PCT5324 64bit SNMP

I've been trying to understand why only HC counters were provided for UcastPkts and BroadcastPkts for most of the day... then found this post.

I'm using cacti (http://www.cacti.net/) with 64-bit (HC) counters on pretty much all network devices I have, since many links on our networks have a high sustained traffic (a few hundred Mbps). Without 64-bit counters, snmp polling every 5 minutes gives wrong results because of the 32-bit counters wrapping (at about 114Mbps)... which is why I find it really strange to have a 24 Gigabit port device without 64-bit counters. Useful interface traffic polling is pretty much impossible.

Are there still no plans to add HC 64-bit counters to a future firmware upgrade? What method would be recommended to poll/graph bandwidth usage on the 5324 without them?

Matthias

There are no plans to add support for the 64-bit HC counters. I believe this is a limitation of the ASIC, so a firmware update would not be able to add this support.

Same here... found it out the hard way, and already purchased two of these.

The other surprise I had (and that I would have prefered to live without too), was the incredibly long delay one has to wait before a machine plugged in to that switch gets pingable (we're talking at least 10s here). Once again, this is a real problem, as my servers who try to mount nfs shares right after bringing their network interface up timeout and continue booting without having the nfs share available. Argh :-(

Matthias

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@ThiasDude wrote:
What method would be recommended to poll/graph bandwidth usage on the 5324 without them?

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Matthias: Your only real choice is to poll more often. Every 5 minutes gets you up to around 110mbit, and to capture full gbit speeds you need to poll the device several times per minute.

These devices are pretty much unsuitable in an environment where monitoring is required :-(

Steve -- who just found this out the hard way

Hi,

 

I don't think this has anything to do with the limitation of the ASIC. In the software , running in the switch , it wouldn't be that hard to create 64 bit counters from the 32bit counters. Just poll them every 10 sec, and create the 64 bit counters. You can also do this true SNMP, but that takes way more CPU time , then it would take , when implemented onm the switch.

 

And i think, a Gb switch should have counter64 on boards. We bought one over here, and are pretty happy with it, but if this isn't solved, this will be the last one.

 

Regards,

Roelof Dijkstra

Sr. Network Engineer

It's always possible to do 64-bit math on a 32-bit processor, but when data is moving as fast as it is on a gigabit switch, the only way the counters can keep up is if it's done in hardware. The CPU has plenty to do as it is, so if 64-bit counters are not in the ASIC, they're not going to happen.

Steve

The only thing the software has to do , is read the 32 bit counters every 10 seconds, and create a 64 bit counter. In the software running on the switch , that should be no problem at all.
Only thing is, that someone has to implement it.

Greg - I was reading a blog from last year about dell switches not having plans to go to 64bit counters. Is this still the case? We are having similar problems to others when trying to poll bandwidth stats every 5 mins for heavy utilized interfaces they roll over w/in the 5 mins and give us bad data. Any info would be great. If this hasn't been address then it is a week of coding to develop 30 polling...which is a pain. Thank you.

**BUMP**

Any new info about the 64bit SNMP issue?

Well, the anwsers seemed pretty clear to me : Dell has no plans for implement 64bit snmp countrers on their current switch lineup.

I think I've just hit another limitation of the Powerconnect 5324 : I can't seem to find how to change the load balancing policy for link aggregation. I've read the entire "Link Aggregation Interoperability of the Dell™ PowerConnect™ 5316M with Cisco IOS or Cisco CatOS based Switches" PDF document from Dell, which shows how to change the policy on Cisco equipments, but not Dell switches...

I own five 5324 and only one Catalyst 3750. The Cisco is MUCH more expensive, but we had to buy it because we needed some level 3 routing capabilities between VLANs... well, I've learned to love the Cisco... 64bit counters, 4 extra ports (since the SFP slots aren't shared, but only Cisco branded SFP modules work, not Dell ones!) and level 3 routing capabilities. No ssh, though. Still, I wish Dell had some switches that were at the same level of features.

I just noticed the "new" 6224 switches. Does anyone know for sure if those have 64bit snmp counters? It would be really, really nice... especially since they can apparently have some 10Gig uplink ports!

Just found this thread and I simply can't believe these facts, and the lack of response from Dell since some of these posts... I'm saddened that that's the case, and I'll definitely have to find some workaround to this. Obviously, this will be the last 5324 unit we buy.