12.2(58)SE2 on a 2960 cause memory leaks

[pasztor.richard]

Hi all,

I had a very disappointed experience today  during the planned upgrade on my 2960 to IOS version 12.2(58)SE2 after business hours. We have a small office with 3x 2960 and a couple of 2950. There is a single 2960 called as the "central" as its the STP root, and most other switches are directly connected to the central. The remaining switches are conected to one of the switches conneting to the central.

I tested the aforementioned IOS on 2x 2960 las t week, but did not upgrade the central one. The 2x switches ran fine for a week, so I decided to upgrade the central one: basically it was a disaster. After the restart, the central became immediately unavailable via SSH (though admin IP pingable). I connected to the console, and realized that even console does not work, as I received the error message: "Low memory", and the console session could not be started. I restarted the switch once again (had to cut the power) and this time I managed to connect via the serial: the free memory was approx 2 MB, though its was over 5 MB if running 12.2(55)SE1. After 1-2 mins, free memory decreased down to 1.8 megs. SSH was still not functioning. At this time, fearing of a sudden memory leak during the night, I had to rollback to the previous version.

My config is quite simple: RSTP root, DHCP snooping, 1 LACP etherchannel, only 5x VLANs with VTP server, MOTD and BANNER (yeah I know its a risky feature since the previous IOS) I wonder what can be the problem here?

I have attached the running config of the central 2960 (removed some sensitive entries)

[pasztor.richard]

Hmm, I think I wait a couple of months till I do my upgrade, cause this madness freaks me out and dont want to play on the prod network with beta releases accidentaly marked as gold 

[Leo Laohoo]

Mysterious things happened during the Christmas holidays.

The 20 December 2011 version of the 15.0(1)SE1 has been "pulled".  On 23 December 2011, this file has been replaced by 15.0(1)SE2.  The original 02 December 2011 file of 15.0(1)SE1 is still there.

I am suspecting the 15.0(1)SE2 is the 20 December 2011-version but is renamed to reflect the intention.

[Renzhongyuan]

Hi guys

I have the same problem on 2960 after upgrading to 15.0(1)SE, difference with yours, I could telnet & console to manage the switch.

However, memory utilization is quite high, only 3M free memory available.

I haven't downguard yet because there is no others impact with switch. 

Really don't know is it fine....any suggestion about my situation ?

[Leo Laohoo]

I have already responded to your previous post.

[Peter Paluch]

Dear friends,

Reading through this thread, I cannot help but wonder what happened to Cisco's software engineering This is not to start any bashing session, post any negative or derogatory statements, or spark a flame war - after all, the Acceptable Use Policy for Cisco Support Community specifically prohibits us from engaging into such sort of discussion. But at the same time, with all due respect, this has to be put as plainly as it stands: something wrong is going on - for a couple of years now - with the quality of software engineering at Cisco. This is especially serious, considering the fact that Cisco likes to label itself primarily as a software company.

This does not make me happy at all, and it does not make me happy to be one of people raising a warning finger. But I had to say it...

Best regards,

Peter

[Leo Laohoo]

I ain't bashing. 

I'm very confused and annoyed at this. 

[Dmitriy Surinov]

Dear all,

Original iOS on our WS-C2960G-48TC-L is 12.2.25-SEE3.

We have tested all releases from 12.2.53-SE2 to 15.0.1-SE2.

And see that any of this releases have the same issiue:

After upgrade we see decreasing of TOTAL memory. With original iOS we have:

Switch01>sh mem

                Head    Total(b)     Used(b)     Free(b)   Lowest(b)  Largest(b)

Processor    11BEF28    44306648     8204432    36102216    35416632    35903984

But after upgrade to newer iOSs we have about 20-22 MB of Total memory.

In this thread I don't see any discuss about Total memory decreasing and I just try to pay your attention.

Does anyone can make some tests to verify our issue with Total memory decreasing on Catalyst 2960?

Thanks.

[Pramod Sreenivasan]

The bug status says resolved

http://tools.cisco.com/Support/BugToolKit/search/getBugDetails.do?method=fetchBugDetails&bugId=CSCts52797

can someone confirm the same ?

[Ivan Shirshin]

Hi Parmod,

Indeed it is resolved. Notes say the fix is in 15.0(1)SE01, 15.0(02)SE and later releases.

Kind Regards,
Ivan Shirshin

**Please grade this post if you find it useful.

[Pramod Sreenivasan]

Thanks for the replies.

i think i'll go with 12.2(55)SE 5 / 6 .. its a production environment .. dont wanna take chances with 15.0(2) which has a long list of open caveats

[barweiss45]

Please note 15.0(2)SE2 is having the same memory leak issue. Including a bug that will not allow you to access the box by any means (SSH, Telnet, or Console). All my 2960's at one of my locations were upgraded to this new code this week and all are displaying memory leak issues. I will be rolling back this weekend to 12.2(55)SE5. I spoke to TAC this morning about this issue and they said that although the release notes says the caveat for the low memory error on the console is resolved, there is now a new issue causing another memory leak.

Be warned, avoid 15.0(2)SE2 for 2960s!!!

[Leo Laohoo]

Be warned, avoid 15.0(2)SE2 for 2960s!!!

Thanks for the warning and confirmation.

So far, I'm still testing this IOS on 2960/2960S with 802.1X turned on and we haven't seen anything yet. 

[Aaron Jones]

We upgraded 3 of our 3750 switch stacks last weekend to 15.0(2) SE2. Two of them are now having this 'Low on memory, try again later' issue.

We will be rolling back to an earlier version this weekend!

Any recommendations on which is the most stable?

[barweiss45]

We've been using 12.2(55)SE5 for a while now and haven't had any issues like the ones I experienced on the 15.0(2)SE2 train. I've come to the conculsion that if there isn't any need for something that the 15.0 train offers that the 12.2 train does not then its best to just stay on the the current release when regarding a production eviroment.

[Leo Laohoo]

Unless you have a really, really, really, REALLY good reason to use 12.2(58)SE, try using 12.2(55)SE8.

Otherwise, you can try your luck with 15.0(2)SE4.