Michael McNamara

technology, networking, virtualization and IP telephony

Nortel Ethernet Switch "Agent Not Found"

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This post applies to the following models;

  • Nortel Business Policy Switch 2000
  • Nortel Ethernet Switch 300 Series
  • Nortel Ethernet Switch 460
  • Nortel Ethernet Switch 470
  • Nortel Ethernet Switch 2500 Series
  • Nortel Ethernet Switch 4500 Series
  • Nortel Ethernet Route Switch 5500 Series

It is possible that the switch agent image, that is stored in NVRAM on the switch, can become corrupt for some reason or another. In this case the switch will not boot up properly and will require some special intervention.

Diagnostic Version X.X.X.X
Press Control-C to Enter Diag

Test ROM Config - PASSED
Test FANs - PASSED
Test Internal Loopback - PASSED
Test ASIC1 Registers - PASSED
Test ASIC2 Registers - PASSED
Test PHY Registers - PASSED
Test USB Registers - PASSED
Agent code verification fails!

>> Break Recognized - Wait...
Press 'a' to run Agent code
Press 'd' to download Agent code
Press 'e' to display errors
Press 'c' to clear log message
Press 'i' to initialize config flash
Press 'p' to run POST tests...

You can use the boot diagnostic code to download the agent code to the switch using the “d” option. While the switch is booting using “Ctrl-C” to break the boot sequence and select “d” from the menu.

WARNING: the TFTP server needs to be physically connected to the switch in question

Download Agent Code

Enter Port Number [  ]:
Enter Speed: 10, 100, 1000 [  ]:
Enter Local IP Address [ 0.0.0.0 ]: 10.10.10.15 (IP given to Switch)
Enter Server IP Address [ 0.0.0.0 ]: 10.10.10.1 (IP of local TFTP server)
Enter Subnet Mask [ 255.255.255.0 ]:
Enter Filename: boss_1234.img
Wait..
TFTP: Sending Open: .aaaaa.a
TFTP: Open
...............................................................
.............................................................
Len= 0x20795E= 2128222. (@1200000)
Agent Version= 5.0.0.0 ModelMask= 0x1C
Program y/N [ N ]: y (Press y)
Erasing - Wait 56 sec..
Programming - Wait 96 sec..

Once the download is complete you’ll need to run the agent code by selecting “a”

Starting Agent Code..

Decompressing the image ...
Target Name: vxTarget
User: target
Attaching network interface idtip0... done.
Attaching network interface lo0... done.

Completing initialization...

At this point the switch should be booting up although it may take ~ 2 minutes for the switch to fully initialize the software and configuration.

Cheers!

Default Nortel Ethernet Switch Usernames

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If you’ve ever tried to connect to the web interface of a Nortel Ethernet Switch 460/470 or Ethernet Routing Switch 5510/5520/5530 you might have found that you need to provide a username.

In software release v3.7.x for the Nortel Ethernet Switch 460/470 you’ll also find that you now need to provide a username when you telnet into the switch (in previous releases you were only prompted for a password, now you are prompted for a username and password).

Interestingly enough you cannot change the default usernames (at least I don’t believe you can).

For the above mentioned switches there are only two levels of access, read-write and read-only.

The default username for the read-write user level is RW.
The default username for the read-only user level is RO.

Updated 1/16/08: I should have included the default passwords for those two accounts.
The default password for the read-write user level is “secure”.
The default password for the read-only user level is “user”.

Cheers!

Factory Reset Nortel Ethernet Routing Switch

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I’ve received a few inquires about how to reset the password and configuration on a Nortel Ethernet Routing Switch 8600. In a previous article I showed everyone how to reset the configuration (and password) of a Nortel Ethernet Switch (including the ERS 5500 series) but not a Nortel Ethernet Routing Switch.

As with the previous procedure you’ll need access to the console port on the switch. Specifically you’ll need to cable up (9600,8,N,1) to the CPU (8690SF, 8691SF, 8692SF) you wish to reset.

