Cisco 3850 Stack - Management Performance Issues and High Flash Usage

[javier-osorio]

Hello everyone,

We are experiencing management performance issues on a Cisco 3850 stack. The issue does not impact the services running on the switches but affects monitoring and management capabilities. Below are the details we have gathered so far:

Observed Issues:

1. High Flash Utilization:

   • show flash: reports 96% usage, exceeding the 70% warning threshold.
   • Log message:
     PLATFORM-4-ELEMENT_WARNING: limited space - copy files out of flash: directory. flash: value 96% (1524 MB) exceeds warning level 70% (1108 MB).

2. Smart Licensing Status:

   • UNREGISTERED/EVAL EXPIRED – Could this affect monitoring and management?

3. System Clock Issues:

   • Log message:
     SMART_LIC-5-SYSTEM_CLOCK_CHANGED: Smart Agent for Licensing System clock has been changed
   • This might impact log timestamps and synchronization with monitoring tools.

4. CPU Utilization:

   • Stable at ~5%, with no apparent spikes.
   • No high CPU-consuming processes detected.

Troubleshooting Actions Considered:

• Running request platform software package clean to remove unnecessary files.
• Manually deleting old logs or outdated software images.
• Checking Smart Licensing registration status and potential impact.
• Ensuring NTP synchronization to avoid clock issues.
• Scheduling a reload if necessary.

Request for Assistance:

• Could the high flash usage be causing performance degradation in management functions?
• Are there recommended best practices for cleaning up flash storage on Cisco 3850?
• Does an expired Smart Licensing status impact switch management in any way?
• Any other recommendations to improve monitoring and management performance?

Thanks in advance for your insights!

[Leo Laohoo]

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@javier-osorio wrote:
PLATFORM-4-ELEMENT_WARNING: limited space - copy files out of flash: directory. flash: value 96% (1524 MB) exceeds warning level 70% (1108 MB).

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req plat soft pack clean switch all 

What firmware is the switch on? 

Post the complete output to the following commands: 

dir flash:
dir flash:core
dir flash:tracelogs

[Leo Laohoo]

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@javier-osorio wrote:
Any other recommendations to improve monitoring and management performance?

---

Depends on the firmware of the switch, if the switch is on 16.X.X, do not forget to monitor the CPU and memory utilization of the control-plane: 

show platform resources
show platform software status control-processor brief 

(The output is very self-explanatory so I will not go into details.)

IMPORTANT: 

• If the memory utilization is >55%, reboot the switch/stack. 
• Make it a point to reboot the switch once every 4 to 6 months.