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.

Avaya has released software 6.1.3.0 for the Ethernet Routing Switch 5500/5600 series switch.

New Features

Problems Resolved

• After upgrading from 6.0 to 6.1, interface names for the non-base unit were lost (Q02024643, Q02019044)
• Using filters on multicast traffic caused OSPF control packet drops (Q02103672-01)
• The switch did not properly pass MIB values for port security Auth Status to JDM (Q02011169-02)
• A specific type of multicast packet on 56xx caused sporadic resets with out logging an exception (Q02094042)
• When the switch has a route to a network that is learned from an OSPF neighbor and it is equal to one of its
• downed local interfaces, the switch will hang when that interface is brought up (Q02075419-02)
• Link doesn’t come up when AA1419069-E6 and AA1419070-E6 parts are used on 55xx (Q01966044-02)
• In an SMLT Full Mesh environment, Traffic was lost when the core stack was powered down/rebooted (Q02101874)
• With IGMP Snooping enabled, multicast traffic was not properly forwarded on Non-EAP ports (Q02109643)
• With MAC Security enabled, there were unwarranted writes to NVRAM without any configuration changes (Q02126138)
• In a RADIUS setup, the switch sends continuous authentication requests to the user “Nortel” (Q02113703-02,Q02120164)
• The switch returns incorrect value for SNMP request for ifHCOutUcastPkt (Q02119264)
• Locked Telnet sessions some times caused stack instabilities (Q01899506-01)
• The ‘radius-server password fallback’ defaulted to “No” after upgrading to 6.1.2 (Q02119855)
• Addressed the data exception error: “Data Access Task Name ‘tIdt’ “(Q02024889-02)
• Support for creating user-defined protocol VLANs with SNAP encapsulation, unable to create a user defined VLAN using AppleTalk PIDs. (Q02128054)
• Fixed the issue when IST could not be enabled thru JDM (Q02126805)
• I2004 Phase 2 set connected to an EAPoL/ADAC configured port of the switch got the “Server Unreachable” error (Q02135088)
• The link did not come up with BX SFPs between two ERS5530 switches (Q02116585)
• Base Unit in an ERS5600 Stack running v.6.1.1.016 leaves and then later rejoins the stack while traffic is flowing at 1% bandwidth (Q02106434)
• Stack Instability occurred when adding a unit with traffic flowing (Q02101619)
• LACP Aggregations are lost when base unit resets (Q02106430)

You can find the complete release notes here.

Cheers!