Avaya has released software 6.2.0 for the Ethernet Routing Switch 5500/5600 series switches. In order to upgrade to 6.2 software the switch will already need to be running 6.x software along with firmware (diagnostic software) 6.0.0.6. Switches that are running older software will need to first be upgraded to 6.0 and then to 6.2 software.
Please review the release notes for all the details.
Here are some of the new features;
- Enterprise Device Manager
- 802.1AB (LLDP) MED Network Policy
- 802.1X authentication and Wake on LAN
- 802.1X or Non-EAP and Guest VLAN on same port
- 802.1X or Non-EAP Last Assigned RADIUS VLAN
- 802.1X or Non-EAP with Fail Open VLAN
- 802.1X or Non-EAP with VLAN name
- Autodetection and Autoconfiguration (ADAC) Uplink Enhancements
- Automatic QoS 802
- Automatic QoS and ADAC Interoperability
- Cisco CLI commands
- Content-based forward to next hop (formerly source address-based route selection)
- DHCP enhancements
- DHCP option 82 support
- Dual Syslog Server support
- EAP/NEAP separation
- Energy Saver
- Enhanced QoS engine
- Filter Limiting
- Full IGMPv3
- IPv4 Tunneling for IPv6
- IPv6 Automatic Address Assignment
- IPv6 Routing DHCP Relay
- IPv6 Static Routing
- MAC Security enhancement
- Multicast group scaling
- Multiple Hosts with Multiple VLANs for EAP-enabled Ports
- PIM-SM support
- Port Mirroring – Bi-directional monitor port
- QoS DSCP mutation
- QoS Egress Queue Shaping
- QoS Lossless Buffering Mode for Data Center Applications
- Route scaling
- Running configuration NNCLI display command enhancements
- Secure Shell File Transfer Protocol (SFTP over SSH)
- SFP support
- Split Multi-link Trunk (SMLT) consistency with the Ethernet Routing Switch 8600
- Split Multi-link Trunk (SMLT) over Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP)
- Trace command
- Unicast storm control
- VLAN Scaling
Here are some of the issues that have been resolved in this release;
- Q01219391 MAC Address table does not age out all MAC sources learned after the aging time has expired.
- Q01470123 Passive static device behind a phone displayed as unknown after switch reboot.
- Q01470123-01 Passive static device behind a phone displayed as unknown after switch reboot.
- Q01728560 ADAC port configuration types not defined in manual.
- Q01775378 Error message when disabling spanning tree learning.
- Q01859874 Typed commands should not be sent remotely when log level is serious or critical.
- Q01860782 A message is needed to confirm the successful upload of an ASCII configuration to USB with the PUSH button.
- Q01862906 The Time Domain Reflectometer in the JDM displays an incorrect message for the Pin Short cable error.
- Q01863512 MAC security Lifetime setting cannot be modified from the JDM.
- Q01865091 MAC authorized clients are not reauthorized after a former base unit reenters the stack.
- Q01895467 Some LLDP commands fail when configuring a device with an ASCII configuration file.
- Q01895723 Metric for external routes jumps to 127174722 when a dummy vlink is created and deleted.
- Q01906362 An NEAP client can change ports without a link down or age out timer event.
- Q01909890 QoS-IGMP problems with known and unknown multicast options on 56xx ports.
- Q01901336 Multicast traffic not forwarded through non-local static routes.
- Q01923408-02 Management VLAN IP address should always be used in relation to RADIUS.
- Q01927698 PIM interfaces become disabled on a device.
- Q01938607 Incorrect error message displayed during software download from an unreachable server.
- Q01942783 Restoring a device with an ASCII configuration file fails when Layer 3 settings are present.
- Q01943527 Inconsistency between IPv4 and IPv6 in binary configuration file.
- Q01945909 Some ARP, OSPF, or VRRP packets are unexpectedly mirrored when using XrxYtx mirroring mode and the monitored port is in the Management VLAN or in SMLT VLANs.
- Q01946214 MAC addresses are lost when a base unit fails.
- Q01946284 LLDP-Med does not work in certain circumstances
- Q01947050 ADAC system message logged after a stack is reset.
- Q01948343 On a pure 56xx stack, port mirroring mode XrxYtx multiplies unicast traffic on port Y in certain scenarios.
- Q01950071 VLACP enabling does not work in some circumstances.
