Network connectivity troubleshooting, No connection, Diminished network throughput – Znyx Networks bh5700 User Manual

Page 170: Connecting to devices with fixed port speeds, External fault led

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Network Connectivity Troubleshooting

No Connection

If the port LED is lit on the front panel, the switch has established a physical connection and the
problem is a network configuration error. Check to see if both devices are configured to be on the
same network (ex. 10.0.0.xxx) and that the subnet mask is set correctly.

Diminished Network Throughput

Depending on how the switch is configured, throughput problems can reflect configuration errors
in the network topology.

If the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) is not enabled, it is possible for broadcast loops to occur
which can stress the network. The

tcpdump

(See the Ethernet Switch Blade User’s Guide for

more information) utility is a widely used network troubleshooting tool which can display
network traffic according to user-defined filters, which can help to troubleshoot problems such as
broadcast loops. The

tcpdump

utility is included with the switch’s OA environment.

If STP is enabled, be sure to identify ports which were automatically blocked by the STP daemon
to prevent broadcast loops.

A network diagram can be useful in isolating network loops.

Connecting to Devices with Fixed Port Speeds

Verify that switch and the connected devices are set to the same port speed setting, otherwise
diminished or no connections can be made. If devices connected to the Ethernet Switch Blade are
connected at a fixed Full Duplex, high error rates or sporadic connectivity can be observed. It is
recommended that all devices connected to the Ethernet Switch Blade be set to auto-negotiate.

External Fault LED

The EXT FLT LED indicates that communications could not be established with one or more
remote partner devices on an active port or ports. Ports which were configured to be up (via

ifconfig

), but do not have remote partner devices attached, can cause the EXT FLT LED to be

lit, even if there are no hardware problems with the switch.

The

OA

zlc

command can be used to check the status of individual ports and also to manipulate

how the EXT FLT LED is managed (globally or on a per-port basis). By default, the EXT FLT
LED is a global indicator. Use the

zlc

command to change how the LED is managed, to help

isolate external fault indications to a particular port.

Before acting on an EXT FLT LED indication, make sure the configuration for the switch reflects
how the chassis is populated with expected device configurations. For example, if a “default”
configuration was used on the switch to bring up all ports on startup, but not all of those ports

Ethernet Switch Blade User's Guide

release 3.2.2j

page 170

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