Re: Multicast Issue FINALLY solved, Network Voodoo

From: Bob Sinclair (bsinclair@netmasterclass.net)
Date: Mon Dec 05 2005 - 14:20:42 GMT-3


Hi Curt,

We have seen that some Cisco Ethernet controllers will respond only to link
local multicasts (224.0.0.x). If you do show controller you will see they
have a multicast mask different from controllers that work normally. Not only
will they not respond, they will not send. It does seem to be a manufacturing
issue. We can sometimes work around this by encapsulating the link ISL.

HTH,

Bob Sinclair
CCIE #10427, CCSI 30427
www.netmasterclass.net

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Curt Girardin
  To: ccielab@groupstudy.com
  Sent: Monday, December 05, 2005 11:38 AM
  Subject: Multicast Issue FINALLY solved, Network Voodoo

  Hi Group,

  THE PROBLEM:

  I've been having a weird multicast problem for many months that think
  I've finally solved today, so I thought I'd share it with you in case
  anyone else has ran into the same problem.

  I'm running my own home lab, which consists of four 3640's, two 2621's,
  and two 3550's. I've been working on the NMC labs and have the EXACT
  same IOS as they use, and I occasionally find myself wrapped up in a
  seemingly unsolvable multicast issue for hours at a time.

  The issue was that a non-multicast-enabled router sending pings to some
  multicast group, for example 225.5.5.5 (today I'm working on doitversion
  2, lab 1 - router 5), would never yeild any replies from the other
  routers. The upstream multicast-enabled router would never "hear" the
  ping packets (I did a debug on each side) and never create state for
  this source. After double-checking the NMC answer-key and checking the
  NMC Show-IT engine, I have usually decided that the problem was caused
  by what I call "Network VooDoo".

  The problem I had with the explanation of "Network VooDoo" was that the
  issue was able to survive a re-boot of all the equipment. Furthermore,
  if I reconfigured my lab to "igmp join-group" any group in the range of
  224-239.0.0.x (as long as the middle two octects were both 0), and sent
  a ping to that group from the non-multicast router, everything would
  work fine.

  So what is it that this non-multicast-enabled router didn't like about
  the middle two octects being non-zero? Does it have problems
  translating the IP address to a layer-2 Mac address? Is it more
  forgiving with the middle two octects being zero because many routing
  protocols use 224.0.0.x? Who knows?

  THE SOLUTION:

  Today I ran into the same problem, so after rebooting a couple times,
  trying to configure R5 with different combinations of ip
  multicast-routing, pim dense-mode, and igmp join-group, I decided to
  take a quick visual. I noticed that the fastethernet0/0 interface was
  one of those older-looking PRI/T1-type combo network modules.
  Specifically it was an NM-1FE1CT1. I swapped it out with another one
  just like it and powered everything back on, removed all
  multicast-related config from R5, and it now works great and receives
  all the ping replies to 225.5.5.5.

  I'm not sure if this is a problem with my "revision" of this network
  module, or if mine is just broken. In either case I don't trust these
  cards very much anymore and I think I'll be going to ebay to find some
  newer, better cards.

  Here is the info on the working and non-working card. The non-working
  card has an older hardware revision, so it might have been a problem
  with just this hardware-revision. Has anyone else ran into similar
  issues? Should I just replace the non-working card? or all three of my
  NM-1FE1CT1 cards?

  Thanks,

  Curt

  Working card:
  Slot 0:
          Fast-ethernet, CT1 Port adapter, 2 ports
          Port adapter is analyzed
          Port adapter insertion time unknown
          EEPROM contents at hardware discovery:
          Hardware revision 1.1 Board revision C0
          Serial number 11973765 Part number 800-03502-03
          FRU Part Number NM-1FE1CT1=
          Test history 0x0 RMA number 00-00-00
          EEPROM format version 1
          EEPROM contents (hex):
            0x00: 01 86 01 01 00 B6 B4 85 50 0D AE 03 00 00 00 00
            0x10: 60 00 00 00 99 01 20 00 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
            0x20: FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
            0x30: FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF

  NON-working card:
  Slot 0:
          Fast-ethernet, CT1 Port adapter, 2 ports
          Port adapter is analyzed
          Port adapter insertion time unknown
          EEPROM contents at hardware discovery:
          Hardware revision 1.0 Board revision A0
          Serial number 9895647 Part number 800-03502-01
          FRU Part Number NM-1FE1CT1=
          Test history 0x0 RMA number 00-00-00
          EEPROM format version 1
          EEPROM contents (hex):
            0x00: 01 86 01 00 00 96 FE DF 50 0D AE 01 00 00 00 00
            0x10: 50 06 A1 00 98 09 28 00 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
            0x20: FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
            0x30: FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF

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