- Q01950147 The EAP-TLS or PEAP-MsChapV2 clients could be unexpectedly transitioned to the EAP Held state on a multihost enabled port.
- Q01950311 Voice traffic is blocked on a non-base unit when ARP inspection is enabled on a VoIP VLAN.
- Q01951600 Error performing MIB walk on 5632.
- Q01954041 LLDP Med-Network-Policies Voice Tagging command issue.
- Q01955272 PIM OIF may not get installed on IR.
- Q01956922 Continuous IPv6 ping out stops working after 2147 ICMPv6 messages.
- Q01978465 Telnet session hangs on ERS 5510-48T during an ASCII configuration download.
- Q02005019 ACG will fail when ports are added to VLANs if an STG was created, VLANs were added, the STG enabled and then ports added to VLANs (configuration control flexible and 1 port in 2 different VLANs).
- Q02020938 After booting to default settings the syslog will display the message ASCII failed at line 1. This can be ignored. This only happens after a boot to default settings and not during a normal operation or reset of the switch. This does not affect subsequent ASCII downloads. The successful application of configurations can be confirmed using the show logging command. The bogus message will be the first in chronological order.
I would highly recommend you review the release notes for all the details. There are a lot of known issues that should be thoroughly reviewed before you made any decisions about upgrading.
There was one section that caught my eye on page 11 of the release notes;
Currently when ADAC is operational, a user can not change the non-ADAC VLANs on the port (without disabling ADAC, changing the VLAN and then re-enabling ADAC), which leads to usability issues that limit the deployment of ADAC.
The ADAC enhancements provide the ability to change the non-ADAC VLANs on a port irrespective of the ADAC status of the port. Any such changes in the underlying port VLAN assignment are saved as normal to NVRAM and ASCIII configurations.
I posted about this issue with ADAC way back in August of 2008. This one issue has been a real bear and the only real issue we’ve experienced with our ADAC deployments. While it might be the only issue, it can create some enormous problems if the engineers are following the procedure to disable ADAC, make the VLAN change and then enable ADAC again. I’ll be very interested to see if this problem is finally resolved.
I spent a few minutes playing with Enterprise Device Manager but I think this change will drive more folks to the CLI interface where Avaya/Nortel has alot of work to-do. I’m also excited to see that Avaya/Nortel is finally bringing together their Automatic QoS and ADAC features, I’m curious to see what changes they’ve made an how I might be able to tweak my switch configurations to better automate the deployment of IP telephony.
Cheers!
You are right about the EDM. Real pity that they could not make it so EDM and JDM could be run in parallel while they were getting EDM correct. I thought JDM was a real winner over other vendors, but this seems to be history now.
Looking at the list of known issues it seems this release was rushed out the door. Many of these simpler ones (2.5 to 5 minute waits for things) should have been sorted prior to release. These are the sort of things that will really annoy people.
Michael, what was it that you didn’t like about Enterprise Device Manager? I’m the Serviceability Prime for the Avaya Data portfolio and would be very interested in your thoughts on how to improve the user experience.
Please feel free to contact me.
WG
Having upgraded to 6.2.0 on 8 stacks today I can safely say that EDM is AWFUL when compared to JDM. Wayne, please allow us to use JDM, bring back the support!
EDM is VERY VERY slow compared to JDM. It is also much more cumbersome to perform simple tasks. It also, on occasions does not render all the options / icons in browser properly. You have to refresh the screen to get them back. I have also noticed it does not always reflect the current config of the stack. However, the performance is the real killer though.
I would welcome a response on this Wayne.
I had missed Wayne’s response above but will follow-up with him to getter understand Nortel/Avaya’s intention with respect to the JDM -> EDM migration. I agree with your assortment Dave, EDM while nice for a 1.0 release is just too slow for me. Although it’s still much better than some competitors web GUIs but it comes up short when compared against JDM.
I honestly viewed JDM as a strong differentiator with respect to Nortel/Avaya’s competitors. Without a solid GUI to manage the product the shortcomings of the CLI/TI interface are sure to come to the surface quickly.
Cheers!
First of all thanks for the feedback. Sometimes it’s hard to get people involved to make things better.
