Michael McNamara

technology, networking, virtualization and IP telephony

Ethernet Routing Switch 8600 High-speed Fan Tray (8010CMHS)

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I ran into an interesting oversight on my part today. We have a cluster of Avaya Ethernet Routing Switch 8600s which are running dual 8692SFs w/Mezz and a combination E and R cards on 5.1.3.1 software. We’re growing the network (when are we not) and we’ve outgrown the two 8630GBRs we have in each switch. So we purchased a 8648GBRS for each switch along with an 8648GTRS to replace the legacy 8648TXE card.

Upon inserting the 8648GBRS module in slot 9 we received the following alarm from the console;

CPU5 [10/18/11 12:48:29] SNMP INFO Chassis running on low fan cooling.Please change the fan. Note that if the switch is booted with fan check enabled, then to power up,
1. R module requires a fan (regular or high speed) in running state.
2. RS module requires a high speed fan in running state.
CPU5 [10/18/11 12:48:29] HW ERROR Card in Slot=9, Type=8648GBRS, not powered on due to fan requirements.
CPU5 [10/18/11 12:48:48] HW INFO Card removed: Slot=9 Type=8648GBRS

I immediately knew what the problem was, I had overlooked the high-speed fan tray requirement for any RS modules. We have legacy chassis’s at this location so I knew that slots 1 and 10 couldn’t be populated by an R/RS module, I also knew the power supplies had already been upgraded to 8005PS’s so there was adequate power. However, I overlooked the cooling requirement so today I had to order a bunch of 8010CMHS fan trays.

Cheers!

You might also want to read these other posts...

  1. Ethernet Routing Switch 8600 Log files
  2. Upgrade Nortel Ethernet Routing Switch 8600 to v5.1.1.1
  3. Ethernet Routing Switch 8600 – issue with new 8692SF

Comments

  1. I had the exact same problem a few weeks ago. It’s not recommended but the power fan-check-enable flag can be set to false to ignore that.

  2. I was actually wondering about a different scenario. We are not yet at v5.x.x.x software and I have some high-speed fan trays. One of our “closets” is warm and I was thinking that higher speed fans might be helpful.

    Would the high speed fan trays even function in pre 5.x.x.x software?

    • I believe they would physically function although they might be mis-reported by the switch software.

      If your closet is hot, blowing more hot air won’t help the situation – you need to vent the hot air out of the closet and introduce cold air.

      Thanks for the comment!

      • You’re preaching to the choir. I asked for the closet to be cooled but it will have to wait until next year.

        But getting more air moving, even warm, should help preventing thermal pockets build up in the chassis.

        We’ll see once I check the temps on current fan tray vs. high speed fan tray.

        • I hear you Tom… We should probably run a contest – how hot is your hottest closet?

          I have several ERS8600s that run at 42C all day and night long. I will admit that I’ve seen a pair of my core ERS 8600 reach 52C, I was sweating on that night and thought I was going to have a disaster on my hands but those switches just kept on running.

          Cheers!

          • Just checked and the chassis temp shows as 41C. Probably because it is cooler outside now. It was a real furnace in the summer – ~50C.

            The B&G folks did a great job sealing the room up for the Automatic Fire Suppression System!

          • I had a similar problem running 8600’s in a concrete 8’x10′ room at the 2010 Winter Olympics. The building was brand new, and they had yet to get HVAC into that room. The solution was to help the fans out by creating a vacuum. Air flow on the 8010/06/03 chassis is IN on the left, Out on the right. I took a standard BOX FAN from Canadian Tire, used the cardboard box that it came in to create a venturi. Using duct tape on the RIGHT (exhaust) side of the switch the Box Fan SUCKED the air from the the switch. This meant that the internal fan trays did not have to work as hard to suck air through the switch, thus increasing the CFM through the chassis. I have also used this trick when I have multiple fan failures in a fan tray, buying time until I get a replacement fan. The chassis has thermistors that will shut down the system if it gets too hot. This trick can buy you a lot of time.

  3. Tom, we run 4.1.8.3 on our 8600’s. We have 2 8010 chassis that have the updated cooling modules and they run fine. Michael, don’t forget the 8006 chassis requires a new cooling fan module for RS modules also – the 8006CMHS. Keep up the good work!

  4. Sorry for resurrecting this, but do the high speed fan require specific power supply or they should work with 8004 850W power supply ?

    My chassis are type a8010 rev A and another one is a8010 rev 06.

  5. If you install an R module into a chassis with “regular” fan trays, the R module will shut down and you will get an error message stating that a High Speed fan is required to run this module. To fix this problem:
    (config)# no fancheck enable
    (config)# save config
    (config)# reset

    After reboot, if the slot still has not booted then:
    (config)# int slot 1 (replace “1” with the appropriate slot #)
    (config-if)# no shutdown
    (config-if)# exit

  6. I have same problem when I replace a legacy card with RS Module. But I am not able to figure out what type of FANs are currently deployed in chasis. Is there a command to find out?

    • You’ll see the option “highspeed” in the output of a ‘show tech’;

      Fan Info :

        Fan#1: up, type: highSpeed, air temp: 31 C
        Fan#2: up, type: highSpeed, air temp: 28 C

      As opposed to ‘

      Fan Info :

        Fan#1: up, type: regularSpeed, air temp: 32 C
        Fan#2: up, type: regularSpeed, air temp: 33 C

  7. Dear Michael,

    Does this high speed fan modules requires special power specification.
    Currently ,am having two 8005 1140/1372W 120/240V AC-DC Power Supply in 8010 chassi.

    Thanks

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