Dell PowerConnect 3424 How to use

Dell™ PowerConnect™ 3424/3448/3424P/3448P
PowerConnect 3424/3448/3424P/3448P
Release Notes
Date: November 2006
System Firmware Version 2.0.0.20
Information in this document is subject to change without notice.
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System Firmware Version 2.0.0.20 Subject to Change Without Notice i
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
GLOBAL SUPPORT 1
Firmware Specifications 1
Added functionality in this release 1
Issues resolved 2
Configuration file with PVLAN cannot be copied to startup.......................................................................................2
Native VLAN display..................................................................................................................................................2
Display of configured LACP Channels. .....................................................................................................................2
WBI Stacking Port Information..................................................................................................................................2
Known Restrictions and Limitations 2
Broadcast Storm Control Ranges..............................................................................................................................2
Queue Settings on Cascaded/Stacked Ports............................................................................................................2
Management Station Loses Communication to Stack after Master Unit Failure........................................................3
SNTP Interface Polling..............................................................................................................................................3
Migration of hosts from one device port to another. ..................................................................................................3
Documentation updates 4
Introduction ...............................................................................................................................................................4
Corrections and Additions to the System Information Guide 4
Corrections and Additions to the User’s Guide and CLI Reference
Guide 4
Corrections and Additions to the User’s Guide 4
Configuring Switch Information -> Configuring VLANs -> Defining VLAN Ports Settings..........................................4
Configuring Switch Information ÆConfiguring Network Security ÆConfiguring Port Security.................................4
Configuring Switch Information ÆConfiguring VLANs ÆDefining VLAN Membership ÆDefining VLAN Port
Settings ÆDefining VLAN LAG Settings ..................................................................................................................4
Viewing Statistics ÆViewing RMON Statistics ÆViewing RMON Statistics Group.................................................4
Viewing Statistics ÆViewing RMON Statistics ÆViewing RMON History Table.....................................................5
Corrections and Additions to the CLI Reference Guide 5
Copy..........................................................................................................................................................................5
spanning-tree pathcost method.................................................................................................................................5
spanning-tree portfast ...............................................................................................................................................5

System Firmware Version 2.0.0.20 Subject to Change Without Notice ii
service cpu-utilization................................................................................................................................................5
switchport access vlan ..............................................................................................................................................5
switchport general allowed vlan ................................................................................................................................5
switchport general pvid..............................................................................................................................................5
show vlan..................................................................................................................................................................5
show vlan mac-to-vlan...............................................................................................................................................5
power inline...............................................................................................................................................................5
show rmon statistics..................................................................................................................................................6
show rmon history.....................................................................................................................................................6
System Usage Notes 6
Non-Present Ports.....................................................................................................................................................6
Ports are not removed automatically from an IGMP group by removing them from the VLAN..................................6
36216........................................................................................................................................................................6
Only management stations with super community access can set rndAlarmEnabling..............................................6
End of Release Notes 6

PowerConnect 3424/3448 Release Notes
System Firmware Version 2.0.0.20 Subject to Change Without Notice Page 1
Introduction
This document provides specific information for the Dell PowerConnect 3424/3448/3424P/3448P Switch system,
firmware version 2.0.0.20.
It is recommended that this release note be thoroughly reviewed prior to installing or upgrading of this product.
GLOBAL SUPPORT
By Web: http://support.dell.com/
For information regarding the latest available firmware, recent release notes revisions, or if requiring
additional assistance, please visit the http://www.dell.com Support Web Site.
Firmware Specifications
Firmware Version Details
Boot PROM Name Version No. Release Date
PowerConnect_34XX_boot-10101.rfb 1.0.1.01 November, 2006
Firmware Image Name Version No. Release Date
PowerConnect_34XX-20020.ros 2.0.0.20 November, 2006
The firmware image version should be 2.0.0.20 on the PowerConnect 3424/3448/3424P/3448P. The boot prom
image should be 1.0.1.01 Refer to the PowerConnect 34XX Systems User‘s Guide for instructions on loading the
boot PROM software and updating the firmware image.
Version Numbering Convention
Version number Description
3424/3448/
3424p/3448P 2 0 0 20 Four part version number
 Denotes the build number.
 Denotes an ad hoc release of the product software.
 Denotes a scheduled maintenance release of the product software.

