topic RE: C35 premature failures in ExtremeWireless (Identifi)

C35 premature failures

Hennes_Hoffmann — Tue, 07 Mar 2017 22:42:00 GMT

Having experienced two premature failures of C35 units, I am wondering, especially after the recent coverage of the Atom C2xxx issue, if more problems are on the way? Has extreme observed unusually high failure rates (my personal experience is a clear yes, 50% in 18 months) and are there plans how to tackle this?

Thanks

RE: C35 premature failures

Rajesh_Jeevendr — Wed, 08 Mar 2017 08:14:00 GMT

Hi Hennes

Sorry about the inconvenience faced.
Could you provide more details for Premature failures.
Do you observe any logs related to this issue.

Regards
Rajesh

RE: C35 premature failures

Hennes_Hoffmann — Wed, 08 Mar 2017 15:13:00 GMT

Hi Rajesh,

As far as I understand it, these failures come out of the blue. The C2718 in the C35 is - at least potentially - affected. The two failures we experienced came without prior indication. Something I noticed: Looking at the reports via the web gui, I see a cpu utilisation of 7.xx - suggesting something close to 100% on an eight core system, looking at the system state via the shell I get some top-style display showing 99% idle?

Thanks,
Hennes

RE: C35 premature failures

Drew_C — Wed, 08 Mar 2017 22:23:00 GMT

Hi Hennes,
I expect to have more information to share on this subject in a few hours.

RE: C35 premature failures

Drew_C — Thu, 09 Mar 2017 05:03:00 GMT

Please take a look at these two articles. We will be sending a notification and I'll post that here when it goes out.

FN-415: WS-C35 (30135) WLAN Appliance may fail due to degradation of a clock signal
If you have trouble with the FAQ link in the above article, you can access it here: WS-C35 Clock Issue - FAQ

RE: C35 premature failures

Hennes_Hoffmann — Thu, 09 Mar 2017 15:35:00 GMT

Thanks for that. The originally shipped 35s are 5As, the replacements were 5Ds, so all well below 5J. We run two redundant setups (=4 C35), but given the sudden nature of the failures and the possible strain on getting replacements, what would be your advice? Giving up on redundancy and safe two units offline keeping them as cold spares until the equipment gets replaced?

RE: C35 premature failures

Ronald_Dvorak — Thu, 09 Mar 2017 15:35:00 GMT

I'd leave the pair running - if one should fail let's say tomorrow then RMA the unit, should be done in 24hours.

RE: C35 premature failures

Hennes_Hoffmann — Thu, 09 Mar 2017 15:35:00 GMT

24hours? Maybe in the US? Despite a 24/7 service contract (Diamond Partner)we waited Friday to Monday to receive a previous generation controller as a cold spare (not sufficiently compatible to run paired). I believe it was almost three weeks after we got the proper replacement, which unfortunately turned out to be NOS.

RE: C35 premature failures

Ronald_Dvorak — Thu, 09 Mar 2017 15:35:00 GMT

Sorry, yes I mean next business day which is Monday if you open the ticket on Friday.

What is a "previous generation controller " - was it a C35 and why was it not able to pair with the running one.

RE: C35 premature failures

Hennes_Hoffmann — Thu, 09 Mar 2017 15:35:00 GMT

Can't remember exactly, but no, it wasn't a C35, instead some four digit monster (52xx?), about twice as deep as the C35, hence it wouldn't even fit in our rack. At that point we concluded that it might be a bit to easy to get the diamond badge as a EN partner...

RE: C35 premature failures

Ronald_Dvorak — Thu, 09 Mar 2017 20:33:00 GMT

I'm pretty sure that Extreme knows exactly which boxes are affected and who bought them.
So how about Extreme checks the database and informs affected partners/customers.

Because my boss doesn't like the idea that I make a road trip thru the whole country just to check a sticker on the bottom of every unit that we've sold.

Regarding the FAQ - what if I don't contact Extreme till June 9th ?

RE: C35 premature failures

Weidle__Bert — Sat, 11 Mar 2017 00:36:00 GMT

Regarding your last question. Extreme will honor replacement requests after June 9. we are asking customers to submit before that date when possible to assist with quantity planning and distribution logistics.

The earlier questions are addressed in Field Notice 415

Please let us know if there are more questions.