Powerconnect 2016

With a symptom like this, there are two likely possibilities.

1.  There is a hardware problem with the switch.

2.  One of the devices that is connected to the switch is creating a broadcast storm that is crashing the switch. If one of the systems is having intermittant problems, you may want to isolate it and see if the switch problems cease. If not, the only way to determine the source of a broadcast storm is to analyze the traffic using a packet sniffer.

please advise what a packet sniffer is ??

regards

 

kevin thompson

A packet sniffer (packet analyzer, network analyzer, etc) is a hardware device or software program that allows you to capture and analyze network traffic.

Hardware devices tend to be very expensive. There are some free software programs that can perform traffic analysis with limited capabilities. One such application is called ethereal (www.ethereal.com).

I am having the same problems on 2 of my PowerConnect switches. When I power up the switch it goes good until like 30 seconds and then goes to those freaking full green lights. Seriously starting to pis.s me off. If I open up the switch box is there any tweaking I can do inside or anything?

It is not recommended that any instructions involving opening the chassis of your PowerConnect switch be followed.  Opening the case of a PowerConnect switch will result in the warranty of the product being voided, and damage to internal components resulting from any such attempt will NOT be covered by your Dell Warranty.

If something is shorting out the circuit board, it IS in fact a hardware problem(as the short should not be occurring), and one we recommend you contact Dell to have resolved instead of ANY attempt to disassemble the switch on your own.

You may contact Dell Technical Support for assistance at 1-800-822-8965 (if you are a U.S. Customer.  International Customers should contact the appropriate technical support number for their region).

Message Edited by DELL-AndrewH on 12-01-2003 04:49 PM

O.K.

IS IT A HARDWARE PROBLEM OR NOT ????

THIS IS A ONGOING PROBLEM AND CAUSING CONSDERABLE EXPENSE

DELL SUPPORT UK SAY THERE IS NO PROBLEM AND THAT THE FAULTS ARE SOFTWARE DRIVEN.

 

If you would read one of the previous posts, it was listed that there are two likely causes for the problem:

1.  A hardware fault (which would require switch replacement).

2.  A possible broadcast storm on the local network segment.  Use of a simple traffic analyzer (such as Ethereal) to capture data on a system attached to the switch should be able to help determine if this is the case or not.  Capturing data for a short amount of time will tell you whether or not you have an ongoing broadcast storm on the network that you need to worry about - if there are no indications of a broadcast storm, then you likely are looking at a hardware fault of some sort.

Further, if you can swap out the switch for another unmanaged switch and the problem does not occur, you probably can look at hardware being the cause.  Managed switches may not be a good substitution, as often they sport a broadcast storm control feature(which most unmanaged switches do not possess), which may mask the possiblity that a storm could be locking up the 2016.  Hubs aren't a good substitution in this case, since they would broadcast any traffic they receive anyways, and wouldn't be affected by a storm in the same manner as a switch.

The 2000 series of switches (2016, 2024, 2508, 2124) are unmanaged - there aren't any software updates to the switches themselves - so if another network device, traffic, or network topology isn't the cause of the problem, then most likely you're going to be dealing with hardware issues.