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Multiple ports hanging/dropping on on S50

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wwbach at gmail

Feb 11, 2010, 6:18 PM

Post #1 of 7 (3240 views)
Permalink

Multiple ports hanging/dropping on on S50

We've recently picked up three used force10 SA-01-GE-48T switches. We're
experiencing random issues where is seems like a significant portion of the
switch stack drops connections to the devices connected. This is happening
maybe a couple of times a day.

Here is some more info:

I only know enought to be dangerous -- we have a networking consultant
working on it who probably is better with cisco gear but has some f10
experience.

The swithes are stacked using two stacking cables -- 1 to 2 and 2 to 3.
This seems like this is a supported configuration (cascade) according to
this web page:

http://www.force10networks.com/CSPortal20/TechTips/0057_HowDoIStackSSeriesUnitsTogether.aspx

but maybe we *need* a cable from switch 3 back to 1 (ring)?

All the switches are running SFTOS 2.5.2.2 with QOS, Multicast, Stacking
and Routing.

Nothing unusual in the log. A few interfaces going up and down but not
really corresponsing to when we are experiencing issues.

No errors in "show stack-port diag".

We took one of the switches out of the mix and things seemed to be better
but not perfect.

When the problem occurs, everything comes back to normal after a couple of
minutes.

There are several vlans configured. One vlan where most of the
communication is confined to the vlan has not seemed to have any problems.

When the problem occurs, it seems to affect ports on multiple switches in
the stack.

Spanning tree routing is enabled as is OSPF.

Another thing worth mentioning is that the we had some issues configurring
multicast routing. We wanted to use sparse mode PIM but couldn't get it
working with a cisco router. We ended up getting a multicast proxy working
-- not sure what this really means.

Most of the gear attached to the stack is either broadcom of intel chipset.

Any ideas on how to futher debug this issue or what to look at? Thanks. --
Bud

david at davidrodgers

Feb 11, 2010, 8:52 PM

Post #2 of 7 (3123 views)
Permalink

Re: Multiple ports hanging/dropping on on S50 [In reply to]

On that code rev I've experienced similar issues on occasion on certain chassis even with a single switch not stacking ....

David

On Feb 11, 2010, at 6:18 PM, wwbach [at] gmail wrote:

> We've recently picked up three used force10 SA-01-GE-48T switches. We're experiencing random issues where is seems like a significant portion of the switch stack drops connections to the devices connected. This is happening maybe a couple of times a day.
>
> Here is some more info:
>
> I only know enought to be dangerous -- we have a networking consultant working on it who probably is better with cisco gear but has some f10 experience.
>
> The swithes are stacked using two stacking cables -- 1 to 2 and 2 to 3. This seems like this is a supported configuration (cascade) according to this web page:
>
> http://www.force10networks.com/CSPortal20/TechTips/0057_HowDoIStackSSeriesUnitsTogether.aspx
>
> but maybe we *need* a cable from switch 3 back to 1 (ring)?
>
> All the switches are running SFTOS 2.5.2.2 with QOS, Multicast, Stacking and Routing.
>
> Nothing unusual in the log. A few interfaces going up and down but not really corresponsing to when we are experiencing issues.
>
> No errors in "show stack-port diag".
>
> We took one of the switches out of the mix and things seemed to be better but not perfect.
>
> When the problem occurs, everything comes back to normal after a couple of minutes.
>
> There are several vlans configured. One vlan where most of the communication is confined to the vlan has not seemed to have any problems.
>
> When the problem occurs, it seems to affect ports on multiple switches in the stack.
>
> Spanning tree routing is enabled as is OSPF.
>
> Another thing worth mentioning is that the we had some issues configurring multicast routing. We wanted to use sparse mode PIM but couldn't get it working with a cisco router. We ended up getting a multicast proxy working -- not sure what this really means.
>
> Most of the gear attached to the stack is either broadcom of intel chipset.
>
> Any ideas on how to futher debug this issue or what to look at? Thanks. -- Bud
> _______________________________________________
> force10-nsp mailing list
> force10-nsp [at] puck
> https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/force10-nsp

wwbach at gmail

Feb 12, 2010, 6:35 AM

Post #3 of 7 (3107 views)
Permalink

Re: Multiple ports hanging/dropping on on S50 [In reply to]

