server dropping network traffic

[jjohnsoncantell]

Greetings,

 

To troubleshoot some network issues I'm having to manually setting the speed/duplex on my server nics down to 100fdx. When I do this the network card seems to disable itself, when I say disable I mean I have no traffic across it nor any activity lights even though its enabled in device manager and active under network connections. This also happens when its set to 100hdx or 1000fdx, when its set back to auto negotiate everything works fine. I haven't been able to reproduce this on other servers. It so happens that the server in question is my forefront firewall, however when posting this on forefront forums people seem to dismiss the idea forefront could be causing it.

 

Any ideas as to what may be causing the problem?

Thanks

[Steve21]

You checked the config on the switch ports its set to? Could be a case of a fixed setting on switch, and then a fixed setting on server causing problems

 

Steve

[jjohnsoncantell]

Yeah I Tried that Steve and had set the switch port to 100fdx, however the internal nic of my firewall isnt connected to the switch. My config is this: core switch - content filter (functioning as a transparent bridge) - firewall - demarcation box - fibre box.. I set the switch port to 100fdx which the content filters internal nic is happy with, set the content filters external nic to 100fdx which it and the firewalls internal nic is happy with. The moment I switch the firewalls internal nic to anything other than auto I get the problem, same if i attempt to change the firewalls external interface to anything other than auto. I hope that makes sense

[twin--turbo]

replaced all the cables ?

 

TT

[ricki]

Has the switch got the latest firmware

Has the switch or network got a loop. Try disconnecting the feed connections to the network.

Have you tried a different switch the switch may be end of life

[twin--turbo]

What speed does it get when it is on auto??

 

TT

Edited April 1, 2016 by twin--turbo

[Willott]

If it's a NIC-NIC connection, ideally you'd be using a crossover cable - is this the case? If not, the auto neg may also be doing auto-mdix, which when switching off auto neg is potentially being disabled as well?

[jjohnsoncantell]

@TT Cables were going to be my next job, when on auto it picks up gigabit on the internal card and 100mb on the external card (which is correct). @Willott I must admit that I have not used crossover cables under the assumption that it should work but as you say, it may be causing the problem when manually setting. @ricki It's all ok on the switch side, old firmware but i've managed to pretty much rule out the switch as the cause.

Thanks for taking the time to answer if you have any more ideas please let me know. Going to try cabling on Monday when I'm due to shut things down.

[njc235]

What switches are involved James?

[twin--turbo]

Had some real buggy firmware on a HP 2910AL. despite what was listed on the port configuration the unit only operated in one mode. had a 6 week argument with HP, even the loan switch on the same firmware exhibited the same bug yet they could not replicate in the lab.

 

Update of F/w fixed it.

 

TT

[jjohnsoncantell]

Procurve 5400 series switches but the fw is quite old. Rebuilt the server in the end as it got worse after that, no problems since but I have left it set to auto, dont really want to go through that again.

[Cazale]

A bit 101 this, but worth mentioning: have you checked if an updated manufacturer (i.e. not Microsoft) NIC driver is installed?