Configuring ICX 6430-24 for media streaming?

[brian_hiatt_529]

Hi Folks,

I'm very new at this, and Ethernet is not in my "day job".  I just got my first managed switch, a used/surplus ICX6430-24.  I used it to upgrade a un-managed 10/100 switch that had been in place for 10+ years and was hoping to enjoy the benefits of manageability and 1Gig speeds.  So far, its just given me headaches.

I've tried to read as much as I can before posting this, but I'm just not well versed in the newer ethernet standards to keep up and understand all of it, so I'm hoping someone here might be able to help.

My 6430-24 is running the ICX64S08030sa code image.

I've got 3 DirecTV devices (HR-24, HR-22, H-23) all connected to this 6430-24 for Multi-Room Viewing (streaming a recorded show off of one receiver over to the other).  When using the 10/100 switch that's been in place for years, everything works fine.  As soon as I swapped in the 6430-24 things went wrong.  Now the Multi-Room viewing is basically unwatchable as I'll get 3 to 5 seconds of picture with audio, then a 30 to 60 second freeze, and then some picture with no audio.  Then it syncs up for about 3 to 5 seconds, and the cycle repeats.

I'm assuming I'm loosing ethernet frames somewhere and that the DirecTV receivers don't ask for re-transmission of the lost frames due to performance reasons.  I'm looking for some help in 6430-24 tuning to see if I can fix this up.  My PC's, DVD Players, X-Box 360, and Wii can all stream Netflix, Amazon Video, and YouTube just fine, so what ever the issue is its just affecting the DirectTV receivers.  

Things I've tried so far (none of which have made a difference)

1. Reset the 6430-24 switch to factory defaults and loaded latest firmware (8.0.30sa)
2. Locked the ports to 100 Full duplex for the 3 ports connected to the DirectTV Receivers
3. Enabled 802.1q rapid spanning tree and designated the 3 ports connected to the DirecTV receivers as Admin-Edge-Ports to avoid any spanning tree learning (since the HR-22 has a built in switch in it)
4. Moved the 3 DirecTV ports on the switch into the Highest QOS level (qos6).
5. Moved all other ports into the lowest QOS level (qos0).
6. Increased the global buffers and queue descriptors
7. Increased the qos6 level's buffers and queue descriptors
8. Switched into Fully Synchronous Flow Control (which disabled the buffer tuning in steps 5 and 6 above)
9. Verified that the 3 ports connected to the DirecTV receivers are not generating any errors.
10. Run the built in TDR functionality of the switch on all 3 DirecTV connected ports.  No cable faults were found.
11. Switched to different ports on the 6430-24.
12. Run a very long Cat6 patch cable directly from the 6430 to the DirecTV boxes to bypass all of my patch panels, in wall wiring, etc.

I'm running Cat5e inside the walls, with Cat5e keystone jacks, or patch panels (depending on the end of the in wall cable) and Cat6 Patch Cables.  The same cables work without issue if I switch back to the no name 10/100 switch (but I do recognize that 1G uses all 4 pairs, and 10/100 only uses 2 pairs).

I don't think I'm doing anything "exotic" with the 6430 that would put a high load on it causing it to drop frames.  Memory is only 61% used, and the CPU utilization only shows 1%.

Does anyone have any experience on running media streaming applications over 6430 switches that could point me in right direction on how to "tune up" or configure them for best performance? 

I'll happily supply any needed data/outputs if requested.

Thanks in advance! --Brian

[bruce_rupprecht]

ps - even tho we use our  switch as a L2 device, we run the router code on it also. 

[brian_hiatt_529]

Hi NetWizz and BruceR,

What version on code are you running, We add issues with multicast until we updated. 

I'm running 8.0.30sa code. 

compiled on Aug 31 2018 at 06:20:59 labeled as ICX64S08030sa
                (8559140 bytes) from Primary ICX64S08030sa.bin
        SW: Version 08.0.30saT311

ps - even tho we use our  switch as a L2 device, we run the router code on it also. 

As this is a ICX 6430 device I can only run the switch L2 code on it.

Have you verified the network cabling will run a 1 Gbps?

The cabling supports 1Gig networking.  I have attached other devices to these cables and ports and had no issues.

Also, can you set the devices to auto speed and duplex and the switch to auto speed and duplex and test that?

I have tried with the auto speed negotiation enabled.  I have no control over the device settings, but the devices are only 10/100 capable.

Please post a "show int e 1/1/1" or whatever interface you have the device(s) connected.  I want to see if there are any errors such as CRC errors.

Here's the requested show interface output:  There are some CRC errors shown, they are not increasing and only showed up when I was plugging/unplugging cables.