Thanks David. Is there a new or older version of sftos that you would
recommend as more stable (assuming I could obtain it). Thanks. -- Bud

On Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 10:52 PM, David Rodgers <david [at] davidrodgers>wrote:

> On that code rev I've experienced similar issues on occasion on certain
> chassis even with a single switch not stacking ....
>
>
> David
>
> On Feb 11, 2010, at 6:18 PM, wwbach [at] gmail wrote:
>
> We've recently picked up three used force10 SA-01-GE-48T switches. We're
> experiencing random issues where is seems like a significant portion of the
> switch stack drops connections to the devices connected. This is happening
> maybe a couple of times a day.
>
> Here is some more info:
>
> I only know enought to be dangerous -- we have a networking consultant
> working on it who probably is better with cisco gear but has some f10
> experience.
>
> The swithes are stacked using two stacking cables -- 1 to 2 and 2 to 3.
> This seems like this is a supported configuration (cascade) according to
> this web page:
>
>
> http://www.force10networks.com/CSPortal20/TechTips/0057_HowDoIStackSSeriesUnitsTogether.aspx
>
> but maybe we *need* a cable from switch 3 back to 1 (ring)?
>
> All the switches are running SFTOS 2.5.2.2 with QOS, Multicast, Stacking
> and Routing.
>
> Nothing unusual in the log. A few interfaces going up and down but not
> really corresponsing to when we are experiencing issues.
>
> No errors in "show stack-port diag".
>
> We took one of the switches out of the mix and things seemed to be better
> but not perfect.
>
> When the problem occurs, everything comes back to normal after a couple of
> minutes.
>
> There are several vlans configured. One vlan where most of the
> communication is confined to the vlan has not seemed to have any problems.
>
> When the problem occurs, it seems to affect ports on multiple switches in
> the stack.
>
> Spanning tree routing is enabled as is OSPF.
>
> Another thing worth mentioning is that the we had some issues configurring
> multicast routing. We wanted to use sparse mode PIM but couldn't get it
> working with a cisco router. We ended up getting a multicast proxy working
> -- not sure what this really means.
>
> Most of the gear attached to the stack is either broadcom of intel chipset.
>
> Any ideas on how to futher debug this issue or what to look at? Thanks.
> -- Bud
> _______________________________________________
> force10-nsp mailing list
> force10-nsp [at] puck
> https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/force10-nsp
>
>
>

david at davidrodgers

Feb 12, 2010, 7:48 AM

Post #4 of 7 (3122 views)
Permalink

Re: Multiple ports hanging/dropping on on S50 [In reply to]

I think the latest production release of SFTOS should be 2.5.3.7

On Feb 12, 2010, at 6:35 AM, wwbach [at] gmail wrote:

