Posts tagged ERS4500

Ethernet Routing Switch 4500 Software Release v5.4

12
May 20, 2010
by Michael McNamara in , ,

Avaya has released software 5.4 for the Ethernet Routing Switch 4500 series switch.

New features;

  • 802.1AB (LLDP) MED Network Policy CLI
  • 802.1D Compliancy Support
  • ADAC and Auto QoS Interoperability
  • ADAC Enhancements
  • Additional SFP Support
  • Automatic QoS and 802.1AB MED Interoperability
  • DHCP Client
  • DHCP Option 82 Support
  • DHCP Snooping Improvements
  • Dual Syslog Server Support
  • Dynamic Route Table Allocation
  • EAP and non-EAP MultiVLAN capability
  • Energy Saver
  • Erasable NNCLI Audit Log
  • IPFIX
  • MLT and LAG Scaling
  • Non-Local Static Routes
  • Open Shortest Path First
  • QoS Agent Operational Mode
  • QoS DSCP Mutation
  • QoS Egress Queue Shaping
  • QoS IP/L2 Filter Options
  • QoS Queue Set Support
  • RADIUS Accounting Enhancements (RFC2866)
  • RADIUS Server Reachability
  • Routing Information Protocol
  • Routing Policies
  • Running Configuration NNCLI Display Commands
  • Show Software Status
  • Software Licensing
  • Sticky MAC Address
  • Time Delay Reflectometer
  • Traffic Profile Filter Set Support

There are a large number of resolved and known issues, too many to post here, so I would advise anyone interested to review the release notes.

I will point out a few items that stand out… thissoftware release marks the introduction of Enterprise Device Manager for the Ethernet Routing Switch 4500 replacing the legacy Java Device Manager.

Enterprise Device Manager (EDM) replaces both the integrated Web-based Management and separate Device Manager applications previously used to manage and configure the Ethernet Routing Switch 4500 Series switches.
EDM is a fully integrated graphical user interface delivered as a Web-based application that runs in a Web browser. To enhance ease of use, the EDM application has the look and feel of Device Manager (previously known as JDM).
EDM navigation has been enhanced. To access command tabs from the EDM navigation tree, the documented procedures specify using a double-click to open the tab in the work area. With the enhancement, you can access all objects in the navigation tree with a single click.

ATTENTION
With the introduction of Enterprise Device Manager (EDM) the use of Device Manager (sometimes referred to as JDM) is no longer supported because the use of JDM to control the switch could lead to potential corruption of the switch configuration.
ATTENTION
If you upgrade the software on your switch, and if you are managing the switch with EDM, then you should refresh the browser cache on your end device to ensure that EDM loads the latest tabs for all respective features.

I believe that the Java Device Manager was one of Nortel/Avaya’s greatest assets and a great selling point to customers. JDM was a single tool capable of managing almost every Nortel/Avaya switch, from the legacy BayStack 350 to the enterprise leading Ethernet Routing Switch 8600. I’m not too excited about the introduction of Enterprise Device Manager, I’ll need to kick the tires before I make up my mind.

Has anyone else tried the new Enterprise Device Manager? Comments? Thoughts?

I also noticed that Nortel/Avaya are now supporting a 1000BaseXD DDI SFP (1550 nm). This is a great option for customers looking to operate a fiber metro area network (up to 40km) before jumping to the 1000BaseZX which covers ~ 70km. I’ve successfully used the 1000BaseCWDM DDI SFP (1470 nm) to cover up to 40km. It’s great to finally have all the optical transceivers available in an SFP form factor as opposed to the large GBIC form factor.

This software release also adds OSPF on the ERS 4500 although the Advanced License is required to enable OSPF. You should take care to note that the maximum number of routes is capped at 512 IPv4 routes. As a comparison the ERS 5500 series allows you 2000 IPv4 routes.

Cheers!

Update: Thursday May 20, 2010 @ 2:50 PM EDT
I’ve update the article to reflect the correct software version… Thanks Jeremy.

Changing SNMP Community Strings

13
October 20, 2009
by Michael McNamara in , ,

In this day and age it’s not a very good idea to leave the default SNMP community strings configured in any network electronics. The general default configuration uses public for read-only and private for read-write, these defaults apply to  the Nortel Ethernet Switch and the Nortel Ethernet Routing Switch.

You can certainly do this from Nortel’s Java Device Manager, however, you need to be careful that you don’t saw off the branch you’re standing on when you change the SNMP community string. It’s best to configure the SNMP community strings from the CLI interface to avoid any potential issues.

Here are the CLI commands to configure the SNMP community strings on the ERS 8600 and 1600 switch. In the example below we’ll set the read-only string to open and the read-write string to lock.

ERS-8610:5# config snmp-v3 community commname first new-commname open
ERS-8610:5# config snmp-v3 community commname second new-commname lock

Here are the CLI commands to configure the SNMP community strings on the ERS 4500, ERS 5500 and ES460/470 switches. In the example below we’ll set the read-only string to open and the read-write string to lock.

5520-48T-PWR (config)# snmp-server community open ro
5520-48T-PWR (config)# snmp-server community lock rw

Cheers!

Reload command on Nortel Switches

10
January 18, 2009
by Michael McNamara in , ,

In today’s demanding business environments a lot of changes need to be made remotely and sometimes even the best laid plans go south. Thankfully Nortel offers the “reload” command in their Ethernet Switch and Ethernet Routing Switch series. I don’t believe the command is available for the 1600 or 8600 series. For those folks that are familiar with Cisco routers this command is identical although the syntax is different. If your making changes that could hang the switch or otherwise leave it improperly configured the reload command will automatically restart the switch after a specified interval has passed. If your configuration changes are successful you can cancel the reload command. If you somehow get disconnected from the switch you only need to wait until the switch reloads the original configuration.

ERS5520-PWR#reload ?
cancel           Cancel a previous scheduled reload
force            Do not ask for confirmation
minutes-to-wait  Minutes to wait before reboot
<cr>

Cheers!

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