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Ethernet Routing Switch 5500 NVRAM Flash memory wear
0March 22, 2010
Avaya/Nortel has released a technical support bulletin documenting an issue that may arise regarding the NVRAM (flash memory) on the Ethernet Routing Switch 5500.
Apparently the auto-save feature may be exhausting the number of writes that the physical flash memory is capable of. If the switch is configured with MAC address security, a feature that could possibility be causing the auto-save feature to write the configuration hundreds if not thousands of times, the flash memory may surfer from extreme “memory wear” and cease functioning properly.
Thankfully there is a “second” NVRAM flash block available.
I would highly suggest that everyone review the bulletin for themselves.
It might be wise to disable the auto-save feature and have the technicians/engineers manually save any configuration changes when necessary (similar to how Cisco switches/routers work).
Cheers!
Nortel ES 460/470 Software 3.7.3 Pulled
0May 23, 2009
Nortel has pulled software release 3.7.3 for their Ethernet Switch 460/470s from their website due to a potential memory leak. I’ve included a few details of the bulletin below;
Background:
A memory leak condition that in some cases has been shown to impact the functionality of the switch has been identified in software release 3.7.3 for the Ethernet Switch 470. This memory leak condition can result in a loss of CLI access and may result in degradation of network operation. This issue has been observed at 2 customer sites and as a result Nortel
has taken the proactive measure to remove the image from the Nortel support portal. The issue is tracked under CRQ02014086Analysis:
The issue is due to memory leak. Nortel is currently investigating the issue, but no root cause has yet been determined. Investigations are on going and a replacement code will be posted as soon as a resolution is available. The symptom of the issue may include the following: Unable to access CLI from the Menu Interface or very slow CLI response. Additionally the switch may exhibit connectivity problems from Device Manager (JDM). As the condition progresses the switch may become unmanageable which could result in stack instability. This stack instability could then lead to reduced functionality and disruption to network traffic. To recover the switch from the memory leak condition a reboot needs to be perfomed. To determine if your switch is impacted, if you monitor the memory usage of the switch you will notice that the available free memory continues to decrease. Memory usage can be monitored from the CLI using the ‘mem-show’ command. On affected networks the free-blocks displayed by the ‘show-mem’ command will continue to decrease the longer the switch
is up.ES470#mem-show
status bytes blocks avg block max block
——- ——— ——– ———- ———-
current
free 4786688 147 32562 4743452 <<< number will keep decreasing
alloc 3086928 7348 420 -
cumulative
alloc 9979152 30147 331 -You may also observce the following repeated messages on the local console (serial port) as additional indicators of the issue:
0x1e65734 (tLLDP): memPartAlloc: block too big – 1522 in partition 0x177e510.
0x1e65734 (tLLDP): memPartAlloc: block too big – 1522 in partition 0x177e510.
0x1e65734 (tLLDP): memPartAlloc: block too big – 1522 in partition 0x177e510.
You can find the entire bulletin here.
Cheers!
Nortel Java Device Manager Tips
42April 8, 2009
I hope the majority of folks out there can agree with me when I say that Nortel’s Java Device Manager was a large step up from Nortel’s Site Manager application. While I personally do the majority of my work in the CLI interface, Device Manager is a very useful tool to have around.
I really like the fact that you can launch either a telnet or SSH session straight from Device Manager. Over the years I’ve found PuTTY to be the best terminal application so I configured Device Manager to call PuTTY for telnet and SSH connections.
After opening Device Manager select Device -> Properties -> Current. Select “User-Defined” for both Telnet and SSH and then place “C:\Program Files\PuTTY\putty.exe” (or wherever you have PuTTY installed) into option box and then use “-telnet <ip>” for telnet sessions and “-ssh <ip>” for SSH sessions (see figure above).
Another problem you can sometimes run into with Device Manager is the relative easy with which you can mistakenly delete a row (interface, VLAN, ACL, etc). Thankfully there is an option within JDM that you can enable called “Confirm row deletion” (see figure above).
Cheers!