> Thanks David. Is there a new or older version of sftos that you would recommend as more stable (assuming I could obtain it). Thanks. -- Bud
>
> On Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 10:52 PM, David Rodgers <david [at] davidrodgers> wrote:
> On that code rev I've experienced similar issues on occasion on certain chassis even with a single switch not stacking ....
>
>
> David
>
> On Feb 11, 2010, at 6:18 PM, wwbach [at] gmail wrote:
>
>> We've recently picked up three used force10 SA-01-GE-48T switches. We're experiencing random issues where is seems like a significant portion of the switch stack drops connections to the devices connected. This is happening maybe a couple of times a day.
>>
>> Here is some more info:
>>
>> I only know enought to be dangerous -- we have a networking consultant working on it who probably is better with cisco gear but has some f10 experience.
>>
>> The swithes are stacked using two stacking cables -- 1 to 2 and 2 to 3. This seems like this is a supported configuration (cascade) according to this web page:
>>
>> http://www.force10networks.com/CSPortal20/TechTips/0057_HowDoIStackSSeriesUnitsTogether.aspx
>>
>> but maybe we *need* a cable from switch 3 back to 1 (ring)?
>>
>> All the switches are running SFTOS 2.5.2.2 with QOS, Multicast, Stacking and Routing.
>>
>> Nothing unusual in the log. A few interfaces going up and down but not really corresponsing to when we are experiencing issues.
>>
>> No errors in "show stack-port diag".
>>
>> We took one of the switches out of the mix and things seemed to be better but not perfect.
>>
>> When the problem occurs, everything comes back to normal after a couple of minutes.
>>
>> There are several vlans configured. One vlan where most of the communication is confined to the vlan has not seemed to have any problems.
>>
>> When the problem occurs, it seems to affect ports on multiple switches in the stack.
>>
>> Spanning tree routing is enabled as is OSPF.
>>
>> Another thing worth mentioning is that the we had some issues configurring multicast routing. We wanted to use sparse mode PIM but couldn't get it working with a cisco router. We ended up getting a multicast proxy working -- not sure what this really means.
>>
>> Most of the gear attached to the stack is either broadcom of intel chipset.
>>
>> Any ideas on how to futher debug this issue or what to look at? Thanks. -- Bud
>> _______________________________________________
>> force10-nsp mailing list
>> force10-nsp [at] puck
>> https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/force10-nsp
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> force10-nsp mailing list
> force10-nsp [at] puck
> https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/force10-nsp

david at davidrodgers

Feb 12, 2010, 7:53 AM

Post #5 of 7 (3107 views)
Permalink

Re: Multiple ports hanging/dropping on on S50 [In reply to]

Oh ... and one last thing I noticed from your story. These older S50 switches are really sensitive to continual port bouncing/state changes (something that was fixed in later N/V revs) ... way more than any other switch that I've used. They don't deal with it well so if you have ports that are bouncing up and down quite a bit and/or taking a while to negotiate you might want to either check on the cabling or disable them altogether.

David Rodgers

On Feb 12, 2010, at 6:35 AM, wwbach [at] gmail wrote:

> Thanks David. Is there a new or older version of sftos that you would recommend as more stable (assuming I could obtain it). Thanks. -- Bud
>
> On Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 10:52 PM, David Rodgers <david [at] davidrodgers> wrote:
> On that code rev I've experienced similar issues on occasion on certain chassis even with a single switch not stacking ....
>
>
> David
>
> On Feb 11, 2010, at 6:18 PM, wwbach [at] gmail wrote:
>
>> We've recently picked up three used force10 SA-01-GE-48T switches. We're experiencing random issues where is seems like a significant portion of the switch stack drops connections to the devices connected. This is happening maybe a couple of times a day.
>>
>> Here is some more info:
>>
>> I only know enought to be dangerous -- we have a networking consultant working on it who probably is better with cisco gear but has some f10 experience.
>>
>> The swithes are stacked using two stacking cables -- 1 to 2 and 2 to 3. This seems like this is a supported configuration (cascade) according to this web page:
>>
>> http://www.force10networks.com/CSPortal20/TechTips/0057_HowDoIStackSSeriesUnitsTogether.aspx
>>
>> but maybe we *need* a cable from switch 3 back to 1 (ring)?
>>
>> All the switches are running SFTOS 2.5.2.2 with QOS, Multicast, Stacking and Routing.
>>
>> Nothing unusual in the log. A few interfaces going up and down but not really corresponsing to when we are experiencing issues.
>>
>> No errors in "show stack-port diag".
>>
>> We took one of the switches out of the mix and things seemed to be better but not perfect.
>>
>> When the problem occurs, everything comes back to normal after a couple of minutes.
>>
>> There are several vlans configured. One vlan where most of the communication is confined to the vlan has not seemed to have any problems.
>>
>> When the problem occurs, it seems to affect ports on multiple switches in the stack.
>>
>> Spanning tree routing is enabled as is OSPF.
>>
>> Another thing worth mentioning is that the we had some issues configurring multicast routing. We wanted to use sparse mode PIM but couldn't get it working with a cisco router. We ended up getting a multicast proxy working -- not sure what this really means.
>>
>> Most of the gear attached to the stack is either broadcom of intel chipset.
>>
>> Any ideas on how to futher debug this issue or what to look at? Thanks. -- Bud
>> _______________________________________________
>> force10-nsp mailing list
>> force10-nsp [at] puck
>> https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/force10-nsp
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> force10-nsp mailing list
> force10-nsp [at] puck
> https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/force10-nsp

