Posts tagged ERS8600

Nortel ERS 8600 Software 5.1.1 Available

0
August 7, 2009
by Michael McNamara in ,

Nortel has released software 5.1.1 for the Ethernet Routing Switch 8600. Here some the SMLT/IST fixes from the release notes;

  • In RSMLT edge support enabled mode, the creation of a new RSMLT enabled VLAN interface only on one aggregation box will no longer cause the static default route to get deleted from the hardware, and thereby affect RSMLT forwarding and re-convergence time. (Q02005454-02)
  • In a dual SF/CPU configuration, when the last CP card is pulled out or fails, the RS I/O modules will now have their entire ports drop link automatically. This will help in any SMLT designed network to provide better and faster recovery. (Q01991517-02)
  • The ERS 8600 will now check for the SMLT status of an MLT only if it is configured as an SMLT, while sending a MAC-address-learn message for any MAC learnt on the MLT. If the MLT is not configured for SMLT, then SMLT status will not be checked and an MAC-address-learn message will be sent to the IST peer. (Q02036964)
  • 8600 will now update the ARP when a MAC learn message is received from IST peer, irrespective of whether the MAC is already existing as local or not. This reduces the chances of improper forwarding in SMLT/RSMLT designed networks. (Q02044582)

You can find the complete release notes here.

Cheers!

Nortel ERS 8600 Software 4.1.8.3 Available

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May 23, 2009
by Michael McNamara in ,

Nortel has released software 4.1.8.3 for the Ethernet Routing Switch 8600 that addresses a few issues that were identified since the previous release.

Switch management
Repeated SSH sessions, with CLI command logging enabled, could potentially lock up and no longer allow any other connections to the node. JDM or console access could be still available initially and further lost as well once attempting to run any output command. This problem could lead to a complete Switch Fabric card software lockup. (Q02001015)

Platform
The 10GE ports on an 8683XLR card may flap for traffic rates at or very close to line rate. (Q01860167)

SMLT/Layer 2 switching
There can be a discrepancy in the ARP tables between IST peers where one peer has invalid or duplicate ARP entries, ARP entries with a negative TTL value or ARP entries which do not appear to be aging. (Q01999818)
After an IST MLT is flapped or the IST Peer is rebooted, invalid ARP entries can get repated on the IST Peer for a MAC that is present in multiple VLANs. (Q01992234). ARP entries are found to be persistently learned on the IST-MLT link while the FDB entries for the associated MAC addresses were properly learned on the SMLT links when multiple MLT/SMLTs returned to service at about the same time causing an overlap in IST synchronization for those MLTs/SMLTs.(Q01996928)

You can find the complete release notes here.

Cheers!

Nortel ERS 8600 Software 5.1 Available

0
May 20, 2009
by Michael McNamara in ,

Nortel has released software 5.1 for the Ethernet Routing Switch 8600. This new software release promises the following new software features;

• Multicast virtualization for VRF-Lite (IGMP, PIM-SM, and PIM-SSM)
• Multicast Source Discovery Protocol (MSDP)
• IGMPv3 backward compatibility
• Multicast Static IP Route (mroute)
• Static RP enhancement for PIM-SM
• Standards-based MIBs for multicast
• Multicast routing process statistics
• IPv6 support for FTP, TFTP, and rlogin
• TACACS+
• Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD)
• Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) Minimum Link
• DDI software support
• Time zone offset enhancement
• ping and traceroute source IP enhancement
• SMLT/RSMLT operational improvements
• IPFIX enhancement
• Nortel Automatic QoS
• New operation for corrupt configuration loading
• Core dumps

I’m really happy to finally see TACACS+ support in the 8600. Now if we could only get TACACS+ support in all the other switches as well.

You can find the release notes at Nortel’s website. The release notes are quite lengthy but are worth the time to read.

Note: I’ve been told that the LANE lockup issues in all the GBR/GBRS/GTRS modules were resolved in software release 5.0.1.0. Unfortunately I don’t have any GBRS/GRTS modules so I can’t personally confirm.

Cheers!
Updated: Saturday May 23, 2009

You’ll need to upgrade to Nortel’s Java Device Manger v6.1.8 or later to manage an Ethernet Routing Switch 8600 running software v5.1.0

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