Dell N3000E-ON Series Stacking

Hello,

My recommendation would be to get the switches on the same firmware revision, then create your stack. The switch models you have should stack, the OS10 switches don't, but you'll need to address the firmware first. Linked below is a document for stacking, its recommendation is to flash firmware first.

https://dell.to/39tO4kB

I'll include the CLI guide below, but I believe you'll just want to correct the firmware manually, then be able to continue forward managing through the stack.

https://dell.to/3fEyXcf

Hi

Thanks for your answer. I know that there is no issue with stacking when switch are in the same FW (I upgrade one of the switch in the stock the the same FW like Master). But whay Auto Synchronization future doesn't work ?

Please see this below:

>show switch

Management Standby Preconfig Plugged-in Switch Code
SW Status Status Model ID Model ID Status Version
--- ---------- --------- ------------- ------------- ------------- -----------
1 Mgmt Sw N3048ET-ON N3048ET-ON OK 6.6.3.36
2 Stack Mbr Oper Stby N3048ET-ON N3048ET-ON OK 6.6.3.36
3 Stack Mbr N3048ET-ON N3048ET-ON Code Mismatch 6.5.2.35

I need setup about 20 switches , and I am lazy admin who likes automation , so if this works, it will be great, especially that this feature is available on the switches.

Please correct me if I am doing something wrong in the config.

Hi,

Here is the documentation you seems to searching for

https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000121175/dell-emc-networking-os6-how-to-automatically-synchronize-firmware-when-adding-an-n-series-switch-to-a-stack

Please backup your swith configuration first and aware of this part of documentation before using it:

The optional boot auto-copy-sw allow-downgrade command should be used cautiously, as it does not assure configuration migration and is enabled by default once Firmware Synchronization is enabled

Regards,

In this way you don't have any other solution that follow the Dylan recommendation. We will let this post open if some other people of this community have encountered the same issue than you and found a fix/workaround.

Have a good day.

hey thanks, will just do this now and keep you updated

Hello,

I did some research and here is what I found. First of all, this issue is said to be fixed in 6.6.0.24. If automatic firmware sync is not working, a manual firmware update is required. I have seen that ONIE/CPLD differences could be the possible cause of a sync error and the you should make sure to update to the latest ONIE firmware on all units.

I've found that this is a rare situation and can be resolved using manual upgrade using the command "copy active unit 2" or full-stack reboot.

Hope this helps!

any update on this since i have the same issue

show switch:

1 Mgmt Sw N2048P  N2048P   OK                     6.7.1.1
2 Stack Mbr N2048P N2048P   Code Mismatch 6.3.3.9

--------

show version

1    6.7.1.1 6.7.1.1             6.7.1.1 6.7.1.1
2    6.3.3.9 6.3.3.9             6.3.3.9 6.3.3.9

----

UNITMGR[umWorkerTask]: unitmgr.c(9430) 537 %% CRIT Stack firmware synchronization failed for unit 2

UNITMGR[umWorkerTask]: unitmgr.c(9432) 538 %% CRIT Use copy command to synchronize the image manually

UNITMGR[umWorkerTask]: unitmgr.c(10516) 540 %% CRIT Stack firmware synchronization code transfer command failed for 2 member unit

-----

Would be really helpful for a remote expansion of a stack to know how to just automatically add an unit.

thanks hope it works.

here are the results:

I have to say that i tried to add a switch with the same firmware as stack master as unit 2 to verify if the master is the problem. that worked. so the stack master (unit1) is fine!

So futher on the issue is with unit 3

first i tried "copy active unit 3"

#copy active unit 3

Management access will be blocked for the duration of the transfer
Are you sure you want to start? (y/n) y

Copying active to backup image on unit 3 ...
File transfer operation completed successfully.

show version

unit active backup current-active next-active
---- ----------- ----------- -------------- --------------
1    6.7.1.1    6.7.1.1    6.7.1.1    6.7.1.1
2    6.7.1.1    6.7.1.1    6.7.1.1    6.7.1.1
3    6.3.3.9    6.3.3.9    6.3.3.9    6.3.3.9

-----

show switch

3 Stack Mbr N2048P N2048P Code Mismatch 6.3.3.9

-----

reload 3

Are you sure you want to reload the switch? (y/n) y

Reloading switch 3.

UNITMGR[unitMgrTask]: unitmgr.c(3992) 817 %% WARN Unit 3 active image version does not match with Manager. Ports on this unit will not be operational.

UNITMGR[umWorkerTask]: unitmgr.c(9430) 846 %% CRIT Stack firmware synchronization failed for unit 3

UNITMGR[umWorkerTask]: unitmgr.c(9432) 847 %% CRIT Use copy command to synchronize the image manually

UNITMGR[umWorkerTask]: unitmgr.c(10516) 849 %% CRIT Stack firmware synchronization code transfer command failed for 3 member unit

-----

-> Still code mismatch

-----

reload total stack -> same result = still code mismatch

----

Any other ideas or workarounds?

i also figured out that there are 2 different firmware available both last updated in the past 4 weeks:

Dell EMC Networking N2000-ON Series, Firmware Version 6.6.3.17

Dell EMC Networking N2000 Series Firmware Version 6.7.1.1

Could this also be related to this issue? What are the differences between N2000 and N2000-ON firmware?

frankly, I'm a bit stuck and not sure about workaround, I need to do some more research.

Hi,
According to the information I got from a colleague, firmware labeled ON or non-ON should not be a problem since there is only one N2000.

As for the stack, since the versions are very different, it is recommended to remove unit 3 and manually do the whole update to match the other units. and then adding it to the stack. Can you try this way?

Hi thanks for the update.

so the firmware should be fine and there is no difference with them?

I try the update of unit 3 without stack and let you know.

Update:

I updated unit 3 to firmware 6.6.0.2 and still get the code mismatch issue

----

Afterwards I updated to firmware 6.6.0.24 - deleted member 3 from the stack and added unit 3 again to the stack and powered it on. Updating Code took a while but it worked the switch is now on firmware 6.7.1.1 and is working as Unit 3 on the stack.

---

So it seems if you get a replacement switch for a running stack you need to get sure it has at least firmware on it 6.6.0.24

----

but let's be honest, a replacement switch has rarely had such a high firmware level until now.

-> is it possible to ask Dell that the at least update replacement switches to 6.6.0.24 before sending them to the customer?

I would guess that this issue is also taking place for N3000 stacks.