Denotes a major version number.
Supported Firmware Functionality
For more details regarding the functionalities listed, please refer to the PowerConnect 34XX Systems User‘s Guide.
Added functionality in this release
NOTE: When the new firmware version 2.0.0.20 is downloaded to the PowerConnect
3424/3448/3424P/3448P, Please make sure you also download the new boot code v 1.0.1.01.
Failure to download the new boot code when you download new firmware results the system
to boot continuously
This firmware release introduces the following new features
•DHCP Spoofing
•Q-in-Q

PowerConnect 3424/3448 Release Notes
System Firmware Version 2.0.0.20 Subject to Change Without Notice Page 2
•Spanning Tree Root Guard
•Link Layer Discovery Protocol
•HTTP/S Upload / Download of Configuration Files
•HTTP/S Upload of Software Image
Issues resolved
The following is a list of issues resolved in the current firmware release.
Title Description
Management Station Loses
Communication to Stack after
Master Unit Failure.
When a management station is connected to a stack, which undergoes a
master failover, so that the backup unit takes over, connectivity to the stack
may be lost. The backup unit does take over the IP address of the stack,
but the management station cannot communicate with the stack using the
management IP address. This is due to the fact that the management
station associates the management station’s IP address with the MAC
address of the “old” Master unit. The management station does not update
its ARP table, unless the ARP cache of the management station is deleted.
Configuration file with PVLAN
cannot be copied to startup. It is not possible to copy a configuration file from a TFTP server to the
startup configuration, when PVLAN is configured.
Native VLAN display. The switch mistakenly displays native VLANs as if they are configured for
all ports, instead of a specified range of ports.
Display of configured LACP
Channels.
The CLI global command "show interfaces port-channel" displays
information for inactive LAG port-channels is displayed, but does not show
information for configured and inactive LACP port-channels. Ports that are
members of the LAG that are not displayed in the WBI, if they are down (no
link).Use the channel-group 1 mode auto Interface Configuration command
to configure a port as a candidate to dynamically join a LAG (using LACP).
These ports are not displayed as LAG members if the interface is down.
WBI Stacking Port Information The network management GUI does not show the stacking port information.
Known Restrictions and Limitations
Title Description ID
Broadcast Storm Control
Ranges
Storm control rates refer to the average number of frames over a period of
time. This period of time decreases as the configured rate increases. For
example, configuring a rate of 70 kbps results in a rate of 70 kbps over an
average of 1 minute. From rate of 100 it becomes steady.
34665
Queue Settings on
Cascaded/Stacked Ports
Every port can be set to be either Strict Priority or WRR. This applies to
cascading and stacking ports as well. In order to be able to handle high
priority traffic across the cascaded links. From an implementation
perspective cascaded ports are set to SP. Unicast traffic was assigned to
the high priority queue. Therefore, if Unicast traffic is sent at wire-speed, it
is prioritized over broadcast traffic to the CPU. This is not a real-life
scenario, but should be noted in the Release Notes.
33794