wwbach at gmail

Feb 12, 2010, 8:03 AM

Post #6 of 7 (3126 views)
Permalink

Re: Multiple ports hanging/dropping on on S50 [In reply to]

Thanks again. If anyone else has any further insight on these switches they
want to share, I'd sure appreciate it.

-- Bud

On Fri, Feb 12, 2010 at 9:53 AM, David Rodgers <david [at] davidrodgers>wrote:

> Oh ... and one last thing I noticed from your story. These older S50
> switches are really sensitive to continual port bouncing/state changes
> (something that was fixed in later N/V revs) ... way more than any other
> switch that I've used. They don't deal with it well so if you have ports
> that are bouncing up and down quite a bit and/or taking a while to negotiate
> you might want to either check on the cabling or disable them altogether.
>
> David Rodgers
>
> On Feb 12, 2010, at 6:35 AM, wwbach [at] gmail wrote:
>
> Thanks David. Is there a new or older version of sftos that you would
> recommend as more stable (assuming I could obtain it). Thanks. -- Bud
>
> On Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 10:52 PM, David Rodgers <david [at] davidrodgers>wrote:
>
>> On that code rev I've experienced similar issues on occasion on certain
>> chassis even with a single switch not stacking ....
>>
>>
>> David
>>
>> On Feb 11, 2010, at 6:18 PM, wwbach [at] gmail wrote:
>>
>> We've recently picked up three used force10 SA-01-GE-48T switches. We're
>> experiencing random issues where is seems like a significant portion of the
>> switch stack drops connections to the devices connected. This is happening
>> maybe a couple of times a day.
>>
>> Here is some more info:
>>
>> I only know enought to be dangerous -- we have a networking consultant
>> working on it who probably is better with cisco gear but has some f10
>> experience.
>>
>> The swithes are stacked using two stacking cables -- 1 to 2 and 2 to 3.
>> This seems like this is a supported configuration (cascade) according to
>> this web page:
>>
>>
>> http://www.force10networks.com/CSPortal20/TechTips/0057_HowDoIStackSSeriesUnitsTogether.aspx
>>
>> but maybe we *need* a cable from switch 3 back to 1 (ring)?
>>
>> All the switches are running SFTOS 2.5.2.2 with QOS, Multicast, Stacking
>> and Routing.
>>
>> Nothing unusual in the log. A few interfaces going up and down but not
>> really corresponsing to when we are experiencing issues.
>>
>> No errors in "show stack-port diag".
>>
>> We took one of the switches out of the mix and things seemed to be better
>> but not perfect.
>>
>> When the problem occurs, everything comes back to normal after a couple of
>> minutes.
>>
>> There are several vlans configured. One vlan where most of the
>> communication is confined to the vlan has not seemed to have any problems.
>>
>> When the problem occurs, it seems to affect ports on multiple switches in
>> the stack.
>>
>> Spanning tree routing is enabled as is OSPF.
>>
>> Another thing worth mentioning is that the we had some issues configurring
>> multicast routing. We wanted to use sparse mode PIM but couldn't get it
>> working with a cisco router. We ended up getting a multicast proxy working
>> -- not sure what this really means.
>>
>> Most of the gear attached to the stack is either broadcom of intel
>> chipset.
>>
>> Any ideas on how to futher debug this issue or what to look at? Thanks.
>> -- Bud
>> _______________________________________________
>> force10-nsp mailing list
>> force10-nsp [at] puck
>> https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/force10-nsp
>>
>>
>>
> _______________________________________________
> force10-nsp mailing list
> force10-nsp [at] puck
> https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/force10-nsp
>
>
>

wwbach at gmail

Feb 23, 2010, 8:41 AM

Post #7 of 7 (3047 views)
Permalink

Re: Multiple ports hanging/dropping on on S50 [In reply to]

