Strange MicroSemi PDS-208 behavior
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Dump idea: if you connect the microsemi to your main switch using one of the two uplink ports (9+10 referring to manual), how behaves the ping then?
May be the PoE ports are not capable for an uplink?
Regards
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@fsc830 said in Forced to use vlan1:
Dump idea: if you connect the microsemi to your main switch using one of the two uplink ports (9+10 referring to manual), how behaves the ping then?
May be the PoE ports are not capable for an uplink?
Regards
Yeah, I tried that too. I tried the PoE ports and I tried the uplinks and no difference. Seems I'll have to contact Microsemi this coming week because the seller is now pretending he's fed up with me asking for more information.
In my test, I have ports 1 to 1 and am able to reach both from the Linux box connected to one of the uplinks.
I'm wondering if he is aware of an issue but pretending he doesn't know.
None of this has been normal networking with these. -
Me too running out of ideas. Weird issue, please keep us up to date about the outcome.
Regards
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For the fun of it, I connected a PoE camera to the microsemi on port 1.
The camera cannot be seen by anything on the 192.168.1.1/24 network but the Linux box connected to the microsemi with 192.168.1.75 can see the camera and controls.
Everything works, just can't connect the switches to a normal lan switch.
Really weird.
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RMA sir!!!
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Two devices with same issue? Dont think, that a RMA will solve this.
My guess: a weird function or setting no one is currently aware of.
Never seen, that a network device cant use an IP-range other than the default one. ( and as @lewis wrote, meanwhile he is using 192.168.1.x as IP range in the microsemi switches).
The worst thing I saw in such limits was a router provided from ISP with a address 192.168.1.1 and a subnet mask 255.255.255.0, the IP could be changed, but not the subnet mask! The mask was fixed in router firmware.
But I cant imagine, that a switch is designed to communicate only with a switch from same brand.Regards
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@fsc830 Not unheard of that switch brands don't like to talk to each other.. I saw it once when we were migrating networks were we couldn't get the switches at the location to talk to cisco switches.. That had to prob 20 years ago ;) What is the brand of this dumb switch - do you have any other switches you could try. What about port? What about the cable used?
Its rare - but maybe brand X of this dumb switch and these whatever china switches don't like each other?
What ports are you using to connect the switches? Looks like the 2 ports that are not poe are suppose to be uplink ports. Are you connecting your linux box to one of those or one of the poe ports?
What lights do you get on the interfaces when you connect the switches? Maybe they are having issue with negotiation? Maybe one is 10 and other is 100, or one gig and other 100, etc. Go to the store and pick up some 5 or 8 port dumb switch.. You should be able to find one for like 20 or 40 bucks. And see if that works with these switches.
It looks like the switches have a storm control feature.. Its possible there is some traffic on the network that is shutting down the port. Page 33 of the manual.. Could be something in port security preventing changing of mac connected to port, could be something in the static arp settings.. Or some sort of ACL set.
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All I was told is 'these are layer 2' switches'. They don't have the usual IP address setup, the IP is tied to a vlan, it's the only option.
What ports are you using to connect the switches? Looks like the 2 ports that are not poe are suppose to be uplink ports. Are you connecting your linux box to one of those or one of the poe ports?
I documented that many times in all my comments. I tried uplink ports and PoE ports, they all act the same way. Even now, connected together, it doesn't matter if the terminal is in a PoE or uplink port, nor does it matter if the link between the switches is a PoE port or uplink, all act the same way.
What lights do you get on the interfaces when you connect the switches? Maybe they are having issue with negotiation? Maybe one is 10 and other is 100, or one gig and other 100, etc.
I checked those things too and the speeds were correct. Everything I have is gigabit and ports were always gigabit.
Go to the store and pick up some 5 or 8 port dumb switch.. You should be able to find one for like 20 or 40 bucks. And see if that works with these switches.
I have a bunch here and I tested those things over the weekend also. I posted that I had connected the microsemi direct to the main switch which is a netgear. I also tried from a cisco switch and then I tried using an unmanaged switch with the Linux box and the microsemi connected to that with no change.
