Dolch PAC65 Xyratex Gig SX Problems

[erivas]

Hello to all,

We purchased a full suite of Network Associates Sniffer Products about 4 years ago, WAN Book, Full Duplex Pod, Dolch PAC 65 with Xyratex Gig Card to the tune of about $60,000. Now we are between a rock and a hard place where I haven't been able to capture traffic with our gigabit Dolch sniffer. Network Associates won't allow me to send the Dolch and Xyratex combo to get it checked and repaired if necessary unless we pay them upfront thousands of dollars to renew support (both software and hardware) dating back to 2001! This posture leaves me a bitter taste in my mouth. Xyratex won't check the card either, they refer me back to NAI.

Wildpackets offers a similar Xyratex gig sniffing solution for about $12,000 (NAI will charge $20,000 for their Xyratex) but they say that their card is custom made and that I can't use the NAI Xyratex card. I am also currently engaging Agilent for their Network Analysis offerings, their sniffing solution seems to be impressive and more flexible than NAI's for it uses hot swappable units, LAN, WAN, Telephony, all on the same device. Their support offering seems to be more sensible and they don't seem to take that hard nosed coersive support posture that NAI has taken. They would still support hardware and repairs if the warranty had lapsed.

Are there any options out there to try to get our NAI/Dolch/Xyratex combo functional again for a reasonable price? Anyone interested in purchasing the Dolch/Xyratex? If so, maybe Bye-bye to NAI and hello Wildpackets or Agilent.


Thanks,


Emil

 

[phaelon56]

If my suspicions are correct, you probably have one of the early generation Xyratex cards. If there's a sticker on it that says "Loopback cable not required", it's one of the newer and more stable cards. If instead, your card is of the generation that needed a loopback cable to connect to SPAN ports, that generation of card was notoriously unreliable - many had problems and had to be replaced.

A few things to check - one is that if you are using it for SPAN port connectivity (as opposed to receiving inline signals from a tap), you may need the loopback cable in place. It's also important to ensure that you have the configuration tabs set correctly for the type of traffic. Check the configuration tab for the card and if using for SPAN connection I think you need to set it for "end station auto-negotiate". IIRC, "end station pass-through" is used when conencting to a tap or going in-line. There was also an "end station idle" choice in one of the earlier software verisons but I believe there were problems using that setting.

Another thing to do is see if someone can provide you with the most up to date drivers for that card. There were some early problems on Gig cards that in some cases were resolved by updating the drivers rather than changing hardware.



Owen O'Neill
Datacom Systems Inc.
Northeastern SE

http://www.datacomsystems.com

 

[erivas]

I believe I have the one that requires the loopback. I tried the loopback (one fiber) on the B-connector pair (pair towards the bottom of the card) to no avail. I have version 4.5 of Sniffer Pro and probably will have difficulty in getting the more updated drivers since neither Xyratex nor NAI will assist. The best I have achieved with the Gig sniffing is the point where I get the message that one of the two links is failing (B mainly), and where the gig link on the cisco 3512 flaps up and down trying to negotiate :-(.

 

[vipergg]

Welcome to the ridiculous world of support from NAI . The support costs and renewals are absolutely ridiculous . We had like 8 sniffer pro boxes and they wanted like $120000 just for support , you read it right $120000 . We are currently looking at other alternatives , one that is a lot more reasonable in cost Expert Observer at networkinstruments.com . The expert observer software is like $2995 for the main console then you run what they call probe software out at the remote sites and the software for that is only $500 . You put this on the equipment of your choice as long as it meets the minimum requirements . Licensing fees per year is about 1/3 the price of the software , a "LOT" cheaper than NAI . This product has gotten nothing but great review from a lot of pc and networking magazines , you should check it out if you are looking for alternatives , you could get a whole new setup for the price of 1 year of support from NAI .

 

[phaelon56]

I assume that you have checked for correct Rx/Tx orientation of the connctor pairs? IIRC, the connector pairs are oriented vertically on the Gig card - one above the other. If the notch or "key" on the female connector in the card the is pointing to the right, the RX is the lower connector. If that notch is pointing to the left the Rx is the upper one of the SC pair. On the Cisco switch the key should be facing downwards and the Rx will be on the left side of the pair.

You're connecting for SPAN so the cables need to be "rolled" so that Rx goes to Tx etc. I apologize if I'm covering something that seems to rudimentary but when I do support sometimes the most basic things get overlooked.

Having established that cabling is correct, now check the Gigabit configuration tab for the card and ensure that it's set to "Autonegotiate". If this doesn't help, send me an email at phaelon56 at yahoo dot com and I'l see if I can find an appropriate driver to send you as a zipfile.


Owen O'Neill
Datacom Systems Inc.
Northeastern SE

http://www.datacomsystems.com