Troubleshooting

Basic Troubleshooting Tips

In addition, you should make sure that your network topology contains no data path loops. Between any two end nodes, there should be only one active cabling path at any time. Data path loops will cause broadcast storms that will severely impact your network performance.

For your switch, if you wish to build redundant paths between important nodes in your network to provide some fault tolerance, you should enable Spanning Tree Protocol support on the switch. This ensures only one of the redundant paths is active at any time, thus avoiding data path loops. Spanning Tree can be enabled through the switch console, the web browser interface, or HP ProCurve Manager.

The 3500 and 3500yl switch devices also support Trunking, which allows multiple network cables to be used for a single network connection without causing a data path loop. For more information on Spanning Tree and Trunking, see the Management and Configuration Guide, which is on the HP ProCurve Web site at www.procurve.com/manuals.

Check the port configuration. A port on your switch may not be operating as you expect because it has been put into a “blocking” state by Spanning Tree, GVRP (automatic VLANs), or LACP (automatic trunking). (Note that the normal operation of the Spanning Tree, GVRP, and LACP features may put the port in a blocking state.) Or, the port just may have been configured as disabled through software.

Use the switch console to determine the port’s configuration and verify that there is not an improper or undesired configuration of any of the switch features that may be affecting the port. For more information, see the Management and Configuration Guide, which is on the HP ProCurve Web site at www.procurve.com/manuals.

Troubleshooting

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