Cisco 1841 “LICENSE-2-VLS_ERROR” and “ALIGN-3-SPURIOUS” errors

[real_sm@mail.ru]

I've got a Cisco 1841 (revision 7.0) router. It shows me this message during the boot process:

*Jan 14 11:17:03.739: %LICENSE-2-VLS_ERROR: 'VLSaddLicenseStorage' failed with an error - rc = 143 - 'Error[143]: Failure in accessing the specified store.'
-Traceback= 6032B398z 62AA6704z 62AA67B0z 62AA6928z 6107423Cz 610744D8z 62A3E35Cz 62A3E340z
*Jan 14 11:17:03.743: license_register_license_storage failed with error = 24

And some time (approximately 5 minutes after boot process is completed) it shows this message:

Router#
*Jan 14 11:27:37.199: %ALIGN-3-SPURIOUS: Spurious memory access made at 0x603778ACz reading 0x4
*Jan 14 11:27:37.199: %ALIGN-3-TRACE: -Traceback= 0x603778ACz 0x610A4E4Cz 0x610AB370z 0x610BA7CCz 0x62A3E35Cz 0x62A3E340z 0xFFFF7200z 0xFFFF7200z
Router#
Router#

As you see, I did a write erase to eliminate the influence of configuration, so the router is reset, and this messages still occur (1st during boot, 2nd some minutes after boot).

Question is: how do I treat this error messages? What's going on? Is it critical?

[Mark Malone]

tracebacks are an indication of a software bug , you should upgrade to a new version of code and see if it stops the alerts

ALIGN-3-TRACE: -Traceback= 0x603778ACz 0x610A4E4Cz 0x610AB370z 0x610BA7CCz 0x62A3E35Cz 0x62A3E340z 0xFFFF7200z 0xFFFF7200z

Correcting Spurious Access Errors

Spurious access errors are always caused by a Cisco IOS software bug. To correct this, upgrade to the latest version in your release train (for example, if you are running Cisco IOS Software Release 11.2(14), upgrade to the latest 11.2(x) image. If this doesn't solve the problem, or if it's not possible to upgrade the router, contact the Cisco TAC. When opening a case to report spurious accesses, please include the following:

• output from the show alignment command

• output from the show tech-support command

• relevant system logs

[real_sm@mail.ru]

Upgrading didn't help. What about "LICENSE-2-VLS_ERROR"?

[Mark Malone]

what did you upgrade from - to , did you check the release notes of the version you went to to see if the caveat was there

do you have any alignment errors

show alignment

could be related to this bug

https://bst.cloudapps.cisco.com/bugsearch/bug/CSCun98037/?referring_site=bugquickviewredir

[real_sm@mail.ru]

c1841-adventerprisek9-mz.151-4.M7.bin -> c1841-advipservicesk9-mz.151-4.M12a.bin

Router#show alignment
Alignment data for:
1841 Software (C1841-ADVIPSERVICESK9-M), Version 15.1(4)M12a, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
Technical Support: http://www.cisco.com/techsupport
Compiled Tue 04-Oct-16 03:15 by prod_rel_team

No alignment data has been recorded.

Total Spurious Accesses 3, Recorded 2

Address Count Traceback
 4 2 0x603744E8z 0x610A4E4Cz 0x610AB370z 0x610BA7CCz
 0x62A3E35Cz 0x62A3E340z
 4 1 0x603778ACz 0x610A4E4Cz 0x610AB370z 0x610BA7CCz
 0x62A3E35Cz 0x62A3E340z
Router#

[Mark Malone]

Your hitting a bug looking at that you need to raise this with TAC or run your show tech though the CLi analyser it may give you the exact id

Verifying Spurious Access Errors

Spurious accesses are counted and recorded, if possible, by Cisco IOS software. This information is available with the show alignment command. The traceback information is necessary to determine the cause and the fix of the spurious accesses.

Note: The show alignment command is hidden and undocumented. The command is also not supported on all platforms (only reduced instruction set computing [RISC] processors). A sample output from show alignment command is provided below:

Router#show alignment 
Alignment data for: 
GS Software (RSP-PV-M), Version 11.1(26.1)CC, EARLY DEPLOYMENT MAINTENANCE INTER 
IM SOFTWARE 
Compiled Thu 27-May-99 20:48 by jjgreen 

No alignment data has been recorded. 

Total Spurious Accesses 167110746, Recorded 2 

Address  Count  Traceback 
      0  10474  0x6012D488  0x6020FFB4 0x601D5CE0 
      0  49008  0x6012D488  0x6020D25C 0x6020E744 0x602106B4
Router#

Correcting Spurious Access Errors

Spurious access errors are always caused by a Cisco IOS software bug. To correct this, upgrade to the latest version in your release train (for example, if you are running Cisco IOS Software Release 11.2(14), upgrade to the latest 11.2(x) image. If this doesn't solve the problem, or if it's not possible to upgrade the router, contact the Cisco TAC. When opening a case to report spurious accesses, please include the following:

• output from the show alignment command

• output from the show tech-support command

• relevant system logs

[real_sm@mail.ru]

It says that I should have some kind of contract. What if I bought the router on a garage sale?

[Mark Malone]

If you haven't gone to this ios version try this its the safe harbour  ..c1841-adventerprisek9-mz.151-4.M12a.bin

you can still take out support with a cisco supplier but you will have to wait I think its 30 days before you can open a case with some suppliers anyway

[real_sm@mail.ru]

c1841-adventerprisek9-mz.151-4.M12a.bin doesn't remove the issue (c1841-adventerprisek9-mz.151-4.M7.bin also had this issue).

I have 2 questions:

1. I had previously bought from different people 4 1841 routers (5.0 and 7.0) and all these routers don't have any "LICENSE-2-VLS_ERROR" with the same c1841-advipservicesk9-mz.151-4.M12a.bin. Why does this particular router behave so?

2. Where do I get the contacts of this "cisco supplier"? I'm in Ukraine.

[Mark Malone]

1 TAC need to answer that , the tracebacks that appeared mean what triggered the issue but only to Cisco they don't release it publicly what these mean , just advise you to log it to TAC

2 https://locatr.cloudapps.cisco.com/WWChannels/LOCATR/openBasicSearch.do

[real_sm@mail.ru]

1. I cannot create a TAC case. There's a "loading" circle and nothing else. See attached screenshot.

2. There's a list of independent IT companies. Are you sure they will support my case for free?

[Mark Malone]

1 You cant open a TAC case without support , serial wont be recognized

2 no its definitely not free you have to pay for support , serial gets added to database in Cisco then you can open a case direct or through who you purchased support from

[real_sm@mail.ru]

What support? I don't need anything to be set up, I just need to know, what's going on with the router. Expensive router with clean config (i.e. out of the box) is showing erros. There's no info in any manual or even on whole Internet on that errors. Why do anyone has to pay to know is the device completely broken or there's something someone can do to fix it?

[Mark Malone]

then send it back to where you got it , tell them its broke !

Support covers replacements as well when their Technical assistance centres TAC cant give you a resolution to the issue , they don't release everything to the public that's why users get support too or if the hardware fails or parts of the hardware fails , they replace the device

I don't work for Cisco we pay support on all our devices too in our company  , that's the way it is, same with any of them Dell /HP etc

[real_sm@mail.ru]

OK, thank you anyways.