The only time these things work is connected to each other and for the Linux box, it has to be connected directly to any port of the microsemi.
It looks like the switches have a storm control feature.. Its possible there is some traffic on the network that is shutting down the port. Page 33 of the manual..
Yes, I looked at all those options as well and all of them are disabled. While something seems to be blocking something, it's not obvious in the settings since those show nothing enabled.
Could be something in port security preventing changing of mac connected to port, could be something in the static arp settings.. Or some sort of ACL set.
There are no ACL rules either.
As mentioned, I had done everything from clearing ARP cache to pulling the power cord to restarting the devices repeatedly.
Maybe I should change the title on this to "Microsemi craziness, anyone use them?" so see if someone else here know about them. I'm sure many in this thread would like to know what happened. As humans, we love to assign blame right.
I'll try a few more things today in case I overlooked some specific combination of steps but I'm pretty sure everything has been tried.
Since the Linux box can communicate with these and even see the camera output, maybe I can come up with some silly method of using them. The Linux box has two ports so maybe some sort of forwarding so the rest of the LAN can actually use these.
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@lewis said in Forced to use vlan1:
All I was told is 'these are layer 2' switches'. They don't have the usual IP address setup, the IP is tied to a vlan, it's the only option.
Who told such nonsens? Or, if this is truth, who manufactured such nonsens? (no answer expected)
If these switches are not able to communicate with other infrastructure components, kick them off.
Replace them with devices using default standards.
Even if they would running now -by some miracle- I would not rely on them in future changes.Regards
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@fsc830 said in Forced to use vlan1:
Even if they would running now -by some miracle- I would not rely on them in future changes.
I would agree.. Not like there isn't other poe switches.. Where did you get them anyway? Did you pay for them, were they free?
I am also going to mention again about your setup of a dumb switch upstream of a vlan capable switch.. If your just going to use the switch as dumb with poe then ok. But if you plan on putting vlans on them at some future point, its not good idea to have a dumb switch upstream because they do not understand tags. And you will not have isolation at layer 2.
If your having this much trouble with them just trying to do simple no vlans even just connecting to your network - the future does not bode well.
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@johnpoz Got a great deal on ebay of these but the seller is trying to tell me I'm wasting his time by asking for information LOL. The microsemi site doesn't seem to have any specific support.
I don't have a dumb switch in the mix. I just pulled one off the shelf to test what would happen if I connected the microsemi to that then the terminal to that, would they be able to communicate and the answer was nope.
I don't really need vlans, it's just what these have for networking as the only option so was trying to use them as they are. The thought was to isolate PoE networked stuff to its own network. Using them in a dumb way would be fine.
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@lewis said in Forced to use vlan1:
Got a great deal on ebay
Doesn't seem like it to me.. How much time have you spent trying to get something that should take like 2 minutes to setup?
If your still in the return window - return them! If not prob just eat the cost and just some well known brand poe/poe+ switch... I see a smart poe+ 8 port gig netgear on amazon for like 75$
They also do make dumb poe/poe+ switches if your looking to save a few bucks.. And don't plan on having needs of vlans
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@johnpoz said in Forced to use vlan1:
@lewis said in Forced to use vlan1:
Got a great deal on ebay
Doesn't seem like it to me.. How much time have you spent trying to get
Nope, didn't turn out that way for sure.
I didn't have any great needs in this, I just wanted to isolate PoE stuff to another network. I liked these since they are fanless and can go anywhere.
Guess I'll get back to finally tinkering with vlans at some other point.
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I got a bit of additional information from the seller.
//
Microsemi has layer two/three capabilities. You're going to need to make sure that your routes and VLANs are set up properly on whatever device is connecting to this switch as well.Different switches tag in different ways, whether it's HP Aruba, Cisco or many other not common vendors, lots of factors are in play in your environment to gain the correct back ground.
This switch is trying to route traffic, which is in fact layer 3, routing by IP address, and I am not sure what you have upstream that could be effecting this. I do know this, if it can't talk to the other portion of your network but can talk to all devices connected to it, the problem lies between your current switch and the microsemi, and the way that port is configured.
