MAC Address not found in mac address-table

[mldillion]

I am having trouble with an IQinVision Camera where its MAC address will not show up on a 6840 switch. I have verified that the interface is setup for switcport mode access and is assigned to a vlan. Any help would be appreciated!

[Reza Sharifi]

Can you ping the IP address of the camera?

Not sure of this is the issue but I have seen cases where the mac address does not show up on the switch unless you ping the device.

HTH

[mldillion]

Reza,

No, however once we assign the correct vlan to the interface then yes we can ping the camera and it's MAC address shows up in the MAC address table. The situation is that we have a new building with over 300 ports that will have Access Points, Cameras, Door Controlers, and other devices plugged in. Typically we assign a vlan to all of the interfaces then lookup MAC Addresses to find AP's and other devices, and move them to their correct vlan. For some unknown reason this works with all of our devices except the cameras. It is my understanding that we should be able to see the MAC address regardless of the device being on a particular vlan. Below is a portion of our config.

!
interface GigabitEthernet101/1/0/4
 switchport
 switchport trunk allowed vlan 1
 switchport mode access
 switchport access vlan 106
!
interface GigabitEthernet101/1/0/5
 switchport
 switchport trunk allowed vlan 1
 switchport mode dynamic auto
 switchport access vlan 200
!
interface GigabitEthernet101/1/0/6
 switchport
 switchport trunk allowed vlan 1
 switchport mode dynamic auto
 switchport access vlan 200
!
interface GigabitEthernet101/1/0/7
 switchport
 switchport trunk allowed vlan 1
 switchport mode dynamic auto
 switchport access vlan 200
!
interface GigabitEthernet101/1/0/8
 switchport
 switchport trunk allowed vlan 1
 switchport mode dynamic auto
 switchport access vlan 200
!
interface GigabitEthernet101/1/0/9
 switchport
 switchport trunk allowed vlan 1
 switchport mode dynamic auto
 switchport access vlan 200
!
interface GigabitEthernet101/1/0/10
 switchport
 switchport trunk allowed vlan 1
 switchport mode dynamic auto
 switchport access vlan 200
!
interface GigabitEthernet101/1/0/11
 switchport
 switchport trunk allowed vlan 1
 switchport mode access
 switchport access vlan 200
!
interface GigabitEthernet101/1/0/12
 switchport
 switchport trunk allowed vlan 1
 switchport mode dynamic auto
 switchport access vlan 200

[Reza Sharifi]

Hi,

You are right.  The MAC should show up on the mac table as soon as the device is connected, but I have seen cameras not behaving that way.

I  recommend contacting the camera manufacturer and ask for any feedback.

This may not make a difference in the issue you are encountering but looking at your configuration you don't need these  2 commands on your access ports:

switchport trunk allowed vlan 1
 switchport mode dynamic auto

By default the native vlan is 1.  Also "switchport mode dynamic auto" is usually not used with access ports.  It is used with trunk ports for DTP negotiation.

HTH

[mldillion]

Reza,

Thank you for the feedback! We hare removing the switchport mode dynamic auto command as you suggested. The switchport trunk allowed vlan 1 though must remain as it is used as part of the FEX configuration. We are using the new Cisco 6840 switch with 6880ia switches connected via 10Gig links.

I connected the same camera to a Cisco 3560-CX switch and saw it's MAC Address show up in the MAC address table, so I was hoping it would be a configuration fix for the 6840. Even the port counters show sending and receiving packets, and since it is drawing PoE power we can see that is good as well (see below).

------------------------------------------------------------

Greek-CORE#show power inline gigabitEthernet 101/1/0/11
Interface    Admin  Priority     Oper      Power(Watts)    Device                Class
                    (enabled )            From PS To PD
------------ ------ ---------- ---------- ------- ------- -------------------    -----

Gi101/1/0/11 auto   low        on             7.0     7.0 Ieee PD                    2

Interface    AdminPowerMax Police ActConsumption
                (Watts)               (Watts)
------------ ------------- ------ --------------

Gi101/1/0/11          30.0 off               2.8

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

GigabitEthernet101/1/0/11 is up, line protocol is up (connected)
  Hardware is C6k 1000Mb 802.3, address is 005f.86f9.fb0b (bia 005f.86f9.fb0b)
  MTU 1500 bytes, BW 100000 Kbit/sec, DLY 100 usec,
     reliability 255/255, txload 1/255, rxload 1/255
  Encapsulation ARPA, loopback not set
  Keepalive set (10 sec)
  Full-duplex, 100Mb/s, media type is 10/100/1000BaseT
  input flow-control is off, output flow-control is unsupported
  Clock mode is auto
  ARP type: ARPA, ARP Timeout 04:00:00
  Last input never, output never, output hang never
  Last clearing of "show interface" counters 01:58:52
  Input queue: 0/2000/0/0 (size/max/drops/flushes); Total output drops: 0
  Queueing strategy: fifo
  Output queue: 0/40 (size/max)
  5 minute input rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
  5 minute output rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
     99 packets input, 10189 bytes, 0 no buffer
     Received 99 broadcasts (14 multicasts)
     0 runts, 0 giants, 0 throttles
     0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored
     0 watchdog, 0 multicast, 0 pause input
     0 input packets with dribble condition detected
     18493 packets output, 2785049 bytes, 0 underruns
     0 output errors, 0 collisions, 0 interface resets
     0 unknown protocol drops
     0 babbles, 0 late collision, 0 deferred
     0 lost carrier, 0 no carrier, 0 pause output
     0 output buffer failures, 0 output buffers swapped out

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Greek-CORE#show mac address-table interface gigabitEthernet 101/1/0/11

Legend: * - primary entry
        age - seconds since last seen
        n/a - not available
        S - secure entry
        R - router's gateway mac address entry
        D - Duplicate mac address entry

Displaying entries from active supervisor::

     vlan   mac address    type   learn    age                 ports
----+----+---------------+-------+-----+----------+-----------------------------

No entries present

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Richard Burts]

I find the comment very interesting that when they assign the camera to the right vlan that they are then able to see the MAC address. Which suggests that the camera knows what vlan it should be in and does not communicate till it is there. Or perhaps that there is some device in that vlan that the camera needs to see before it communicates (perhaps something like DHCP options or perhaps some type of controller?

HTH

Rick

[mldillion]

Rich,

Yeah, it is weird. I have an update though. After configuring the interface with spanning-tree portfast edge we were able to see the MAC Address (see below). Please note the interface I am now focused on is 101/1/0/31 and not 101/1/0/11, because the device on that is not a camera, so I have discovered.

interface GigabitEthernet101/1/0/31
switchport
switchport trunk allowed vlan 1
switchport mode access
switchport access vlan 200
spanning-tree portfast edge
spanning-tree bpduguard enable

Greek-CORE(config-if)#do show mac address-table interface gigabitEthernet101/1/0/31

Legend: * - primary entry
        age - seconds since last seen
        n/a - not available
        S - secure entry
        R - router's gateway mac address entry
        D - Duplicate mac address entry

Displaying entries from active supervisor::

     vlan   mac address    type   learn    age                 ports
----+----+---------------+-------+-----+----------+-----------------------------
*     200 accc.8e28.7e3d  dynamic  Yes      230     Gi101/1/0/31

[Reza Sharifi · Accepted solution]

So, after adding "spanning-tree portfast edge" to the 6840 interface everything is working as expected?

[mldillion]

Reza,

Yes that is correct.