for the Cisco Unified Computing System C-Series Rack Servers (C220 M4, C240 M4 and C460 M4) — cisco.com
2. UCS C240 M4 release — cisco.com
3. sec.cloudapps.cisco.com — sec.cloudapps.cisco.com
4. cisco.com — cisco.com
5. cisco.com — cisco.com
6. cisco.com — cisco.com

Last reviewed 7 October 2026. Lifecycle dates for the UCS C240 M4 are re-verified against Cisco's own notices at each review; a date a vendor has not published is never filled in.