AP7940 Rebooting Management Interface Often

[Anonymous user]

Hi there,

I have a AP7940, manufacture date around 2005. Seems this little guy isnt too happy. It keeps rebooting its management interface, im getting a lot of "System Warmstart" notifications from it, and theyre increasing in frequency. Not too long ago, the thing out of no where totally forgot all of its network settings, and I had to console into it to reconfigure them. These dont seem like good signs to me. It's running the latest rpdu/aos versions available.

Think its time to replace this guy?

Thanks for any input.

[BillP]

hi

[take a peek at this article|http://nam-en.apc.com/cgi-bin/nam_en.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=2572]

that should get you started. the most common reason for warmstarting is network traffic issues. if the rPDU cannot ping the default gateway, it will reboot.

also, if you can let us know if you see any other strange event logs in the event log, that'd be helpful.

another trick to help us see what it is to directly connect the PDU to a computer with a cross over cable, to rule out a network issue and see if it still warmstarts. to do that, you can set up the computer and PDU on the same network via IP and eliminate default gateways on both the computer and PDU to get it to work. if you leave that connected, and dont see any warmstarts, then we know its a problem with the pdu reaching the default gateway.

it also wouldnt hurt to check if there is any packet loss before doing this or trying another cable for the PDU and switch port if possible.

hope this helps!

[Anonymous user]

Hey there,

Thanks for the tips. I can rule out many of those, as I have over 20 more of that same model in the same cage as this problem guy. All the others are happy, and theyre on the same vlan as the one having issues. It doesnt however rule out switchport and i will definately look into that.

Here's what i see in the PDU's logs:

12/25/2008 01:09:01 System: Warmstart.
12/25/2008 01:08:40 System: TCP/IP stack failure. Module: tfSheapFree-assertion error line 610, file(.\treck\source\trsheap.c)

The tcp/ip stack failure i dont see all the time though, it did that once, then rebooted itself every hour or so, now its been a good solid 8 hours or so with no reboots.. very strange. Keep in mind again I have over 20 more of these same pdu with the same software versions on the same vlan so if it were a traffic issue i would expect it to effect all of them 🙂


Thanks!

Message was edited by: kungfu1

[BillP]

hmm definitely sounds like a firmware problem.

can you please confirm the actual firmware versions? - i know you said they were the latest but i just want to be sure. this should be available during the web interface.

i'd suggest reflashing the firmware, even if its at the latest version and maybe a reset to defaults to try to recover this.

[Anonymous user]

Thanks for all of your responses, i'll post the info youre looking for here

Model Number : AP7940
Manufacture Date : 11/10/2005
Hardware Revision : B~ (<--- notice this? thats kind of whacky.. on my others i think it says B2.. not B~)
Description : Rack PDU APP
Version : 358 Sector : 16
Date : 06/25/2008 Time : 12:31:09
CRC16 : 7DA7

Description : Network Management Card AOS
Name : aos Type : APC OS
Version : 359 Sector : 47
Date : 05/23/2008 Time : 11:54:45
CRC16 : 69FD

Thanks again!

Message was edited by: kungfu1

[Anonymous user]

Thanks again. I cant cold start the unit as it has production devices on it (which is also why im trying to iron this out quickly). I'll back up my configs and try re-flashing the pdu and see what that does.

thanks

[BillP]

you're right, it is strange with the B~. it seems to be a firmware only issue though that hopefully we can clear up. i wouldnt plan on replacing it just yet.

lets definitely reflash the firmware and see if that clears it up, and if it doesnt, we can reset the unit to defaults. you can back up your config.ini file first though [by following these instructions|http://nam-en.apc.com/cgi-bin/nam_en.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=8789].

also, if you are able to, you can try power cycling (cold starting) the rPDU if you havent already.

[BillP · Accepted solution]

hi again,

i strongly advise cold starting/power cycling the PDU ASAP because we believe that could alleviate the issue just because of how that hardware revision is reported to the web interface on the network card.

let us know if you can do that power cycling at some point and how you make out 🙂