AP7900 Stat : P+ N- A+ and link is down

[Anonymous user]

Hello I am new here, also this is my first PDU. My AP7900 is connect with a cable directly into a router, DHCP is working fine in the network, no firewall, but the AP7900 cannot get a DHCP address, even without the cookie thing. Here's what I have tested so far :

- Set up as DHCP(at the beginning the PDU had an IP, but I changed it to DHCP and then all the problems started, I couldnt access it anymore, I got myself the console cable in the end)

- Set up as Manual (IP is free, configuration is good, set DNS, Trying to use ping tool >> cannot ping, or timeout)

- Reset all configurations, IP, everything. (In TCP/IP it shows Network starting... and my light is blinking non stop green, plus on the other end there is a blink maybe every 5 sec)

- Firmware upgrade over console (XMODEM transfer file), I believe that worked since my versions now shows 392.

My concerns :

- I have seen some places where stat (in login) was showing Stat : P+ N? A+ or Stat : P+ N+ A+. But mine shows Stat : P+ N- A+.

- When going TCP/IP > Advanced... (5) I see on top : Link is down.

Please help, I'd really like to get this AP7900 working !

Thank you,

[BillP]

Hi Mikael,

Can you show a screenshot of the Network->TCP/IP menu through serial connection? This will also help me make sure the MAC address is programmed properly which if not, can cause problems.

N- typically means network disabled or not configured usually. What you described after reset to defaults sounds like invalid network settings are in there. 

What is the link LED on the actual RJ-45 jack doing when connected to an ethernet network? Link LED is the one with 10/100 listed next to it. Knowing the status LED color/pattern (flashing slow/rapid or solid) would be helpful too. This is the LED with the checkmark and X next to it. With AP7900 facing you right side up, the link LED is on the top.

I need you to clarify which LED was doing what on this statement below by referring to link or status LED and what was doing what:

On 1/16/2017 10:40 PM, Mikael said:

- Reset all configurations, IP, everything. (In TCP/IP it shows Network starting... and my light is blinking non stop green, plus on the other end there is a blink maybe every 5 sec)

With a screenshot of the TCP/IP menu and the LED pattern, we should be able to tell more. Furthermore, you may want to check the most recent events in the event log with Control+L key which you can also paste here too.

[Anonymous user]

On 1/17/2017 11:42 AM, Angela said:

With a screenshot of the TCP/IP menu and the LED pattern, we should be able to tell more. Furthermore, you may want to check the most recent events in the event log with Control+L key which you can also paste here too.

Should I reboot the device and then paste the Control+L right after login in ?

On 1/17/2017 11:42 AM, Angela said:

What is the link LED on the actual RJ-45 jack doing when connected to an ethernet network? Link LED is the one with 10/100 listed next to it. Knowing the status LED color/pattern (flashing slow/rapid or solid) would be helpful too. This is the LED with the checkmark and X next to it. With AP7900 facing you right side up, the link LED is on the top.

Next to the RK-45 jack there is 2 LEDs (Top one and bottom one) when unit is in a rack or on a table. The bottom LED blinks every seconds I would say green, constantly. Again, there is something else weird, the other end (my router) shows no light, but blinks 1 times every 5 seconds, tried with other cables, no luck, a friend of mine told me to try with a UTP cable instead so I'm getting cables in tomorrow to see that.

On 1/17/2017 11:42 AM, Angela said:

N- typically means network disabled or not configured usually. What you described after reset to defaults sounds like invalid network settings are in there. 

Also important to note, if set to DHCP or DHCP with BootP, it's not getting an IP.

On 1/17/2017 11:42 AM, Angela said:

Can you show a screenshot of the Network->TCP/IP menu through serial connection? This will also help me make sure the MAC address is programmed properly which if not, can cause problems.

I will login, CTRL+L and paste the whole console output (so first screen when login in + events) by tomorrow night(EST).

Thank you,

[BillP]

Hi Mikael,

On 1/17/2017 12:51 PM, Mikael said:

Should I reboot the device and then paste the Control+L right after login in ?

I think you can check this as soon as you start and as you do different things, let's continue checking on it. You don't have to reboot it to start when you first get it. It is a running log that can hold several events.

On 1/17/2017 12:51 PM, Mikael said:

Next to the RK-45 jack there is 2 LEDs (Top one and bottom one) when unit is in a rack or on a table. The bottom LED blinks every seconds I would say green, constantly. Again, there is something else weird, the other end (my router) shows no light, but blinks 1 times every 5 seconds, tried with other cables, no luck, a friend of mine told me to try with a UTP cable instead so I'm getting cables in tomorrow to see that.

