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Date: 5-Apr-1996
To: all interested parties From: Ken Rains
SCCAT::Rains
Nor Cal District
Systems Support
San Jose, Ca.
DTN. 521-7134
408-953-7134
SJC1-2/C10
Subject: DECConcentrator 900MX with Cisco 4000 FDDI connection problems
This problem looks very similar to the note 3299.0. It was a shame
there were no replies with solution. Here goes my tail of woe.
We have a customer with a DECconcentrator 900MX (6 UTP) and DEChub
ONE MX (2 MMF) connecting in a small FDDI ring with 2 Cisco 4000
routers. There is a problem with the DEChub ONE MX port connected to
one (either) of the Cisco routers. The port type LED flashes
(indicating an A or B port) and the PHY LED flashes (half the rate of
the port type LED) indicating it has trouble connecting with the Cisco.
Hubwatch shows the port incrementing Elasticity Errors and connections
completed (1000+ an hour after a firmware upgrade). There are no:
- LCT fails: 0
- LEM count: 0
- LEM rejects: 0
- TNE expired rejects: 0
Other indications are:
- the port connect state shows: disabled, then connecting, then
disabled.
- Connect mgnt state shows: break, next, & signal at different times.
- break state flag: false
- physical state: (off, ready) then starting, then (off, ready)
It does not seem to matter which Cisco is connected to the
decconcentrator 900MX. It does not seem to mater which 900MX port is
connected to the Cisco. The port connected to the Cisco does the slow
flash sequence. The customer says after 20-30 minutes the connection
does come up and works fine until something brings it down, then it
takes 20-30 minutes to connect again. Cisco port status look OK (if we
looked at the right info). I did not see elasticity error on the
screen.
A DECSwitch 900EF was added to the configuration to allow HUBwatch
(Ethernet) to connect to the DECconcentrator 900MX. The concentrator
900MX port connected to the decswitch 900EF makes its connection in 2-3
seconds. The two concentrator 900MX ports connected together makes
connection (PHY LED goes solid green) in 4-5 seconds.
The original firmware on the DECconcentrator 900MX was 3.0.1.
Colorado indicated a latest version resolved similar symptoms with
v3.1.1. It was tried without success. Today we tried v3.2.3 and 3.2.4
without success. We found the files at:
netcad::proj$722:[onehub.release.def6x_v3_2_2]def6x_v3_2_2.bin
netcad::proj$722:[onehub.release.def6x_v3_2_3]def6x_v3_2_3.bin
netcad::proj$722:[onehub.release.def6x_v3_2_4]def6x_v3_2_4.bin
Without success means the slow flash occured on the
port connected the Cisco router.
The configuration is:
_________________________
| DECconcentrator 900MX |
| |_______
| |A |
| |____ |
| |B | |
|_______________________| | |
| |
| |
_________________________ | |
| DECswitch 900 EF | | |
| |___| |
| |A |
| |____ |
| |B | |
|_______________________| | |
| |
| |
_________________________ | |
| Cisco 4000 | | |
| |___| |
| |A |
| |____ |
| |B | |
|_______________________| | |
| |
| |
_________________________ | |
| Cisco 4000 | | |
| |___| |
| |A |
| |______|
| |B
|_______________________|
The customer says this configuration (minus the DECswitch 900EF) worked
early on and then began having problems with slow connection times.
I suspect they were busy with the new toy (out of the box and may not
have noticed how long it took to bring up the connection. Later they
learned system connections had dropped and then learned to look at
LEDs, etc...
The customer is threatening to use another vendors concentrator to
resolve their problem.
Any help you can provide will be appreciated.
We are ordering another concentrator 900MX module to see if that helps.
Thank You
Ken Rains
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