Sun SPARC Enterprise T2000 Server
 

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This document is part of resolution path <Document: 1012870.1> Troubleshooting Common Jumpstart Problems: "Timeout waiting for ARP/RARP packet"  

Cable tester

A cable tester is one of the quickest and easiest ways to check a cable, and it's connections through patch boards to the target switch. If one is available, connect the tester to each end of the cable, and verify that the cable has connectivity through all 8 pins.

It's also a good idea to slightly bend / stress the cable in the headshell of the connector whilst the tester is attached, as it is common for 'self made' cables to make a good connection when the wire is straight into the back of the headshell, but breaks the connection when the cable is bent under the weight of the hanging cable.

If any failure of the cable is noted, either when plugged in, or when being stressed, the cable should be replaced with one that does not exhibit these issues.

For hosts that are not yet running an OS, for example a new installation

Examine the network ports on the client, the server, as well as those on the network switch, to make sure the Link/Act LEDs  are lit up when the systems are powered on.

On SPARC[R] systems, we can watch individual interfaces to see if they have a connection and can 'see' the network. At the OBP prompt on the client, use the "watch-net-all"  command to test and see the network devices.

The following example is taken from Sun Fire[TM] T1000/T2000 server:

{0} ok watch-net-all

/pci@7c0/pci@0/network@4,1

1000 Mbps full duplex  Link up

Looking for Ethernet Packets.

'.' is a Good Packet.  'X' is a Bad Packet.

Type any key to stop.

.................................................

/pci@7c0/pci@0/network@4

Timed out waiting for Autonegotiation to complete

Check cable and try again

Link Down

/pci@7c0/pci@0/pci@8/network@1,1

Timed out waiting for Autonegotiation to complete

Check cable and try again

Link Down

/pci@7c0/pci@0/pci@8/network@1

Timed out waiting for Autonegotiation to complete

Check cable and try again

Link Down

{0} ok

Here /pci@7c0/pci@0/network@4,1 is shown with network connectivity. All other ports are not connected to the network.

If we were attempting, for example, to boot from the network, /p ci@7c0/pci@0/network@4,1 would be the interface we would select to boot from.

For hosts that are already running Solaris[TM] Operating System or another OS capable or 'watching' the network

Use the system-appropriate commands to watch the interface, to ensure that packets are being seen on the network.

Examples include:

Linux - tcpdump

Solaris Operating System - snoop

Windows - windump (Not included with Windows)

Once physical connectivity has been established, the interface can be observed for errors. Solaris Operating System provides the kstat interface for this type of monitoring.

For example, to watch e1000g0's interface statistics, on an e1000g interface, one would use the following:

# kstat -m e1000g -i 0 5

and monitor statistics such as collisions, alignment errors. If these error counters are increasing on a switched network, it would indicate that further investigation is warranted. The most likely cause of such issues would be a bad cable, or incorrect switch settings. Replace the cable, ensure the switch is set to auto-negotiate and re-test.

See also <Document: 1003135.1> Ethernet Error Checking for further details on how to interpret some of the kstat statistics.

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