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Cisco 2950 & HP GbE2 problems - but only one way?

 
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Ian Vaughan
Honored Contributor

Cisco 2950 & HP GbE2 problems - but only one way?

Howdy,
I have been asked to look into a timeout issue on windows network shares between 2 server blades:

blade-1 (dmz)- - -
| |
GbE2 switch(dmz) GbE2 switch (dmz)
| |
cisco 2950(dmz) cisco 2950 (dmz)
| |
< pix >
| |
< cisco 4500 >
| |
GbE2 switch GbE2 switch
| |
blade-2 - - - - -

The blades are HP bl40p's and when the dmz server (bl-1) tries to copy a large (400MB) file from remote disk (on (bl-2)to local disk the whole process times out with lots of spanning tree topology changes going on in the background. We got lots of "3D03H:%lineproto-5 updown"

We have stripped the design back to the bare essentials by taking out all of the redundant paths, etherchannels, letting the pix pass everything and switching off spanning tree. We still get the same timeout issues even in the simplified configuration with the link between the 2950 and GbE2 going up and down when it is given any significant loading?

Bizzarely the process works fine in the opposite direction - putting a large file onto the remote disk from the local disk in the dmz server?

A small file of only 4MB works fine either way.

I can't find any compatibility issues specific to the 2950 series & the GbE2s. The production lan works fine between the 4500 and the Gbe2s in the other blade chassis. Any Ideas?
Hope that helps - please click "Thumbs up" for Kudos if it does
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3 REPLIES 3
Ron Kinner
Honored Contributor

Re: Cisco 2950 & HP GbE2 problems - but only one way?

Duplex mismatch or bad cable causing a switch or router to error out a port under heavy traffic (too many errors per second lasting for too long) ? Should be something in the log.

Ron
Carsten M
Regular Advisor
Solution

Re: Cisco 2950 & HP GbE2 problems - but only one way?

Hi Ian!
first error is the cable or gb-interface but mostly is it the autonegotiation feature,
make firmly full duplex on both side and aonother problem ist the
flowcontrol-feature the best choice is symmetric for both or asymmetric rx for the slowly machine.
Another cisco- feature is udld, test it with on or off

Good luck
Carsten
cm60
Connery
Trusted Contributor

Re: Cisco 2950 & HP GbE2 problems - but only one way?

Without casting blame on either product, I'll say that this problem is do to a phy incompatibility between the two products. Engineering efforts show that either vendor can alleviate the problem by making a product change (again, not casting any blame on either vendor).

HP provided the following workaround:
A workaround for this issue is included in firmware version 1.1 (released on March 18th, 2004). This firmware includes a command line option that turns on the fix on an as needed basis. To enable the fix, do the following: "/maint/sys/ipg enable" and "Y" to confirm change and then reboot the switch (/boot/reset).

Best regards,
-sean