Cisco 2950 issue with port-security

[Steve Graham]

All, currently in our environment we have a large number of Cisco 2950-48G switches running IOS 12.1(22)EA2. Due to some governmental restrictions and the lack of budget to replace our infrastructure with 802.1x compliant LAN switches we have improvised securing the LAN by restricting each port to the host mac-address. Yes, this isn't the best solution but it does help keep the auditors happy with the access restrictions set in the data network environment.

Issue, devices connected on a floor switch (let's say devices connected to the 3rd floor switch) cannot ping other devices connected directly to that switch, i.e. printer, other workstations. I remove the port-security configuration and all is back to normal. Is this normal on a port-security enabled port that is restricted to a single mac-address? If so, is there a way to configure it so that these devices can communicate with other devices connected to the same switch?

Thanks for any insight you might have.

Steve

[sundar.palaniappan · Accepted solution]

Steve,

Port security shouldn't prevent communication between the devices connected to the same switch. However, protected ports would do exactly what you are experiencing.

Just wondering, have you configured the ports as protected ports? If not, can you post the switchport configuration.

Sundar

[Steve Graham]

Sundar, you are right, they were configured with the ports protected. Removed that configuration and boom bada bing, communications at last! Thank you for posting this information.

Steve

[keduncan]

are the ports going into err-disable mode? If so, this also could be caused by errors on the port. Check the speed and duplex settings. If the router with port security enabled see lots of errors it will disable the port.

[Steve Graham]

No these ports are not going into err-disable mode. Another bit of news is that the vlan these nodes are on runs across 3 other floors, i.e. one bus. Other nodes on the same bus, connected to a different workgroup switch can communicate without problems, however, the issue seems to be located on each switch communicating with other nodes connected to the same workgroup switch. However, these nodes can communicate successfully with anything external to the workgroup switch they are directly connected to.

Thanks,

Steve