PowerConnect 3424/3448 Release Notes
System Firmware Version 2.0.0.20 Subject to Change Without Notice Page 3
Management Station Loses
Communication to Stack
after Master Unit Failure.
When a management station is connected to a stack, which undergoes a
master failover, so that the backup unit takes over, connectivity to the
stack may be lost. The backup unit does take over the IP address of the
stack, but the management station cannot communicate with the stack
using the management IP address. This is due to the fact that the
management station associates the management station’s IP address
with the MAC address of the “old” Master unit. The management station
does not update its ARP table, unless the ARP cache of the management
station is deleted.
How to rectify the situation:
To ensure connectivity to a management station following master failover,
the ARP cache on the management station must first be deleted.
35954
SNTP Interface Polling
If the IP interface is configured on a physical interface (port, LAG), which
goes to down, the device continues to poll until the timer expires. If the
physical interface goes up again, the unit will not continue to poll.
Consider, for example, a case of a stack in which an IP interface is
configured on a physical interface of the backup unit (or any other unit). If
that unit is severed from the stack, the master unit continues to poll until
the timer expires. After that, it ceases polling, even if the backup unit is
reconnected to the stack.
How to avoid the situation:
It is recommended to configure SNTP servers on the default VLAN.
How to rectify the situation:
If you have not configured SNTP servers as recommended, use the
Global Configuration command clock source sntp to re-activate the
server.
34466
Migration of hosts from
one device port to another.
MAC addresses are not flushed when a port goes down. Relearning
occurs when a packet is sent from the host.
Therefore, when a host migrates from the one port to another, it is not
erased from the database, and therefore not relearned. This issue is
apparent when the user tries to ping from the device to the host, as no
traffic has been sent yet from the host to the device.
The address is learned when a packet is received from the host, or after
the address ages out from the old location.
How to avoid this situation:
When a host moves from one port to another, check viability by pinging
from the host to the device, and not vice verse.
36314

PowerConnect 3424/3448 Release Notes
System Firmware Version 2.0.0.20 Subject to Change Without Notice Page 4
Documentation updates
Introduction
This document lists the changes from the PowerConnect 3424/3448 Systems User’s Guide. The modifications are
due to instances discovered in various user environments.
Corrections and Additions to the System Information Guide
Dell PowerConnect 34xx Systems Information Update provides updated installation and configuration information
that replaces part of the installation and configuration information in the Dell PowerConnect 34xx Systems User’s
Note: The phrase “the device” herein after is used to refer to the PowerConnect 34xx Series switches.
Corrections and Additions to the User’s Guide and CLI Reference
Guide
Corrections and Additions to the User’s Guide
Web Screen / Section in Guide Description of Change
Configuring Switch Information ->
Configuring VLANs -> Defining
VLAN Ports Settings
(RN34666)
* A port can only be assigned to "dynamic VLAN" if it is not a member of
any VLAN except the default VLAN.
* A port can be assigned to "dynamic VLAN" only if it is in access mode.
Note that the default port mode for all ports is "access".
Configuring Switch Information Æ
Configuring Network Security Æ
Configuring Port Security In order to configure traps, the interface must be set to "locked".
Configuring Switch Information Æ
Configuring VLANs
ÆDefining VLAN Membership
ÆDefining VLAN Port Settings
ÆDefining VLAN LAG Settings
When an interface in General Mode is configured with a PVID, this
interface is not automatically added as a member of the VLAN with that
VID.
Viewing Statistics ÆViewing
RMON Statistics ÆViewing RMON
Statistics Group
Oversize Packets – Number of oversized packets (over 1632 octets)
received on the interface since the device was last refreshed.
Jabbers – The number of packets received during this sampling interval
that were longer than 1632 octets (excluding framing bits but including
FCS octets), and had either a bad Frame Check Sequence (FCS) with an
integral number of octets (FCS Error) or a bad FCS with a non-integral
number of octets (Alignment Error).
Dropped Events – counter is not supported.
(and not as indicated)

