Stupid Printers!

[abillybob]

Hi All

 

We have this strange issue here where we have connected a printer to the network. It's on the correct VLAN and all the IP settings are sound although I can't get the stupid thing to ping.

 

What seems to fix it is restarting our Core Layer 3 switch which then bring the printer up?

 

This tends to only happen when a new printer is put onto that VLAN and once the switch has been restarted it's fine for the rest of it's life?

 

Can anyone work out what would be causing this?

[dapaulio]

What switch is it?

 

Do you mean you are rebooting the switch the printer is connected to, or you have to cycle the power on the core switch despite the printer being connected to another switch.

 

My guess is the vlan May have been misconfigured and corrected in the past which kinda corrupts the vlan causing odd symptoms like you describe.

Deleting and recreating the vlan normally resolves issues like this. Be warned to note all the vlan tagged and untagged ports before deleting the vlan

 

My other guess would be if it is a Cisco switch there is a cmd line to configure the port to fastlink. Cant recall the cmds exactly

Hope this helps

[abillybob]

It's a Cisco 3000 Series Layer 3 Switch. The printer isn't connected directly into this switch it's on another switch but rebooting the core switch brings it online.

 

Ah ok well I have a new 9000 series switch to replace it soon which all the VLAN's have been configured new so I won't bother re-creating it on this switch.

What would changing it to port-fast change?

 

Thanks for your help mate!

[Katy]

It's a Cisco 3000 Series Layer 3 Switch. The printer isn't connected directly into this switch it's on another switch but rebooting the core switch brings it online.

 

Ah ok well I have a new 9000 series switch to replace it soon which all the VLAN's have been configured new so I won't bother re-creating it on this switch.

What would changing it to port-fast change?

 

Thanks for your help mate!

If it's relating to spanning tree (fast link), if the printer has a poor implementation of DHCP it'll be trying to get an IP before the port has come online properly and then giving up, changing it to fast mode means the port comes online quicker.

[abillybob]

If it's relating to spanning tree (fast link), if the printer has a poor implementation of DHCP it'll be trying to get an IP before the port has come online properly and then giving up, changing it to fast mode means the port comes online quicker.

But surely as the IP is configured manually on the printer this wouldn't make a difference right as it's not relying on DHCP for it's IP?

[Katy]

But surely as the IP is configured manually on the printer this wouldn't make a difference right as it's not relying on DHCP for it's IP?

No it wouldn't (unless there's something weird and cisco specific) but you didn't specify it was a static IP (vs DHCP reservation) originally

[dapaulio]

I would try the fast link configuration first, there is no harm in doing so.. less evasive and less likely to cause you disruption network wide.

Tbh my experience and knowledge of Cisco switch programming is little but my understanding Whilst still it is set statically the port on Cisco still takes roughly 10 secs to properly come live if spanning tree is enabled.

 

I assume you don’t have any issues with any other vlan being passed through to the same edge?

 

It’s like the tagged vlan being pushed through to the edge switch is dropping off maybe being being blocked which sounds very much like a spanning tree issue however I don’t think spamming tree locking down a specific vlan on a port but My understanding is This would normally shut the port completely off)

 

Is your edge Cisco also?

 

Bringing back to possibly faulty vlan creation on the core presumably (and/or) the edge switch its passing the vlan too. In which this will hopefully resolve itself when you put your new switch in.