This Counter32 counts the number of crypto CEPs (crypto engine connection endpoints) that are ESP-encrypted and failed to establish in this Virtual Interface, per its description. An admin reads this as a hardware/crypto-engine-level health signal distinct from the SA counters above; a growing 'failed to establish' count for failures indicates the crypto acceleration path itself is struggling to set up sessions, not just the IKE negotiation. For example, an admin seeing ESP CEP failures climb on VI 9 carrying a branch-office VPN while IKE negotiations report success would suspect a hardware crypto resource exhaustion issue rather than a configuration mismatch.