Monday, October 10, 2016

Brocade ICX: Loop-Detection Notes, Configuration, And Status Commands

I know of a Brocade customer that really needs loop-detection implemented in the network.  This particular customer still has a lot of unmanaged switches in the network, and loop-protection would be a perfect solution for them.  I have seen on more than one occasion where someone creates a loop on one of these unmanaged switches, and literally brings down the whole network.  This creates CPU havoc on the core and company downtime (for equipment, phones, server access, etc).  Loop-detection is a good solution for just this scenario.
First, lets note that this command is for detecting loops in a downstream UNmanaged switches.  I did test this with two ICXs, all ports in Vlan 1.  I created a loop in the downstream ICX and did not see the same results as what I have gotten below.  You will have to depend on RSTP for the managed switch loops (RSTP being faster than STP).
Now, lets look at a simple config.  Ill be utilizing port 1/1/22 in this lab.
vlan 1 by port
 untagged ethe 1/1/1 to 1/1/48

interface ethernet 1/1/22
 loop-detection

Notice the command under the interface 1/1/22.  
In my lab, I have a cable modem with a switch on the LAN side (thats the only unmanaged switch I have), connected to port 1/1/22 on my ICX6450.  This is what I see when there is no loop on the unmanaged switch:
ICX6450-48 Switch#sh loop-detection status
loop detection packets interval: 10 (unit 0.1 sec)
index port/vlan  status                         # errdis  sent-pkts recv-pkts
1     1/1/21     untag, DISABLED                0         0         0
2     1/1/22     untag, FORWARDING              0         111       0
3     1/1/23     untag, DISABLED                0         0         0

4     1/1/24     untag, DISABLED                0         0         0

Notice port 1/1/22 is in forwarding mode.  Now, lets create a loop on the unmanaged switch (the cable modem LAN side).  Here is what we see when I do this (notice the console message that comes up in orange):
ICX6450-48 Switch#Loop-detection: port 1/1/22 (vlan=1), put into errdisable state
sh loop stat
loop detection packets interval: 10 (unit 0.1 sec)
Number of err-disabled ports: 1
You can re-enable err-disable ports one by one by "disable" then "enable"
under interface config, re-enable all by "clear loop-detect", or
configure "errdisable recovery cause loop-detection" for automatic recovery

index port/vlan  status                         # errdis  sent-pkts recv-pkts
1     1/1/21     untag, DISABLED                0         0         0
2     1/1/22     ERR-DISABLE due to itself      1         220       1
3     1/1/23     untag, DISABLED                0         0         0
4     1/1/24     untag, DISABLED                0         0         0
ICX6450-48 Switch#

ICX6450-48 Switch#sh errdisable summ
Port 1/1/22   ERR_DISABLED for loopDetection (vlan 1)

No comments:

Post a Comment

Your comment will be reviewed for approval. Thank you for submitting your comments.