output drops and input errors on a 7204 with NPE 300

[moipbaaklini]

Hi,

my router, a Cisco 7204 with NPE 300, is experiencing output drops and input errors on a fastethernet interface.

I have a 100Mbps connection with less than 15Mbps utilization at peak times.

What could the problem be?

FastEthernet1/0 is up, line protocol is up
  Hardware is DEC21140, address is 0014.a985.1a1c (bia 0014.a985.1a1c)
  Internet address is 38.102.66.134/30
  MTU 1500 bytes, BW 100000 Kbit, DLY 100 usec,
     reliability 255/255, txload 3/255, rxload 1/255
  Encapsulation ARPA, loopback not set
  Keepalive set (10 sec)
  Full-duplex, 100Mb/s, 100BaseTX/FX
  ARP type: ARPA, ARP Timeout 04:00:00
  Last input 00:00:00, output 00:00:00, output hang never
  Last clearing of "show interface" counters 18:47:28
  Input queue: 0/75/31/25 (size/max/drops/flushes); Total output drops: 370
  Queueing strategy: fifo
  Output queue: 0/40 (size/max)
  5 minute input rate 332000 bits/sec, 251 packets/sec
  5 minute output rate 1314000 bits/sec, 304 packets/sec
     54381776 packets input, 12458531314 bytes
     Received 0 broadcasts, 0 runts, 0 giants, 13 throttles
     1074 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 6 overrun, 1068 ignored
     0 watchdog
     0 input packets with dribble condition detected
     70598367 packets output, 58946331445 bytes, 0 underruns
     0 output errors, 0 collisions, 0 interface resets
     0 unknown protocol drops
     0 babbles, 0 late collision, 0 deferred
     0 lost carrier, 0 no carrier
     0 output buffer failures, 0 output buffers swapped out

Thanks,

JP

[paolo bevilacqua · Accepted solution]

The number of errors and drops is negligible, and can be ignored.

[moipbaaklini]

Paolo, thank you for your reply.

We re routing traffic between our customer and the Internet on the one hand and between our customer and our voip provider (sip trunk) on the other.

During rush hour, our voip traffic has very poor quality, I checked the uplinks, and utilisation is under 15%.

I thought that maybe these drops could have caused the degradation.

Regards,

JP

[paolo bevilacqua · Accepted solution]

Check if error and drops increase at the same time of bad quality voice.

[moipbaaklini]

Yes, they do.

Could it be a queue size issue?

now I have:

FastEthernet1/0 is up, line protocol is up
  Hardware is DEC21140, address is 0014.a985.1a1c (bia 0014.a985.1a1c)
  Description: link to Videotron
  Internet address is 38.102.66.134/30
  MTU 1500 bytes, BW 100000 Kbit, DLY 100 usec,
     reliability 255/255, txload 16/255, rxload 5/255
  Encapsulation ARPA, loopback not set
  Keepalive set (10 sec)
  Full-duplex, 100Mb/s, 100BaseTX/FX
  ARP type: ARPA, ARP Timeout 04:00:00
  Last input 00:00:01, output 00:00:00, output hang never
  Last clearing of "show interface" counters 22:29:34
  Input queue: 0/75/48/25 (size/max/drops/flushes); Total output drops: 1030
  Queueing strategy: fifo
  Output queue: 0/40 (size/max)
  5 minute input rate 2287000 bits/sec, 1014 packets/sec
  5 minute output rate 6409000 bits/sec, 1165 packets/sec
     60602514 packets input, 14002811951 bytes
     Received 0 broadcasts, 0 runts, 0 giants, 21 throttles
     2347 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 7 overrun, 2340 ignored
     0 watchdog
     0 input packets with dribble condition detected
     78328041 packets output, 64310830735 bytes, 0 underruns
     0 output errors, 0 collisions, 0 interface resets
     0 unknown protocol drops
     0 babbles, 0 late collision, 0 deferred
     0 lost carrier, 0 no carrier
     0 output buffer failures, 0 output buffers swapped out

[paolo bevilacqua · Accepted solution]

Take "show proc cpu sort" and "show int switching", "show run".

[moipbaaklini]

Please see attachment,

JP

[paolo bevilacqua]

Remove QOs config and try again. It is not doing anything anyway. You can also increase queues a little.

[moipbaaklini]

Hi Paolo,

The QoS configuration is new, the problem has occured before we put it on.

I understand that this configuration doesnt do anything in the abscens of congestion.

Is there a way to interleaf small voice packets without implementing PPP? It also would be nice to prioritize this traffic on its way in (service-policies are applied outbound).

I thank you very much for your help in clearing this out. It seems that the router is not causing the problem. It might be some delay and packet loss in the ISP's network.

One last question: having no visibility in the ISP's network, could it be that I have to raise the MTU size to accomodate for MPLS tags within the ISP's network?

Regards,

JP

[paolo bevilacqua]

Your configuration is OK. There is nothing that can be done to improve it.

Thanks for the nice rating and good luck!.

