Connectivity Problem - Multicast Issues -- Plz Help

[mamoser]

Hi,

I'd like to start off by thanking those who have taken the time to read my problem and to those who will be providing insight\help.

I currently have a network setup with a bunch of switches daisy chained together. (I know, not the best solution but it was in place when I took over the job)

On the NY side, I have 3 2960s with access ports connecting them on vlan 10. The switches is used for multicast audio traffic which then hits a server that encapsulates the data for satellite transmission.

Everything works great up until yesterday. I took over this project from a co-worker and am now in charge of extending the vlan 10 to washington to pass the multicast traffic to a redundant system

I've setup the ptp fiber link and have connectivity between them. I can telnet to WSH from NY but noticed that I have a lot of drop packets when pinging from Sw to Sw.

When I ping from a PC to the switches or lan pcs, not one dropped packet. I'm being told by the ISP that provided the fiber connection that the problem resides on my end and not theres. On top of this, I am not seing any multicast traffic flooding the WSH switch.

I've tried setting up a monitoring session and when sending the traffic to a linux box, tcpdump is not seing the multicast traffic.

NYSwitch:

PSC#sh interfaces g0/29
GigabitEthernet0/29 is up, line protocol is up (connected)
Hardware is Gigabit Ethernet, address is 001d.e548.881d (bia 001d.e548.881d)
MTU 1500 bytes, BW 100000 Kbit, DLY 100 usec,
reliability 255/255, txload 14/255, rxload 1/255
Encapsulation ARPA, loopback not set
Keepalive set (10 sec)
Full-duplex, 100Mb/s, media type is 10/100/1000BaseTX
input flow-control is off, output flow-control is unsupported
ARP type: ARPA, ARP Timeout 04:00:00
Last input 00:00:00, output 00:00:00, output hang never
Last clearing of "show interface" counters 03:50:01
Input queue: 0/75/0/0 (size/max/drops/flushes); Total output drops: 0
Queueing strategy: fifo
Output queue: 0/40 (size/max)
5 minute input rate 1000 bits/sec, 1 packets/sec
5 minute output rate 5783000 bits/sec, 1391 packets/sec
28786 packets input, 5203940 bytes, 0 no buffer
Received 10049 broadcasts (0 multicasts)
0 runts, 0 giants, 0 throttles
0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored
0 watchdog, 10041 multicast, 0 pause input
0 input packets with dribble condition detected
18929736 packets output, 9769956552 bytes, 0 underruns
0 output errors, 0 collisions, 0 interface resets
0 babbles, 0 late collision, 0 deferred
0 lost carrier, 0 no carrier, 0 PAUSE output
0 output buffer failures, 0 output buffers swapped out

WashingtonSw:

SilverSpring#sh interface fa0/4
FastEthernet0/4 is up, line protocol is up (connected)
Hardware is Fast Ethernet, address is 0015.636d.4084 (bia 0015.636d.4084)
MTU 1500 bytes, BW 100000 Kbit, DLY 100 usec,
reliability 255/255, txload 1/255, rxload 14/255
Encapsulation ARPA, loopback not set
Keepalive set (10 sec)
Full-duplex, 100Mb/s, media type is 100BaseTX
input flow-control is unsupported output flow-control is unsupported
ARP type: ARPA, ARP Timeout 04:00:00
Last input 00:00:01, output 00:00:00, output hang never
Last clearing of "show interface" counters 03:48:50
Input queue: 0/75/0/0 (size/max/drops/flushes); Total output drops: 0
Queueing strategy: fifo
Output queue: 0/40 (size/max)
5 minute input rate 5787000 bits/sec, 1395 packets/sec
5 minute output rate 1000 bits/sec, 2 packets/sec
18826683 packets input, 1128189823 bytes, 0 no buffer
Received 18812105 broadcasts (0 multicast)
0 runts, 0 giants, 0 throttles
0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored
0 watchdog, 18805843 multicast, 0 pause input
0 input packets with dribble condition detected
30035 packets output, 5280058 bytes, 0 underruns
0 output errors, 0 collisions, 0 interface resets
0 babbles, 0 late collision, 0 deferred
0 lost carrier, 0 no carrier, 0 PAUSE output
0 output buffer failures, 0 output buffers swapped out

It to my understanding, that we are receiving the multicast because the above shows 18805843 mpackets. I've tried configuring the both ports as trunks and access ports on vlan 10 with no avail.

Anyone with any suggestion???

Also, why is the value of multicast packets sent from NY not the same as the ones displayed on Washington Sw?

Thanks,

Evan

 

[brianinms]

Is the fiber connection a dark fiber connection or is it metroe or mpls?

 

[mamoser]

I beleive that it's mpls since it's using SONET for transporting the multicast data.

Thanks again brian for looking into this issue. I didn't think that anyone would respond. I'm currently working with the telco and we are trying to determine the problem.

 

[burtsbees]

What exactly is the problem you are having? The dropped packets between the switches? If so, can you send the packets to Ethereal on the Linux box (some have it built in)? Also, are you getting the expected bw between pc's? I don't know if I'd worry too much, if packets aren't being dropped between pc's...what about like VTP or STP traffic? Is it getting dropped as well?

Burt

 

[mamoser]

Thanks burt for following up. I've done packet captures on both ends and noticed weird problems. The packets transmitting from NY are not the same size as the ones arriving in Washington.

I'm currently troubleshooting the problem with the service provider. I believe that the problem resides with them and they finally admited yesterday that they were seing dropped packets.

I changed the setup right now so that I have a pc transmitting on the NY side and one PC receiving on the Washington side. They dispatch people to further look into the issue.

Sincerely,

Evan

 

[burtsbees]

Yeah, I would have suggested to hammer the ISP. I love how they are NEVER at fault...lol

Burt