Our office has been experiencing a series of rolling internet outages over the last couple of weeks which is driving everyone crazy. After isolating a few individual components, my current theory is that this might be due to a failing Dell PowerConnect 5448 managed switch - but my experience with these is limited; hence this post.
Topology:
- DSL router with Shaw Business 100 & static IP address ->
- Linksys wrt 1900ac for NAT and DHCP ->
- Dell PowerConnect 5448 managed switch ->
- A whole slew of computers, printers, lap tops, smartphones etc.. totalling approx 100 devices
Things I've Tried:
Plugging an ISP uptime monitoring server directly into the DSL, bypassing the rest of the network; in order to determine if its the ISP that's failing; it doesn't seem to be; e.g. the monitoring server will retain a connection while the rest of the network cannot connect to the internet.
Replacing the linksys 1900ac with an asus ac3200; as the linksys has had bad reviews; also replaced the linksys with under warranty with a new model
The usual stuff - power cycling; re-booting etc.
Current Diagnosis:
The managed switch is at least 5 years old and seems to be exhibiting strange behaviour; most recently up for only 6 days (before that not sure), internal clock reading jan 2000; tried resetting it, but then the system crashed fatally 3 times today per the log messages below & then the clock reset to jan 2000 again:
1 2147480173 01~Jan~2000 02:04:24 Emergency %OS-F-MEMORY: OSMEMG_rn_free: Memory address is NULL ***** FATAL ERROR ***** Reporting Task: GOAH. Software Version: 1.0.2.7 (date 17-Jun-2008 time 20:0 4:29) 0x1439f8 0x141074 0x4e1058 0x33078c 0x334114 0x4e4748 0x188620 0x1888e0 0x188948 0x189450 0x17a9dc 0x17abd4 0x17af90 0x17b620 0x17c04c 0x1 7c184 0x17edfc ***** END OF FATAL ERROR *****
2 2147481910 01~Jan~2000 00:03:00 Emergency %OS-F-MEMORY: OSMEMG_rn_free: Memory address is NULL ***** FATAL ERROR ***** Reporting Task: GOAH. Software Version: 1.0.2.7 (date 17-Jun-2008 time 20:0 4:29) 0x1439f8 0x141074 0x4e1058 0x33078c 0x334114 0x4e4748 0x188620 0x1888e0 0x188948 0x189450 0x17a9dc 0x17abd4 0x17af90 0x17b620 0x17c04c 0x1 7c184 0x17edfc ***** END OF FATAL ERROR *****
3 2147483647 26~May~2015 12:53:57 Emergency %OS-F-MEMORY: OSMEMG_rn_free: Memory address is NULL ***** FATAL ERROR ***** Reporting Task: GOAH. Software Version: 1.0.2.7 (date 17-Jun-2008 time 20:0 4:29) 0x1439f8 0x141074 0x4e1058 0x33078c 0x334114 0x4e4748 0x188620 0x1888e0 0x188948 0x189450 0x17a9dc 0x17abd4 0x17af90 0x17b620 0x17c04c 0x1 7c184 0x17edfc ***** END OF FATAL ERROR *****
Another log is showing a bunch of spanning tree related up and down times for the linksys (port g43) per the logs below; does this mean I should enable RSTP?
17 2147483549 01~Jan~2000 00:01:01 Warning %STP-W-PORTSTATUS: g43: STP status Forwarding
Combined with numerous consecutive g43 link up/link down warnings/info messages.
Is this switch buggered? Should I replace it? Thanks!