The issue could be a function of network latency, device latency and/or browser latency (depends on Browser type and version plus the server config on which the browser is running)
I spoke with the development team and they would like to get a little more info so if you could provide link type, browser type/version and a quick run down on how you are accessing the box and an understanding of how loaded the box is (number of ports in use, protocols in service) I’ll have them dig into it. A syslog & config would be helpful if you could pass them along as well.
The development team suggested the following and wanted me to pass it along:
* For improved performance the users will need the COM application (EDM off-box). EDM is on-box and the lower performance is expected.
Cheers
Wayne
Michael,
EDM is slow, but in some respects it is by design. Since the web server is actually running on the switch, the intent is that will not ever affect the switching/routing performance of the switch.
The webserver was assigned the lowest priority in the Switch OS and as a result the lag is experienced.
To balance this out, COM-lite was introduced with EDM and is sometimes called off-box EDM. This brings the response time back in line with JDM and provides a single point of management in a client server arrangement, rather than downloading a 200MB+ file every new release.
The COM-lite server communicates via SNMP or SNMPv3 to the devices and the clients communication is HTTP/HTTPS to the webserver.
EDM has it’s advantages as it is a 100% configuration utility whereas JDM wasn’t fully complete.
Thanks for taking the time to rely Wayne and Brandon.
It’s a change… and even for us IT folks change can be an untimely and unwanted inconvenience. I’m just not sure that Nortel/Avaya realized how nice a tool Java Device Manager was compared to the competitors offerings.
I’m guessing that you guys are referring to Avaya’s Configuration & Orchestration Manager (COM). Is this application available to anyone that purchases an Avaya switch (or maintenance contract)? Or is it a separate application that needs to be purchased from Avaya?
I just pulled down COM v2.1.1 from the old Nortel website and will give it a test drive.
Thanks again for taking the time to reply!
Cheers!
Hi Michael,
I think when they mention the com plugin they mean this one http://support.nortel.com/go/main.jsp?cscat=SOFTWARE&poid=22561 but I dont know what to do with it!
Hi Michael, I’m interested to know what you found lacking in Enterprise Device Manager. I’m the Serviceability Prime for the Avaya Data portfolio and I’m always looking for customer feedback.
Please feel free to contact me.
WG
Just very very slow, the first time we ran it. We increased the IE cache to 100M. That made it a little better, but it is still slow.
“I spent a few minutes playing with Enterprise Device Manager but I think this change will drive more folks to the CLI interface where Avaya/Nortel has alot of work to-do. “
I’ve talked to some folks who have used EDM for a couple of months and they are not impressed when comparing it to JDM. They indicate it is slow, etc. I have not tried it yet.
Has anyone tried this over WAN / VPN links, seems slow running over a LAN, could be real slow for remote support ?
I am using JDM version 6.2.1.3 to manager a couple of test switches that have 6.2 running on them and so far (2 days) it is working just fine.
I don’t think the problem is that you can’t use JDM, I think the problem is that any changes you make with JDM may be lost if someone uses EDM to make changes after you. Something like this in the release notes. Also, none of the new features will be available under the old JDM.
I have used both JDM and EDM over the last 2 days and no problems yet. But I still need 45-60 days of testing before this ever goes on our live network. I probably will wait for 6.2.0.1 or 6.2.0.2. Have you seen any specific problems that I can try on the test boxes?
Out of supported browsers, IE v7.0 was slowest in response time when used with EDM. Firefox is a bit (sometimes way) better (and even IEv6.0 or IEv8.0-which is not fully supported btw, but works reasonably well).
Forgive my ignorance but I can’t get EDM to work. I downloaded the com plug in now what do I do with that? Is this a plug in to the EDM application. If it is where do I get that?
Hi Dan,
Enterprise Device Manager (EDM) is a web based application run from the switch itself. Just open a web browser to the switch’s IP address or FQDN.
Good Luck!
Hi Mike,
I’m a Cisco guy that is trying to learn Avaya switch cli. Could you provide me with a good doc that provides an Avaya command reference?
I can’t seem to find much.
thanks, Pat.
Hi Pat,
What model of Avaya switch? There are a few different CLI interfaces depending on the switch.
I would probably suggest you browse the campus design documents or list of technical configuration guides that I have posted in the forums, http://forums.networkinfrastructure.info/nortel-ethernet-switching/frequently-asked-questions-20/
You’ll find some of the more interesting commands in the CLI hints and tips forum, http://forums.networkinfrastructure.info/cli-hints-and-tips/.
Cheers!