Re: Initial Setup issue

ttrentler · ‎03-24-2010

When setting up my second Thunderbolt device I would get continual flashing diag light.

I tried a factory reset to no avail (reset button for ten seconds)

I turned the device off and plugged the supplied USB drive into a PC and it could not be read. I can't even format it. The light on the USB key stayed illuminated when inserted in my PC.

I'm thinking corrupt flash. I replaced it with my own USB stick turned back on the Thunderbolt device and now it is working fine. I can go ahead and configure it now and will put it at the customer site tomorrow.

The USB stick supplied that failed is a Patriot 2GB stick.

I guess the only question is Did you ship a failed memory stick or did the Thunderbolt device ruin it on first boot? I'm thinking that the stick that shipped was faulty.

Ted

Michael Holloway · ‎03-24-2010

Ted, very likely a bad USB key. Replacing it with a similar sized one (or larger) was the right thing to do. The TBA will have formatted it and downloaded the latest firmware to it automatically.

-mike

Marcos Hernandez · ‎03-25-2010

Ted,

I will ship you a new one. Thanks!

Marcos

darrellgray99 · ‎03-25-2010

I'm not sure if I have a similar problem.

I've connected the appliance to my network, downloads occur and then bonjour discovers the device.

When I try to browse to the unit, I get: Safari can't open the page http://app1000001a708dabe3.local./ because the server where this page is located isn't responding". At this point, the unit is no longer visible under bonjour.

Several "reset to factory default" iterations ago, I was able to get to a login page, but got validation errors or "could not access server" errors.

I have 2 Thunderbolts that I'm trying to get ready to deploy. I'm seeing similar issues on each.

Should the Thunderbolts be pingable? Are they accessable via telnet or ssh?

I'm currently trying another flash drive to see if I have a flash issue.

Anyone else seeing this?

Greg

Michael Holloway · ‎03-25-2010

Greg,

Bad flash is always a possibility, these are retail usb keys, nothing special about them, and we've seen a few bad ones. Marcos can arrange a replacement one for you. If you have a spare one then certainly give it a go. Just boot the TBA with the new USB key in it and it should pull a DHCP address from the network and go download firmware. It can take several minutes to pull down the failsafe firmware (depends on wan connection, many MBs), and again to the latest firmware after the device is activated.

But it's also possible that this is not a usb flash key issue, in which case this is something we haven't seen before. The fact that bonjour is being announced at some point makes me think that the filesystem might not be the problem. What is the orange LED on the front of the unit doing, if it's lit or blinking at all? Are both units doing the same thing, and with 2 different USB keys? This seems more network related, and might instead be related to another network connectivity issue we are investigating currently - see https://www.myciscocommunity.com/message/41353#41353

In answer to your questions, telnet and ssh are not running on the unit. The device should be pingable if it is operating normally. The TBA is a linux server and so takes a little while to boot. It is also possible to locate the Thunderbolt via UPnP if you have a windows vista or windows 7 machine on the network, by going into the Network panel. Cisco's Small Business FindIT Network Discovery Utility on windows should also be able to see it.

-mike

darrellgray99 · ‎03-26-2010

Thanks Mike,

I'll pick up a couple flash drives today and try them later.

Speedtest shows that my download speed is about 20 Mb, but it seems that the firmware download takes 3-4 hours so at this point,

Right now my configuration is Comcast -> Belkin Wireless/Router -> ESW540 -> TBA

-> Linksys Switch -> Server 2003

- -> Linux

-> Apple

-> Windows 7

I'm trying to manage using Windows-7/Safari browser.

The act of typing this message is making me suspicious of my switch configuration/architecture right now since, although my network is flat, the computer that I'm managing from is on a different switch.

Greg

afullfor · ‎03-26-2010

We see typical flash write speed at around 1 MByte/sec, call it 10 Mbps. During a worst-case upgrade that moves the appliance from as-distributed to current release, total transfer is less than 100 Mbytes. So on your 20 Mbps connection, we'd expect that to happen in under 5 mins allowing for a couple of reboots. That's about what we see here in "ideal" conditions where the portal is reached via our internal network.

All this is to say that there is definitely something wrong. Even on my home connection, a measly 1.5 Mbps, this upgrade takes less than 20 mins. This could be caused by a marginal flash device that works only after several retries, some kind of throttling from Comcast, some local network problem, or some bug or strange interaction with the TBA.

Please let us know if you can isolate a LAN issue.

darrellgray99 · ‎03-26-2010

I seemed to have resolved my issue.It was not bad flash.

I'm not sure if the fix was "reset to factory defaults" ,,,,,newer image

or,

because I moved my management computer onto the same switch as the TBA. Beforehand, I had the TBA isolated by itself on the switch

Questionable Configuration (hope my silly ascii graphics work)

firewall/router/switch (belkin)

/ \

ESW540 \

/ \

TBA Linksys Switch

\

Windows-7

Working Configuration

firewall/router/switch (belkin)

/ \

ESW540 \

/ \ \

TBA | Linksys Switch

| \

Windows-7

I have 2 TBA's that are working right now, I'm going to set one back to factory defaults, and return to the questionable configuration to see if I can reproduce my problem...

Greg

afullfor · ‎03-26-2010

Darrell,

We have seen a couple of cases where the Bonjour announcements do not propagate across the network correctly. We are working on quantifying exactly what configurations cause this. I've personally encountered a case where moving the TBA to the same switch as my 'puter fixed the problem, and it looks very much like you encountered the same thing.

It is hard to say exactly what might be going on here, but I'm pretty sure I can reproduce it so we'll definitely be getting to the bottom of this one.

Andy

mikebayless · ‎03-26-2010

I am having the same or simillar issue. I boot up the TBA it sees the flash drive because the flash drive flashes for a little bit. But then the diag light flashes for 3 seconds, off for 3 seconds, solid for 3 seconds and repeat. I can ping the device but cannot browse to it via webpage. I get the standard page cannot be displayed.

I tested the USB in another computer and it works fine. I am able to see, browse and format it. Attempted to reset the TBA device but no progress same issue. I do have a DHCP reservation set for it and the DHCP server shows that it picks that up.

afullfor · ‎03-26-2010

This LED cadence indicates that the TBA is not able to access the flash key for whatever reason. You might try firmly seating the key. If that doesn't help, try reformatting it on Windows or MAC to FAT-32. This actually just causes the TBA to re-reformat it itself, and if that works, the rest of the install should proceed normally.

mikebayless · ‎03-26-2010

I verified that the USB key is in the device firmly. I did a format of the device on a Windows server and was able to access it through the windows server just fine. So I know the USB device is working properly.

Marcos Hernandez · ‎03-26-2010

Michael, we will overnight you a TBA. Thanks for the patience.

Marcos

mikebayless · ‎03-31-2010

I am having the same exact issue on the new device that was sent to me. I can ping the device, solid green power, diag 3 second intervals, ethernet shows traffic, USB sold green, Flash no light. I rebooted and tried a different port and still the same. I cannot browse to the webpage. However when I go to the http://192.168.0.62:81/cgi-bin/status.cgi screen it looks as if it connects but it's just a blank white screen.

I have the switch plugged into there switch.

The Cisco access point and TBA device are plugged inot the Cisco Switch.

Wireless works fine.

Any suggestions would be great.

Brian Bergin · ‎03-31-2010

Have you changed cables? Swap the cable from the WAP and the TBA since it works with the WAP. Also, I would backup the config on the switch then factory-default the switch if you've not already tried that.