Ascend Archive
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Re: (ASCEND) P25 failures
Bill,
> From: "William Bauer" <bbauer@scripps.edu>
> Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 11:18:04 -0700
> Subject: (ASCEND) P25 failures
>
> Does anyone know what causes the error:
>
> Power-On
> Self Test
> Halted.
> CONFIGURE UNIT!
>
> I've had two P25s fail with this error, and nothing restores it, including an
> nvramclear. Is there something on the ISDN or ethernet side of the connection
> that could cause this kind of failure? Bad ethernet port on a computer, or
> stray signals coming from the Pac Bell end of the cables?
>
Basically your P25 has lobotomized itself. Its program most likely went
haywire and allocated buffers into protected RAM and wiped out the
unit's serial number and other factory configured info.
This failure is usually caused by running a P25 on a busy network
segment with Ethernet->Mod Config->Bridging=Yes
Why does this happen? Especially to 2 units in a row? We found through
test and experimentation that when bridging is enabled at the ethernet
level the P25 attempts to process every packet it sees on the
ethernet. It will do this even if there are no connection profiles
configured to bridge (figure that). The processor/software in a P25
cannot keep up with the traffic on a busy ethernet. This can be an
ethernet segment with just 2 Unix boxes running NFS or performing
network file copies, or it can be a network of several systems. All it
takes is one good blast of ethernet traffic when bridging is enabled on
the P25 and it will usually lobotomize itself. Even when it doesn't
lobotomize itself it will usually reset.
All you need to do is turn bridging off at the ethernet configuration
and the problem should not re-occur. We have several P25s running in
busy networks for the last year with bridging disabled without any
problems. Now if you need bridging and you are on busy ethernet
segments I suggest that you get a P50 or 75.
BTW, once a P25 lobotomizes itself it has to be sent back to Ascend.
Only they know how to plug in the special hash codes and such to
reprogram the serial number and factory options.
---
===========================================================================
Bob Atkins, President | bob@digilink.net
Digilink Network Services | http://www.DigiLink.Net/
Switched ISDN Internet Access | mailto:info@DigiLink.Net
310-577-9450 "Our business is your network"
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crowd. The man who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no
one has ever been.
-- Alan Ashley-Pitt
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