5406zl : IpAddrMgr: Failed to allocate new Arp Cache Mac Hash Pointer entry

[Bruce Campbell_3]

Our site has approximately 50,000 ports on HP procurve equipment,

including about one hundred 5400zl/8200zl/3500yl switches ranging from K.12 to

latest K.14.65.   About 40 have premium licenses and are doing routing.

Two such devices which are doing routing (a 6200yl-24G  K.13.71 and a 5406zl  K.13.71)

give this error, each, twice per day (exactly):

 00901 IpAddrMgr: Failed to allocate new Arp Cache Mac Hash Pointer entry

These devices are providing routing for main campus wired captive portal ports,

and student residence wireless.  At any given time, they may be providing routing

for up to 5,000 IP addresses, and over the course of several days, they may each

see well over 10,000 MAC addresses (but not at the same time).  Usually after

the error shows up, we will get complaints from users that they cannot roam

to a different area.  A "clear arp" on the switch, or a reboot, will cure it, temporarily.

We had a series of cases open for one device (when it was providing routing for

main campus wireless also), and tried numerous versions of firmware, some of which resulted in

hard crashes requiring manual intervention.  We eventually gave up troubleshooting,

and moved main campus wireless to a Juniper SRX device.

But the error remains, and there are occasional reports of roaming issues,

and clearing the arp temporarily cures it.

Has anyone seen this ?  Is moving to K.14.65 recommended ?

[Helper]

Hi,

It could be hardware or software limitations or a bug, regarding 5400/6200/8200 products all include the same "mgmt" CPU/RAM.

Regarding Firmwares :

K.13.xx is "old" and will not implement new features, the support for this version will end shortly. The latest code is K.13.77

K.14.xx is the actual stable branch of code with new features (compared to K.13.xx), the support is active, the last not GA but supported version is K.14.71, you should request for this firmware to the product support and try it on the 5406 chassis for a test.

K.15.xx.xxxxx will be the next stable and new features branch of code (ipv6 phase2 and non-stop switching with redundant mgmt modules). We should receive a new beta or i expect GA code for this branch of code quickly.

I do not have so big network with the code listed :

- K.13.77 is in production with 8200 and 3500 switches running OSPF, PIM-SM, VRRP, 10Gb and many other features with some problems without production impact.

- We have installed many DataCenter with the K.14.65 without any issue for the moment.

- I'm actually running K_15_02_0004 beta code in a little network OSPF, PIM-SM, VRRP, and many other features without any issues

Regards.