Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting
Basic Troubleshooting Tips
C a u t i o n | Because the switch behaves in this way (in compliance with the IEEE 802.3 |
| standard), if a device connected to the switch has a fixed configuration at full |
| duplex, the device will not connect correctly to the switch. The result will be |
| high error rates and very inefficient communications between the switch and |
| the device. |
| Make sure all devices connected to the switch are configured to auto nego- |
| tiate, or are configured to connect at half duplex (all hubs are configured this |
| way, for example). |
| ■ Faulty or loose cables. Look for loose or obviously faulty connections. |
| |
| If they appear to be OK, make sure the connections are snug. If that does |
| not correct the problem, try a different cable. |
| ■ |
| network collisions and other network problems, and can seriously impair |
| network performance. Use a new |
| cable to the cable in appendix B, “Cables and Connectors” for pinouts and |
| correct cable wiring. A category 5 cable tester is a recommended tool for |
| every |
| ■ Improper Network Topologies. It is important to make sure you have |
| a valid network topology. Common topology faults include excessive |
| cable length and excessive repeater delays between end nodes. If you have |
| network problems after recent changes to the network, change back to |
| the previous topology. If you no longer experience the problems, the new |
| topology is probably at fault. Sample topologies are shown at the end of |
| chapter 2 in this book, and some topology configuration guidelines can |
| be found online on the ProCurve Web site at www.procurve.com/manuals. |
| 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 ProCurve Manager. |
| The Series 6600 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 ProCurve Web site at www.procurve.com/manuals. |