Avaya has released software 6.2.3 for the Ethernet Routing Switch 5500/5600 series switches.

Here are some of the highlights from skimming the release notes;

• SLPP Guard
  The Switch Clustering implementations on the VSP9000, ERS8800/8600, and ERS5000 provide a Simple Loop Prevention Protocol (SLPP) packet, which operates to help prevent loops from occurring when Switch Clustering is used.
  Simple Loop Prevention Protocol (SLPP) Guard can be used to provide additional loop protection to protect wiring closets from incorrect or faulty connections. When SLPP Guard is enabled, this loop prevention mechanism extends into and across multiple wiring closets. If an edge switch configured for SLPP Guard receives an SLPP packet on a port, the feature can immediately disable the port administratively, and generate appropriate log messages and SNMP traps.

The following issues were resolved in this release;

• Stack upgrade failure from 6.1.4.011s to 6.2.1.003s with a large config file (wi00882592)
• Loss of IST VLAN on three unit stack after a base unit failure (wi00885609)
• Some links get disabled after upgrade from 5.1.x to 6.x (wi00731564)
• IST Peers FDB table were out of sync (wi00892974)
• “show spanning-tree rstp port role” command displayed ‘Oper Status’ incorrectly as “disabled” after reboot (wi00899325)
• After upgrading from 5.1.4 to 6.2.1 EDM routing/IGMP/SNOOPING table expanded indefinitely causing high CPU utilization (wi00886347)
• Using show running-configuration with 744 VLANs configured, spiked the CPU utilization to 100% for about 12-15 minutes (wi00907462)

Cheers!

Avaya has released software v5.1.6.0 for the Ethernet Routing Switch 8600. This release has no new features but instead addresses a number of software bugs. Please refer to the release notes for all the details. There is one bug in particular that I’ve personally seen;

• Broadcast and multicast traffic that should be flooded within a VLAN is no longer forwarded out the same MLT as it arrived if the ingress port is in the port range 41-48 on an 8648GTR or 8648GTRS card. (wi00867614)

I stumbled across this problem while reviewing the port utilization (MRTG) for a number of switch ports. The ifInOctets and IfOutOctets for the ports didn’t look right so after running a packet capture from the standby CPU/SF and reviewing the trace we could see Multicast frames that were being sourced from the closet being sent back out to the closet.

I’m still working through a high CPU utilization issue with Avaya on an ERS 8600 IST/SMLT cluster running 5.1.5.1 software although I’ll probably try to load 5.1.6.0 in our testlab and see how it runs. I’d love to hear comments back from anyone running 5.1.6.0 software.

Cheers!

Avaya has released software 5.5 for the Ethernet Routing Switch 4500 series switch.

• 802.1AB customization
• 802.1AB integration
• 802.1X non-EAP Accounting
• 802.1X non-EAP re-authentication
• 802.1AB new default parameters
• AUR enhancement
• DHCP Snooping External Save
• EAP Fail Open with multi-VLAN
• Layer 3 Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol
• RADIUS EAP or non-EAP requests from different servers
• SLPP Guard
• SNMP Trap enhancements
• STP BPDU filtering ignore-self
• Unified Authentication
• VLACP enhancements
• Enterprise Device Manager enhancements
• Web server client browser requests

The known issues and resolved issues are mysteriously blank although there is a note there that indicates those sections will be updated on May 20, 2011.

Please refer to the release notes for all the specific details and tidbits.

It appears that Avaya is trying to address the performance issues with EDM that many of us have documented;

Enterprise Device Manager enhancements

In Release 5.5 Enterprise Device Manager (EDM) is enhanced with improved data retrieval and request handling for significantly faster GUI response. In the navigation tree the IP Routing folder is renamed IP and the paths in related procedures have been updated. The Switch Summary tab contents have been enhanced to include basic switch information and stack information. A toolbar has been added above the EDM navigation tree. The 5 buttons in the toolbar add the following functions:

• Switch Summary — you can use the Switch Summary toolbar button to open or reopen the switch summary tab.
• Refresh Status — in addition to the existing refresh methods you can use the Refresh Status toolbar button to refresh the device status.
• Edit Selected — in addition to the existing edit methods, and depending on which object you select on the Device Physical View, you can use this toolbar button to open Edit > Chassis, Edit > Unit, or Edit > Ports tabs. If you do not select an object from the Device Physical View and you click the Edit Select toolbar button, the Edit > Chassis tab opens.
• Graph Selected — depending on which object you select on the Device Physical View, you can use this toolbar button to open Graph > Chassis or Graph > Port tabs. If you do not make a selection on the Device Physical View, or if you select Unit, the Graph > Chassis tab opens.
• Help Setup Guide — this button connects you to the help setup guide for embedded EDM and it replaces the link that appeared on the top right of work panes.

Cheers!