Odd issue, wondering if anyone has experienced this, before.

[cisco-newb]

I installed a cisco sg300-28pp with a few vlans. Not sure that the vlans matter, but it doesn't hurt to include that information. Basic setup (my opinion), 1 vlan for regular network traffic, another vlan for guest wifi (this is in a small business) and another vlan for the IP camera network. Everything is working great. I get a call saying that one of the cameras disconnected from the VMS software (this switch also supplies PoE power to the cameras, well under the power/watts budget of the switch). I remote into the VMS computer and notice that I can't ping the static IP address of the camera, so I know it isn't a configuration issue with the software. I ask the owner, who is on site, to tell me if any lights are on the switch (for that port) and he said that only 1 light was on (compared to the other ports being used by IP cameras). I want to say that orange is for PoE and green is for network activity. I had him move the IP camera cable to another open port on the IP camera vlan and it came online once the camera fully booted up and told him I would troubleshoot some more when I was on site (I was connected to the computer, but I didn't have time to log into the switch via web GUI and check stats/info).

Anyway, I get on site and I login to the web GUI to check out the port, I must have missed it the first time, but I was on the page that shows all the information for the port (the status information...up down enabled disabled). The port was enabled and down. When I plugged in the IP camera, the orange light came on (I want to say it was orange, I forget). That told me that PoE worked and that the port wasn't fully down/dead. I tried plugging in a laptop, nothing....

For whatever reason, I decided to log back into the web GUI to take another look at the port. This time I found the page that shows the switch with ports (picture) and clicked on the bad port. When that page loaded, the radio button was set to disable. That looked odd to me. I checked a known good port/working port and that one was set to enabled.  I went back to the bad port and enabled it and the port that automatically disabled itself (more on that, below*), came online and started to work.

*I am the only one who manages this network (business belongs to a family member) I am positive that nobody logged in and made this change.

The good news is that the issue is resolved, but I am curious about a few things:

1- If the port switched to disabled mode, why would the LED for PoE light up?

2- Has anyone experienced this? Is there anything I should be aware of (I know that port security settings can be set and ports can be disabled per the settings/policy, but I don't have anything like that set up)?

I have to blame myself on this one....I have not configured SSH to take advantage of the CLI (works much better over slow connections, compared to the web GUI). Maybe a better glance while using the CLI would have showed me that the port was disabled. Maybe there was a glitch in the GUI and it showed enabled even though it was disabled. I checked it multiple times, but I supposed I could have just read it wrong...who knows.

Thanks.

[Eric Moyers]

My name Eric Moyers. I am an Engineer in the Small Business Support Center.

I am sorry to hear that you are experienced this issue. 

One thing I would do is ensure that Green Ethernet is turned off on the Switch and the IP Camera if it has it. I have seen instances where this can cause a similar problem.

For the PoE to show on, I don't think is unusual. Just shows that power is available and supplied. The port disabled means no traffic is being past, which is the important info.

Eric Moyers
.:|:.:|:. CISCO | Cisco Presales Technical Support | Wireless Subject Matter Expert

Please rate helpful Posts and Let others know when your Question has been answered.

[cisco-newb]

I will check out those settings and report back, thank you.

[cisco-newb]

Green Ethernet Properties

- Port LEDs is checked (enabled)

- 802.3 Energy Efficient Ethernet (EEE) is checked (enabled)

Power savings shows 58%

In order to turn this feature off, I assume I need to un-check (disable) the 802.3 EEE option.

I logged into the IP camera and I don't see any power save options, I was under the advanced section in the camera.

EDIT- Under Green Ethernet, Port Settings I see something that stands out from the other ports (this is not the port I was having issues with and it is not a device that needs PoE power, it is a computer on the other end of the port/cable).

Port 10, on the 802.3 EEE table, shows Enabled under the Administrative column (as do the rest of the ports). Under the operational column, all ports are Disabled except port 10, that is showing as Enabled. The EEE Support on Remote column shows Yes and all other ports show No.

[Eric Moyers · Accepted solution]

Check out this short how-to:

I think this explains configuring the Green Ethernet pretty good as well as the features in that section.

http://sbkb.cisco.com/CiscoSB/GetArticle.aspx?docid=701d4c937d644c349a19513d02a28ecb_Enabling_Green_Ethernet_on_the_SF200_Series_Switch.xml&pid=2&converted=0

Say 200 on the link but actually good for 200 and 300.

Eric Moyers

Please rate helpful Posts and Let others know when your Question has been answered.

[cisco-newb]

Thanks for the link to the article, there is good information, there. I have not had problems since making this thread, it seems to be something with PoE or just an odd occurance. I have not had to make any changes to the switch, since this thread, if it occurs again, I will take a closer look at the status/link/settings, before making any changes, to see if something stands out.