SF200 switch freeze

[t-markcollins]

We have been deploying Cisco SF200-24P switches for our systems for over a year now. They connect to a Cisco 881 router. In many cases we are also deploying Cisco AP541s.

Over the last few months, on an intermittent basis, the switches will simply freeze, blocking all traffic flow. The power LED also goes dark. It appears the switch has frozen. The only thing that seems to revive the switch is a hard reboot by pulling the power cord. In the last couple of weeks, one site in particular has gone down a handful of times. That client of our is fed up. Our patience is running thin too.

I cannot see any indications in the logs to any event that might give a clue as to the problem. We definitely see this problem with the 1.2.7.76 firmware and the 1.2.9.44 (latest as of typing this). Not sure if with earlier 1.1.2 firmware.

Without a fix, we likely will have to change switches and possibly vendors as we need a reliable switch.

Our standard config is.

Multiple VLANs;

2

11 (default)

12

- switch set to static IP on VLAN 11 and gateway set

- most ports set to Access ports (untagged)

- 4 set to trunk ports, for connecting the 541APs with VLANs tagged

- G1 & G2 set to trunk ports with VLANS tagged (to Cisco 881 and/or additional switches)

- Bonjour unchecked

I see some vague references to a similar problem. And one reference to a SG300 series having what sounds like the same issue.

[Tom Watts]

Hi Mark, try to disable bonjour and see if it helps.

-Tom
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[t-markcollins]

It's always been disabled (unchecked), so not related.

[Tom Watts]

That's interesting. Most of the freeze/lock issues are related to SSH and or Bonjour. On the 1.1.1.8 firmware the switch had a bug where it would flood TCP out all ports due to losing the address entries. However that is long resolved and does not pertain to actual connectivity.

Were you at one point using a 1.2.5.7 software? Or did you go from the 1.1.2.0 to the 1.2.7.76 software and then 1.2.9.44 software?

When upgrading from the 1.1.2.0 firmware to the later 1.2.7.76 and 1.2.9.44, this changed the internal XML. This may correspond to unexpected crashes as the older settings may not update correctly to the newer write to the XML.

If it's possible can you default the switch after an upgrade to the 1.2.7.76 or 1.2.9.44?

-Tom
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[t-markcollins]

Last year the switches were all 'out-of-the-box' 1.1.2 . I think around the beginning of this they started being 1.2.7.76 . Without a definitive list, it seems that this issue has started appearing with this firmware.

One I saw today was 1.2.7.76 . Very first thing I did was upgrade firmware to 1.2.9.44 . Then programmed our config.

So it's something inherent in the present structure it would appear, and not related to upgrading from 1.1.2.

The switch today was running isolated (hadn't programmed the router yet). Added one AP. Although I wasn't in front of the switch at teh time, it almost appears that the connection of the AP triggered it.

But I've also had other installs where there were no APs, and it happened.

[Tom Watts]

Hi Mark, can you locate the flash logs and provide them here?

The change from 1.1.2.0 to 1.2.7.76 and later introduce massive changes to how the unit works and I have found it to be somewhat faulty. However the issues I've encountered are related to SSH and Bonjour. I haven't identified any other issues with lockup/freeze/crash outside of those 2 things.

If you could provide the log output, it would be great, hopefully something is there that can indicate what is happening.

If you want to experiment, downgrade to the 1.1.2.0 and see if the issue goes away. I may also recommend if you're using the 1.2.7.76 or 1.2.9.44 to disable https services and the like to see if the problem goes away.

-Tom
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[t-markcollins]

I've attached the Flash log.

[Tom Watts]

Hi Mark, it looks like you have a good deal of ports bouncing. This can be spanning tree related. Try to disable spanning tree or filter the BPDU. This may stop ports from bouncing.

The only other thing standing out is a macro failure on fa22. No idea how relevant that is but it shouldn't cause the switch to freeze unless that's a management link.

-Tom
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[t-markcollins]

As luck would have it, it happened on a switch today that we isstalled 6 months ago. Firmware 1.1.2 and only sigle VLAN (2).

So far nothing is consistent with this issue.