I just wanted to report back that we moved the multicast routing off this
switch stack on on to a cisco router and the switch seems to have
stabilized. -- Bud

On Fri, Feb 12, 2010 at 9:53 AM, David Rodgers <david [at] davidrodgers>wrote:

> Oh ... and one last thing I noticed from your story. These older S50
> switches are really sensitive to continual port bouncing/state changes
> (something that was fixed in later N/V revs) ... way more than any other
> switch that I've used. They don't deal with it well so if you have ports
> that are bouncing up and down quite a bit and/or taking a while to negotiate
> you might want to either check on the cabling or disable them altogether.
>
> David Rodgers
>
> On Feb 12, 2010, at 6:35 AM, wwbach [at] gmail wrote:
>
> Thanks David. Is there a new or older version of sftos that you would
> recommend as more stable (assuming I could obtain it). Thanks. -- Bud
>
> On Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 10:52 PM, David Rodgers <david [at] davidrodgers>wrote:
>
>> On that code rev I've experienced similar issues on occasion on certain
>> chassis even with a single switch not stacking ....
>>
>>
>> David
>>
>> On Feb 11, 2010, at 6:18 PM, wwbach [at] gmail wrote:
>>
>> We've recently picked up three used force10 SA-01-GE-48T switches. We're
>> experiencing random issues where is seems like a significant portion of the
>> switch stack drops connections to the devices connected. This is happening
>> maybe a couple of times a day.
>>
>> Here is some more info:
>>
>> I only know enought to be dangerous -- we have a networking consultant
>> working on it who probably is better with cisco gear but has some f10
>> experience.
>>
>> The swithes are stacked using two stacking cables -- 1 to 2 and 2 to 3.
>> This seems like this is a supported configuration (cascade) according to
>> this web page:
>>
>>
>> http://www.force10networks.com/CSPortal20/TechTips/0057_HowDoIStackSSeriesUnitsTogether.aspx
>>
>> but maybe we *need* a cable from switch 3 back to 1 (ring)?
>>
>> All the switches are running SFTOS 2.5.2.2 with QOS, Multicast, Stacking
>> and Routing.
>>
>> Nothing unusual in the log. A few interfaces going up and down but not
>> really corresponsing to when we are experiencing issues.
>>
>> No errors in "show stack-port diag".
>>
>> We took one of the switches out of the mix and things seemed to be better
>> but not perfect.
>>
>> When the problem occurs, everything comes back to normal after a couple of
>> minutes.
>>
>> There are several vlans configured. One vlan where most of the
>> communication is confined to the vlan has not seemed to have any problems.
>>
>> When the problem occurs, it seems to affect ports on multiple switches in
>> the stack.
>>
>> Spanning tree routing is enabled as is OSPF.
>>
>> Another thing worth mentioning is that the we had some issues configurring
>> multicast routing. We wanted to use sparse mode PIM but couldn't get it
>> working with a cisco router. We ended up getting a multicast proxy working
>> -- not sure what this really means.
>>
>> Most of the gear attached to the stack is either broadcom of intel
>> chipset.
>>
>> Any ideas on how to futher debug this issue or what to look at? Thanks.
>> -- Bud
>> _______________________________________________
>> force10-nsp mailing list
>> force10-nsp [at] puck
>> https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/force10-nsp
>>
>>
>>
> _______________________________________________
> force10-nsp mailing list
> force10-nsp [at] puck
> https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/force10-nsp
>
>
>

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