PowerConnect 3424/3448 Release Notes
System Firmware Version 2.0.0.20 Subject to Change Without Notice Page 5
Viewing Statistics ÆViewing
RMON Statistics ÆViewing RMON
History Table
Oversize Packets – Number of oversized packets (over 1632 octets)
received on the interface since the device was last refreshed.
Jabbers – The number of packets received during this sampling interval
that were longer than 1632 octets (excluding framing bits but including
FCS octets), and had either a bad Frame Check Sequence (FCS) with an
integral number of octets (FCS Error) or a bad FCS with a non-integral
number of octets (Alignment Error).
Dropped Events – counter is not supported.
(and not as indicated)
Corrections and Additions to the CLI Reference Guide
CLI Command Description of Change
Copy The range of the source-url and destination-url in the command copy
source-url destination-url should be 1 – 128 characters.
spanning-tree pathcost method
In the command spanning-tree pathcost method {long | short}, long
specifies that defaults are per long pathcost method, and short specifies
that defaults are per short pathcost method.
The default path cost for interface are per the path cost method specified.
The following indicates default path cost per method selected:
Interface Long Method Short Method
Port-channel 20,000 4
Gigabit Ethernet
Port 20,000 4
Fast Ethernet Port 200,000 19
Ethernet (10 Mbps) 2,000,000 100
spanning-tree portfast
Syntax is changed to:
spanning-tree portfast [auto]
auto – Specifies that the software waits for three seconds (with no BPDUs
received on the interface) prior to transitioning the interface to PortFast
mode.
The default mode is auto.
service cpu-utilization By default, the cpu-utilization collection is enabled.
switchport access vlan
An interface can only be assigned to "dynamic VLAN" if it is not a member
of any VLAN except the default VLAN.
An interface can be assigned to "dynamic VLAN" only if it is in access
mode. Note that the default port mode for all ports is "access".
switchport general allowed vlan
switchport general pvid
show vlan
When an interface in General Mode is configured with a PVID, this
interface is not automatically added as a member of the VLAN with that
VID.
show vlan mac-to-vlan Syntax of command is “show vlan mac-to-vlan” and not as documented.
power inline The syntax of the command is not as written, and should be power inline
[auto | never]

PowerConnect 3424/3448 Release Notes
System Firmware Version 2.0.0.20 Subject to Change Without Notice Page 6
show rmon statistics
Oversize Packets – Number of oversized packets (over 1632 octets)
received on the interface since the device was last refreshed.
Jabbers – The number of packets received during this sampling interval
that were longer than 1632 octets (excluding framing bits but including
FCS octets), and had either a bad Frame Check Sequence (FCS) with an
integral number of octets (FCS Error) or a bad FCS with a non-integral
number of octets (Alignment Error).
Dropped Events – counter is not supported.
(and not as indicated)
show rmon history
Oversize Packets – Number of oversized packets (over 1632 octets)
received on the interface since the device was last refreshed.
Jabbers – The number of packets received during this sampling interval
that were longer than 1632 octets (excluding framing bits but including
FCS octets), and had either a bad Frame Check Sequence (FCS) with an
integral number of octets (FCS Error) or a bad FCS with a non-integral
number of octets (Alignment Error).
Dropped Events – counter is not supported.
(and not as indicated)
System Usage Notes
Title Description
Non-Present Ports.
Certain ports in the device may have a status of "non-present ports".
These include:
- The stacking ports can be presented as user ports, in the event that
the device is a standalone (and not a stack unit). Therefore, these
ports are treated as "non-present".
- FE ports 25-48 of a 24-port device are considered "non-present"
ports, so that in the event of hot insertion of a 48-port device in place
of the 24-port device, the ifindexes of the GE ports remain consistent.
34465,
34409
Ports are not removed
automatically from an IGMP
group by removing them from
the VLAN.
Ports are not removed from IGMP group configuration, when they are
removed from the VLAN. Ports are added to the IGMP group by using
the command bridge multicast address ip-address add interface.
Ports must be proactively removed from the IGMP group by using the
command bridge multicast address ip-address add interface.
36216
Only management stations
with super community access
can set rndAlarmEnabling.
Only management stations with super community access can set
rndAlarmEnabling.It is not possible to set rndAlarmEnabling when rw
community is defined for the Default View.
36266
End of Release Notes