[ecisco1010]

Hi,

I have few suggestions hope that might help.  First let's determine drops are because of some errors within ISP  network or in our demarc. Ping from your CE to PE and see if there are  any drops

CERTR#ping repeat 2000 size 1000 source

If  you see any pakcet drops, problem persis with last mile and in all  likeliness that falls under responsibility of your ISP. For no drops,  last mile is clear of errors (that should be the case and there are no CRC counts on the interface).Now you can ping from CE to any host or  endstation IP in your network (better ping few to ascertain the  outputs). In case any packet drops or error count increases, we need to  delve more into our network, but if no drops or errors then we can be  pretty much sure of no issues within our network.

In addition, with my limited knowledge I won't say these drops and errors are normal and can be ignored.

PS: I assume mentioned Fa is wan circuit connected to PE.

Regards.

[moipbaaklini]

Hi,

Thanks for the input, I 'll run these tests tonight (after business hours).

The errors are still raising. but I noticed that the CPU utilization is through the roof at rush hours, up to 100%.

Please see below:

FastEthernet1/0 is up, line protocol is up
  Hardware is DEC21140, address is 0014.a985.1a1c (bia 0014.a985.1a1c)
      MTU 1500 bytes, BW 100000 Kbit, DLY 100 usec,
     reliability 255/255, txload 30/255, rxload 5/255
  Encapsulation ARPA, loopback not set
  Keepalive set (10 sec)
  Full-duplex, 100Mb/s, 100BaseTX/FX
  ARP type: ARPA, ARP Timeout 04:00:00
  Last input 00:00:00, output 00:00:00, output hang never
  Last clearing of "show interface" counters 2d03h
  Input queue: 0/75/127/25 (size/max/drops/flushes); Total output drops: 2315
  Queueing strategy: fifo
  Output queue: 0/40 (size/max)
  5 minute input rate 2099000 bits/sec, 1297 packets/sec
  5 minute output rate 11721000 bits/sec, 1775 packets/sec
     147088203 packets input, 33607175599 bytes
     Received 0 broadcasts, 0 runts, 0 giants, 45 throttles
     6230 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 18 overrun, 6212 ignored

and tons of the following message: ss= "DNS TCP Query", ipl= 0, pid= 3 -Traceback= 0x60633CE4 0x609058AC 0x609DF5FC 0x609E6768 0x625401B4 0x6073454C 0x60734530

[paolo bevilacqua]

Try using an S or SX train image.

[moipbaaklini]

I ran extended ping tests with the following results:

- interface connecting ISP: 0% drop

- interface connecting customers: 0% drop

- interface connecting our LAN: 1% drop

I know that there are many issues with the 7200- NPE 300 setup, has anyone tried a stable IOS image that would for the 7204-NPE 300 ?

we're not running any routing protocol, we have usual management services, the image must also support ssh login (crypto key generate rsa).

here's a sh version:

sh ver
Cisco IOS Software, 7200 Software (C7200-JS-M), Version 12.4(21), RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
Technical Support: http://www.cisco.com/techsupport
Copyright (c) 1986-2008 by Cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Thu 10-Jul-08 11:36 by prod_rel_team

ROM: System Bootstrap, Version 12.1(20000824:081033) [dbeazley-cosmos_e_LATEST 101], DEVELOPMENT SOFTWARE
BOOTLDR: Cisco IOS Software, 7200 Software (C7200-BOOT-M), Version 12.4(16), RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)

Bravo uptime is 2 weeks, 6 days, 18 hours, 10 minutes
System returned to ROM by power-on
System image file is "disk0:c7200-js-mz.124-21.bin"

Cisco 7204VXR (NPE300) processor (revision D) with 229376K/65536K bytes of memory.
Processor board ID 33524237
R7000 CPU at 262MHz, Implementation 39, Rev 2.1, 256KB L2 Cache
4 slot VXR midplane, Version 2.9

Last reset from power-on

--------------------------------------------------------------
This Version of Cisco IOS Software is not supported on NPE300.
Please select a version of Cisco IOS software compatible with
this processor from http://www.cisco.com.
--------------------------------------------------------------

PCI bus mb0_mb1 (Slots 0, 1, 3 and 5) has a capacity of 600 bandwidth points.
Current configuration on bus mb0_mb1 has a total of 400 bandwidth points.
This configuration is within the PCI bus capacity and is supported.

PCI bus mb2 (Slots 2, 4, 6) has a capacity of 600 bandwidth points.
Current configuration on bus mb2 has a total of 200 bandwidth points
This configuration is within the PCI bus capacity and is supported.

Please refer to the following document "Cisco 7200 Series Port Adaptor
Hardware Configuration Guidelines" on Cisco.com <http://www.cisco.com>
for c7200 bandwidth points oversubscription and usage guidelines.

3 FastEthernet interfaces
125K bytes of NVRAM.

46976K bytes of ATA PCMCIA card at slot 0 (Sector size 512 bytes).
4096K bytes of Flash internal SIMM (Sector size 256K).
Configuration register is 0x2102

Thanks

[j.baaklini]

Hi Paolo,

Do you know where I could find a stable IOS image for the 7204 VXR with NPE 300 ?

The NPE 300 is out of support, so I couldn't find it on cisco.com

Regards,

JP