Switching

Hi,

We bought an EX4500 (EX4500-40F-FB-C) before the Virtual Chassis Interconnect module was available for purchase.  Now that it's available, we have a question:  What is the minimum recommended JUNOS version that we have to install on the EX4500 in order to support Virtual Chassis technology?  Also, what is the recommended JUNOS version?

Thank you.

The minimum version needed is 11.1r1. That is however a build that Juniper strongly cautions to NOT deploy, and to downgrade immediately if it is deployed. The minimum recommended version is TBD - 11.1s1 will be released April 29th, but we'll need to see whether it resolves the bug that others have seen in the field with 4500/4200 VCs before calling it "recommended".

Keep in mind that upgrading from a build of 10.4r2 or earlier to 10.4r3 or later will require additonal steps, including update of jloader and a change executed from BSD shell, to accomodate the new dual root partitioning introduced with 10.4r3.

Do you know what kind of major issues exist?  I have to run 11.1 because we have 4500's in VC.  I looked through the junos defect search but that site is difficult to find problems by device.

Thanks!,

GO HABS GO

I am still talking to JTAC to get to the bottom of it. What I have so far is:

11.1r1 is not recommended, no details. Likely a security/exploit issue. This will be fixed in 11.1s1.

Performance issues were seen when running an LACP LAG on an EX4200 line card. A PR has been raised, a fix is slated for 11.2. No word yet on which 11.1 version will receive this fix.

shadow on these boards has seen an EX4200 line card crash repeatedly when establishing a dot1q trunk on a single gig interface to another VC. My JTAC guy didn't seem to be aware of the case and hasn't found me an answer to that one yet.

Between us, I am sure we can get a good answer. I too have a need to run EX4500/4200 in a VC. Until I can be comfortable that known issues have been addressed, I'll just run a trunk port between them though, thank-you-very-much.

We are also running a 4200/4500 cluster and currently have a TAC case open because of line cards crashing repeatedly.  Our problem was triggerred by using a 10G interface on a 4200.  After trying multiple 4200 ports on different switches we found that the only thing that prevented the crash was moving the 10G link to a 4500.  The only helpful response we've received is "Don't run 11.1".  Of course this also means "Don't use a mixed mode cluster".  Unfortunately we're already there and now I need to redesign the whole mess.

How something as basic as using a 10G interface on a 4200 can cause a crash is a joke.  Makes you wonder if these boxes are even put through any QA at all.  You would think some of the line items would be:

Does the switch power on  Yes/No

Does the switch crash when I try to use a port   Yes/No

Hopefully 11.1s1 will fix this mess.

Did you receive a PR for the issue with a line card crashing when a 10G interface is installed? Or a response as to which version of 11.1 / 11.2 will fix the issue?

I also have a Mixed VC of 8 members with 2 4500 and 6 4200.

All members are eventually crashing and getting back to VC including the 4500.

I have a 4 10G port LAG uplink on the 4500s to the Core. I reduced the link to just one link and the problem is still happening.

JTAC told me that is a known bug on version 11.1R which will be corrected on 11.1S. Let's hope it solves the problem.

I also cannot understand how they put available a version where a simple uplink will tear down a VC. Don't they have Labs to test this things??

If the problem was some obscure thing only happening in very specific situation, that I would understand, but happening with a basic configuration which is used by everybody??

Well, unless their DataCenter is composed of one isolated VC....

Looks like this is fixed now. It was related to NetBIOS packets. See http://www.juniper.net/alerts/viewalert.jsp?txtAlertNumber=PSN-2011-04-241&actionBtn=Search