\Fact is, I tried outside of the network using a simple switch and it didn't work so. SOL I guess.
Would be interesting to know what the reason is after all this however.
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@lewis said in Strange MicroSemi PDS-208 behavior:
Microsemi has layer two/three capabilities.
Not per the feature set.. on the website
https://www.microsemi.com/product-directory/poe-switches/4996-pds-208g#overview
Features:
240 W of full-power PoE (IEEE 802.3at); 8 ports (30 W per port) Extra power per port - any individual port can go up to 72 W Fanless design - silent operation and enhanced reliability IEEE 802.3az energy-efficient-PoE 4-pair solution Data rates of 10/100/1000 Mbps **Layer 2 switch** - including 802.1Q-based VLANs enables segmentation of networks for improved performance and security Configuration and monitoring - Web management and SNMPNor anything in the manual that I saw, and your not tagging anything..
This switch is trying to route traffic
No it isn't that is for damn sure - and where exactly would it be routing anything that are all on the same network.
Dude cut your losses with this POS would be my advice.
Setting an IP on the default vlan, and connecting devices to this network should take all of 30 seconds to setup on any other switch.. Every vlan capable switch I have ever worked with - really since there has been switches.. The default vlan is one, and they are just really dumb switches out of the box... All the ports are in vlan 1, untagged and you plug something into a port, and plug something into another port and they are on the same layer 2.. Regardless of what IP might be on the switch for management. Only once you start doing some creation of vlans and putting ports in different vlans do they become "smart" and vlan aware really..
Why would it "route" anything unless it was sent to its IP as the gateway of the device, the devices on a network do not send traffic to a gateway or their default gateway unless the IP they are trying to talk to is on some other network then what their ip and mask tells them they are on... If the IP is on their network, they arp for it.. If they do not get an response then it just fails, they don't say oh let me send that to my gateway anyway, etc. The only way that switch could route, even if it could would be if the traffic was sent to its mac address for its IP, with a destination of where the client is trying to go.. And the client isn't going to be doing that if the IP its trying to talk to is on its same network.. So even if the switch "could" route - which it can't per the website stating its a layer 2 switch - it wouldn't be attempting to route anything anyway.
Maybe they have some other model that can do layer 2 and or 3.. My sg300 can be in layer 2 or 3 mode. Mine is currently in layer 3 mode - but its not doing any routing - just using its layer 2 features..
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What can I say, the seller is too busy to help me. He thinks I'm doing something wrong which is what I thought also when I started. At this point, he thinks all of us have no idea what we're doing. I've asked him to look at the post but he says he's done talking with me.
I even mentioned at some point 'maybe there's something you're not telling me' which he of course took offense to. It's a fact on ebay. Sellers often pretend they don't know that something is wrong with the stuff they sell. I've had it happen so many times.
I wanted an isolated PoE setup and I certainly got one LOL.
It's not a big deal, I got these super cheap but brand new out of the box, was excited to think I got such an amazing deal. Not worth sending back.
Hoping someone with Microsemi experience will see this post at some point and chime in. I think we all would love to know what this is all about.
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@lewis said in Strange MicroSemi PDS-208 behavior:
I've had it happen so many times.
They why do you continue to buy crap there? Just buy a name brand switch, one that you can actually get support if need be, etc. Or return if it doesn't work.
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What do you mean 'continue'? :).
For production stuff, it's always name brands but I've also learned about new brands by buying them used or cheap on eBay for example.
In this case, I wanted to separate PoE stuff that's currently on Cisco PoE switches since I need those for something else.
There's lots of good used stuff, name brands on eBay and these looked like a good bargain. Happens now and then.
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To close this, I finally gave up on these and will not spend any more time on them. It's a shame since I got them for $25.00 each including shipping. I can understand why the seller could care less to help :).
On to better things :).
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If I could find one of these boxes for that price I would spent the money, just to investigate in such a weird issue to still curiosity
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But as far I have seen, they are not sold in EU.
And I have found them only with a price several times higher than yours.Regards
