Cisco RV042 & RV042G routers locking up

[NedPrime]

Is anyone else having all their Cisco RV042 & RV042 locking up weekly.  Almost every router I have sold to my clients are locking up weekly. They all have the newest firmware. Is there a DOS attach going on? This just started about a month ago and I'm still receiving phone calls daily.  I put a call in to Cisco tech support, but I don't think they are interested in looking into it, since they are reaching end of life in 2025.

[marce1000]

 - In the mean time you may consider using separate dhcp-server (services) , so to be separated  from  switching or routing solutions.                    Always better in case a device experiences network surge or excessive load

 M.

[Georg Pauwen]

Hello,

odd. I don't really see the link between an increased VPN use and your issue, but since that is the only thing that changed, it might somehow be related.

Stupid question of course, but the static IP addresses are not overlapping with the DHCP pool ?

[Adrian Wint]

The only stupid questions are the ones that don't get asked

No, the pseudo static & DHCP addresses don't/can't overlap - The MAC based addresses are from 2 to 150. The true DHCP addresses are from 200 upwards. Not all of the MAC based address space is used - I have divided the space into blocks of 20 addresses belonging to different users or equipment types eg. 2-20 is for IoT devices, 21 - 40 is for printers etc etc. Not all of these are used.

[paul driver]

Hello

First check your dhcp address conflicts to see if conflict looking is the culprit, as if it is then this logging needs to be cleared down or disabled.

The rtr will ping its intended ip allocation to be sure isn't already active, if it receives a response it will not allocate that ip address however it will log that ip address as not the be used/allocated so will become unavailable so over time you will exhaust you dhcp allocation even though you only have a small number of active users.

sh ip dhcp conflicts
no ip dhcp confilct logging

or use a eem script to clear it on a regular basis:

event manager applet dhcp-conflict
event timer cron cron-entry "23 59 * * *"
action 1.1 cli command "enable"
action 1.2 cli command "clear ip dhcp conflict *"
action 1.3 syslog msg "DHCP conflict records cleared"

[Lateralus462]

I’ll happily go through these systems again, but had already checked for conflicts. We use a standard for for IP scheme across all projects to help ensure this doesn’t happen and so specific equipment is always easy to locate at same address at each project. 

[Lateralus462]

I have at least 3 clients where I’ve installed this router that are reporting this same exact issue. Rebooting the sprouted at least once a week. Firmware is up to date. 

[cpoppe]

I have had the identical problem which began a few months ago.  I have been able to identify the following entries in the Incoming Log Table each time the situation occurs.  Generally there about 100 of these entries in the log before the router http interface is no longer responsive and DHCP stops functioning.  The blocks of entries in the log file seem to occur as frequently as a couple of days apart and as long as several weeks apart.  It was difficult to pin down as devices on the network continue to function as long as their DHCP lease has not expired.  Once the lease has expired, the device is unable to obtain a new DHCP lease and reverts to it's default address and is not able to pass traffic on the network.  Devices with static IP addresses continue to function indefinitely.  I am of the opinion that these log entries are caused by en external event on the WAN port which the software is not able to process properly resulting in the DHCP server and the LAN http interface to the router ceasing to function.  Just my two cents - I'm no expert.  Thanks!!

Mar 29 12:31:46 2022	Kernel	Out of memory: Killed process 28893 (sleep).
Mar 29 12:31:46 2022	Kernel	Out of Memory: Kill process 28893 (sleep) score 112 and children.
Mar 29 12:31:43 2022	Kernel	Out of memory: Killed process 28885 (sleep).
Mar 29 12:31:43 2022	Kernel	Out of Memory: Kill process 28885 (sleep) score 112 and children.
Mar 29 12:31:38 2022	Kernel	Out of memory: Killed process 28879 (sleep).
Mar 29 12:31:38 2022	Kernel	Out of Memory: Kill process 28879 (sleep) score 112 and children.
Mar 29 12:31:36 2022	Kernel	Out of memory: Killed process 28887 (.rvOxx_rep0rt).
Mar 29 12:31:36 2022	Kernel	Out of Memory: Kill process 28886 (sh) score 153 and children.
Mar 29 12:30:35 2022	Kernel	Out of memory: Killed process 28876 (sleep).
Mar 29 12:30:35 2022	Kernel	Out of Memory: Kill process 28876 (sleep) score 112 and children.
Mar 29 12:30:31 2022	Kernel	Out of memory: Killed process 28858 (sleep).
Mar 29 12:30:31 2022	Kernel	Out of Memory: Kill process 28858 (sleep) score 112 and children.