If you’ve lost the password… cold boot the chassis while connected to the console port. When the switch starts to boot you should see something similar to the following (depending on the version of software installed);

Copyright (c) 2007 Nortel, Inc.
CPU Slot 5:    PPC 745 Map B
Version:       4.1.5.4
Creation Time: Dec 17 2007, 15:31:21
Hardware Time: DEC 26 2007, 16:19:24 UTC
Memory Size:   0x10000000
Start Type:    cold
SMI ZOOMCF
can't open "/pcmcia/pcmboot.cfg" 0x380003
S_dosFsLib_FILE_NOT_FOUND
/flash/  - Volume is OK
Change volume Id from 0x0 to 0x1a5

Loaded boot configuration from file /flash/boot.cfg
Attaching network interface lo0... done.

Press  to stop auto-boot...
1

You’ll need to interrupt the boot process by hitting the “Return” key . You should be greeted with a monitor prompt;

monitor#

From here you’ll be able to issue a command to clear the passwords stored in NV RAM;

monitor# reset-passwd
monitor#

Now just go ahead and reset the CPU and you should be able to login with the default username (rwa) and password (rwa).

monitor# reset

CPU Slot 5:    PPC 745 Map B
Version:       4.1.5.4
Creation Time: Dec 17 2007, 15:31:21
Hardware Time: DEC 26 2007, 16:25:09 UTC
Memory Size:   0x10000000
Start Type:    cold
SMI ZOOMCF
can't open "/pcmcia/pcmboot.cfg" 0x380003
S_dosFsLib_FILE_NOT_FOUND
/flash/  - Volume is OK
Change volume Id from 0x0 to 0x1a5

Loaded boot configuration from file /flash/boot.cfg
Attaching network interface lo0... done.

Press  to stop auto-boot...
Loading /flash/p80a4154.img ... 8761414 to 25459172 (25459172)
Starting at 0x10000...

SMI ZOOMCF
Booting PMC280 Mezz HW please wait
. The BootCode address is 0x2b00100 3303
.
Mezz taking over console and modem......
Mezz CPU Booted successfully

Initializing backplane net with anchor at 0x4100... done.
Backplane anchor at 0x4100... ..
Mounting /flash: .done.

Ethernet Routing Switch 8600  System Software Release 4.1.5.4
Copyright (c) 1996-2007 Nortel, Inc.

CPU5 [10/26/99 11:26:25] SW INFO System boot
CPU5 [10/26/99 11:26:25] SW INFO ERS System Software Release 4.1.5.4
CPU5 [10/26/99 11:26:26] SW INFO CPU card entering warm-standby mode...
CPU5 [10/26/99 11:26:27] SW INFO Loading configuration from /flash/config.cfg

CPU5 [10/26/99 11:26:27] SW INFO PCMCIA card detected in Stand-by CPU "ERS-8610"
slot 5, Chassis S/N SSPND*****

**************************************************
* Copyright (c) 2007 Nortel, Inc.                *
* All Rights Reserved                            *
* Ethernet Routing Switch 8010                   *
* Software Release 4.1.5.4                       *
**************************************************

Login:

You should now be able to login with the default RWA username of “rwa” and the default password for “rwa”.

If you wish to reset the configuration… you only need to delete the config.cfg file from the flash and reset the switch.

You should NOT delete the boot.cfg file unless you have a copy of the software on the PCMCIA card and know how to start the software using the boot command from monitor mode.

I believe the same monitor command is available for the Ethernet Routing Switch 1600 Series.

Cheers!

Factory Reset Nortel Ethernet Switch

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There can be times when you need to factory reset a switch. This process can be accomplished through the CLI but if you’ve lost the switch password you’ll need to follow a special process. This process should work for any of the Ethernet Switches (450, 460, 470) and the Ethernet Routing Switches 2500 Series, 4500 Series, 5500 (5510, 5520, 5530) Series. There is a different process to recover lost passwords on the Ethernet Routing Switch 1600 and 8600. Please note that by factory resetting the switch you will loose all configuration settings. It will be as if it just arrived from the “factory”.

Follow these steps:

  1. Connect to the console port of the switch (9600,8,N,1)
  2. Reboot the switch.
  3. When the first line of the diagnostics tests is displayed, press CTRL-C. The system then displays a menu.
  4. Select option “i” to factory default the switch.
  5. Select option “a” to run the agent code.

Upon boot up, the switch will be in a factory default configuration.

Cheers!

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