The bottom LED is the status LED. I think this is telling us there is invalid IP settings. The top LED is the link LED that represents the ethernet link status. If there is no top LED with a good ethernet cable in there, then we could possibly have a cable problem - i.e. using a crossover cable when we need a patch cable or it also could be a damaged or broken network jack on the PDU. You could verify the pins look good and cable clip is not damaged. Trying just another cable will be good in general. I've never had to worry about STP vs. UTP with these but you never know.

On 1/17/2017 12:51 PM, Mikael said:

Also important to note, if set to DHCP or DHCP with BootP, it's not getting an IP.

This makes it seem more like an ethernet connectivity problem - cable, broken network jack on either side, etc but I imagine it is not a router issue and you tried different ports there. Thus, we can pursue the different cable and UTP option while looking for any obvious physical damage. If you have a PC or something with a 1000mbps connection, you can try connecting to it with any cable and also check for a link LED in that scenario as opposed to connecting to your router. The PC will auto-crossover the connection which is needed for a NIC to NIC type connection.

On 1/17/2017 12:51 PM, Mikael said:

I will login, CTRL+L and paste the whole console output (so first screen when login in + events) by tomorrow night(EST).

OK 

[Anonymous user]

On 1/17/2017 4:19 PM, Angela said:

could be a damaged or broken network jack on the PDU.

First thing I checked, the port seems ok(see attachment). I will let you know tomorrow when I get console access to the device ! The link led, is completely off, while status is blinking green. This is a picture from yesterday's testing.

Thank you,

[BillP]

Hi Mikael - agreed, port looks ok visually. Could be a problem electrically or internally that we can see if we exhaust all other things we've discussed so far. I see this from time to time on these for units that get returned to me and there is no clear visual evidence (bent pin, etc).

Talk to you soon.

[Anonymous user]

Ok so, whenever I came back home. I tried a Crossover cable. that kind of worked. Now the RJ45 port has the LINK LED green flashing. I have the Status LED going Orange / Green (which I believe means its doing dhcp / bootp  requests) and then goes orange flashing. I tried setting up a Manual IP. It looks like it worked, but I cannot ping the device or access it via WEB. What is funny is (I changed my router by the way in the process), the router shows me a map of the network and the AP7900 is on it with ip 192.168.0.181, it disappeared after a while, but it means there was a time when it did get an IP from the DHCP, I was not able to reproduce that. Obviously I tried to ping that IP or access via WEB, no luck either.

As for the logs, please see in attachments, quickly sorted them by Ascending character and searched for error or failed words are not present. Failed is there because I tried to transfer I file inside, but it didn't work I was not doing it properly. I tried to upgrade the firmware but I'm not sure if it worked or not.

The good news! The Stat at login page has changed. On DHCP or DHCP/BootP the status is N? (wich probably means its searching for an IP). If I put manually, it shows N+.

Any ideas ?

Edit : By the way, straight cable works too. I believe it was the router, I had an asus rt n66 before now I put back my ISP's router EMG2926.

Thank you !

[BillP · Accepted solution]

Hi Mikael,

The status LED as you suspected sounds like it was indicating DHCP & BootP, DHCP is slow alternating green/orange and then slow orange is specifically BOOTP.

Can you share that screen image of the TCP/IP screen? And the cookie has been disabled/set to "not required to set offer" after you reset to defaults?

And, when connected to your "new" router, the link LED is illuminated on the PDU, right?

[Anonymous user]

On 1/19/2017 10:12 AM, Angela said:

And, when connected to your "new" router, the link LED is illuminated on the PDU, right?

Yes, it actually worked with both. Tonight I will do some testing by removing "not required to set offer..."(I did that already, but I did resets on the card, I'll re-test to make sure).

I will also upload you a picture of the TCP/IP screen.

Thank you !

[BillP]

You're welcome. Look forward to figuring this out with you. 

[Anonymous user]

After changing to DHCP only, setting up my option 8 (not required to accept offer..). DHCP finally gave my PDU an IP. I've then set a manual IP.

To put you in context, I came back home tonight, rebooted the PDU (I had to move it to troubleshoot). It booted up in ERR state. I was really worried, then I saw the LED status and everything was working but not lights for power, so I said Ho ! lets see if there is an ip now at least ! ERR went away when I pressed the button to see the IP. Then............... :

Problem solved !

It might have been a mix of misconfiguration + bad 2nd router. In the end I got it to work with the original router + not crossover cable !

Thank you for all your help ! 

[BillP]

You're welcome! I can look at the web version of the event log now that you can log in if you want to see if we can tell why you saw Er on the front display.