[Adrian Wint]

The router hung again lastnite.

Once I had performed a cold reboot, I searched the logs for 'Out Of Memory' events - sure enough they are there (in the 'Incoming Log') - hundreds of them!

So this IS the same problem.

This has to be a firmware issue - there is nothing that we, as Users, can do to fix this - this is poor memory management in the firmware.

This router is still in the supported stage of its lifecycle & will be until 2025...

So, come on, CISCO, this is a firmware issue - you NEED to fix this!

[marce1000]

 - You are on a forum populated by volunteers, not by Cisco personnel , so the path forward is ->  https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/web/tsd-cisco-small-business-support-center-contacts.html

 M.

[Adrian Wint]

Marce,

Thank-you for the redirection.

Obviously no disrespect is intended to those freely give their time help others.

So, other posters, I suggest that we all log individual support tickets by following the link above & lets see if we can get this resolved.

[cpoppe]

After several weeks of operation I had this same issue show up today.  The Router DHCP stopped handing out addresses and the http interface to the Router did not respond.  After powering off and rebooting the Router the Incoming Log Table showed several hundred Out of Memory errors that seem to be occurring in pairs every two to three seconds for about 8 minutes.  After a period of about 15 minutes the 8 minute burst of Out of Memory errors occurs again.  This went on for several hours until the Router finally locked up.  The System Log only showed a single SYN Flood Error during this time frame.  Has anyone gotten any additional information regarding this problem?  Thanks!!

[Ron Pollard]

Hey cpoppe, I held out as long as I could, but I just got too frustrated with the at-least-weekly router drop-outs.  I ended up replacing the Cisco with a Ubiquiti router a few weeks ago.  No issues since!

After thinking about the issue some more, I have to think that what we're experiencing is a common failure mode of this particular router.  I hadn't updated the firmware on my Cisco in at least a couple of years when it suddenly started displaying these symptoms.  The first thing I tried was updating to the most recent firmware which, of course, did nothing to fix the problem I was having.  Others have theorized that the problem is related to firmware, but if that was the case, it seems mine would have started acting up long before it did.  It was rock-solid for the approximate 9 years I had it installed - until it wasn't.

Good luck!

[Adrian Wint]

I'm afraid I've replaced the router too.

I tried contacting CISCO support by a variety of means but got no response.

For those interested, I replaced it with a DrayTek 2927. It does all that the RV42 did & much much more.

[Adrian Wint]

This is consistent with what I'm experiencing - DHCP clients don't get their lease renewed but if you 'force' a device to its appropriate IP then it will work.  I think I'll change one of the PCs to a static IP so I'll still be able to access the router when the DHCP process stops, but when this happens the browser based logon screen also stops responding.

I'm not seeing the Kernel Out of Memory events that you are seeing - which log are you looking in? The System Log? I haven't got syslog enabled, maybe I need to set up a logging machine & enable this see these?

I think that the router being upset by an external event happening on the WAN port is feasible. I do frequently see a whole pile of SYS FLOOD events as the last events in the log file before a (forced) reboot.

[NedPrime]

I agree with all that you said. I do see the out of memory in the incoming logs if I remember correctly. I would think Cisco would be reading these and creating a new firmware update. These devices do show support until 2025, but when I called Cisco they didn't seem to interested in looking into the problem.

So, we are going to switch to Fortinet FortiGate security appliances and move away from Cisco. Even their ASA Fire Power appliances. Fortinet firewalls are expensive, and we may only use these for vertical markets like financial planners, CPA, HEPPA compliance and such.

I'm also looking into PFsense like the NetGate 4100 and 6100 for home users and small business.

Thanks,

Nathan