SSH@ICX6430-24 Switch#show int e 1/1/7
GigabitEthernet1/1/7 is up, line protocol is up
  Port up for 4 day(s) 21 hour(s) 20 minute(s) 32 second(s)
  Hardware is GigabitEthernet, address is 748e.f8f3.f5a6 (bia 748e.f8f3.f5a6)
  Configured speed 100Mbit, actual 100Mbit, configured duplex fdx, actual fdx
  Configured mdi mode AUTO, actual MDI
  Member of L2 VLAN ID 1, port is untagged, port state is FORWARDING
  BPDU guard is Disabled, ROOT protect is Disabled, Designated protect is Disabled
  Link Error Dampening is Disabled
  STP configured to ON, priority is level6, mac-learning is enabled
  Flow Control is config enabled, oper disabled, negotiation disabled
  Mirror disabled, Monitor disabled
  Mac-notification is disabled
  Not member of any active trunks
  Not member of any configured trunks
  Port name is Garage DirecTV
  Inter-Packet Gap (IPG) is 96 bit times
  MTU 1500 bytes
  300 second input rate: 216 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec, 0.00% utilization
  300 second output rate: 2800 bits/sec, 2 packets/sec, 0.00% utilization
  348586 packets input, 44296744 bytes, 0 no buffer
  Received 623 broadcasts, 115459 multicasts, 232504 unicasts
  1463 input errors, 30 CRC, 0 frame, 0 ignored
  0 runts, 0 giants
  3219885 packets output, 524116688 bytes, 0 underruns
  Transmitted 644876 broadcasts, 2302170 multicasts, 272839 unicasts
  0 output errors, 0 collisions
  Relay Agent Information option: Disabled
SSH@ICX6430-24 Switch#show int e 1/1/10
GigabitEthernet1/1/10 is up, line protocol is up
  Port up for 1 day(s) 23 hour(s) 10 minute(s) 26 second(s)
  Hardware is GigabitEthernet, address is 748e.f8f3.f5a9 (bia 748e.f8f3.f5a9)
  Configured speed 100Mbit, actual 100Mbit, configured duplex fdx, actual fdx
  Configured mdi mode AUTO, actual MDI
  Member of L2 VLAN ID 1, port is untagged, port state is FORWARDING
  BPDU guard is Disabled, ROOT protect is Disabled, Designated protect is Disabled
  Link Error Dampening is Disabled
  STP configured to ON, priority is level6, mac-learning is enabled
  Flow Control is config enabled, oper disabled, negotiation disabled
  Mirror disabled, Monitor disabled
  Mac-notification is disabled
  Not member of any active trunks
  Not member of any configured trunks
  Port name is MBR DirecTV
  Inter-Packet Gap (IPG) is 96 bit times
  MTU 1500 bytes
  300 second input rate: 1968 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec, 0.00% utilization
  300 second output rate: 2536 bits/sec, 2 packets/sec, 0.00% utilization
  1558721 packets input, 654983116 bytes, 0 no buffer
  Received 3244 broadcasts, 163398 multicasts, 1392079 unicasts
  10020 input errors, 4342 CRC, 0 frame, 0 ignored
  0 runts, 0 giants
  3727218 packets output, 741451046 bytes, 0 underruns
  Transmitted 642238 broadcasts, 2254112 multicasts, 830868 unicasts
  0 output errors, 0 collisions
  Relay Agent Information option: Disabled
SSH@ICX6430-24 Switch#show int e 2/1/3
GigabitEthernet2/1/3 is up, line protocol is up
  Port up for 1 hour(s) 36 minute(s) 59 second(s)
  Hardware is GigabitEthernet, address is 748e.f8f2.75a2 (bia 748e.f8f2.75a2)
  Configured speed 100Mbit, actual 100Mbit, configured duplex fdx, actual fdx
  Configured mdi mode AUTO, actual MDI
  Member of L2 VLAN ID 1, port is untagged, port state is FORWARDING
  BPDU guard is Disabled, ROOT protect is Disabled, Designated protect is Disabled
  Link Error Dampening is Disabled
  STP configured to ON, priority is level6, mac-learning is enabled
  Flow Control is config enabled, oper disabled, negotiation disabled
  Mirror disabled, Monitor disabled
  Mac-notification is disabled
  Not member of any active trunks
  Not member of any configured trunks
  Port name is Den DirecTV
  Inter-Packet Gap (IPG) is 96 bit times
  MTU 1500 bytes
  300 second input rate: 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec, 0.00% utilization
  300 second output rate: 2904 bits/sec, 2 packets/sec, 0.00% utilization
  2646586 packets input, 651241610 bytes, 0 no buffer
  Received 3723 broadcasts, 162076 multicasts, 2480787 unicasts
  89254 input errors, 26757 CRC, 0 frame, 0 ignored
  0 runts, 0 giants
  5918403 packets output, 4209631338 bytes, 0 underruns
  Transmitted 641753 broadcasts, 2255586 multicasts, 3021064 unicasts
  0 output errors, 0 collisions
  Relay Agent Information option: Disabled

[netwizz]

This is screaming a Speed/Duplex issue.

You configured speed-duplex 100-full on the interface itself.  The problem is the other end has to be manually set exactly the same to use that.  If it is set to auto/auto and the switch 100-full that doesn't work.

I realize this takes you back to back out of the box, but what if you do a "no speed-duplex"


Here is the problem:

10020 input errors, 4342 CRC

89254 input errors, 26757 CRC

I believe each one of those errors is a dropped/discarded frame.

To check if it is counting up, clear the statistics and then do a show interface to see if the number is growing.

Here is the command:
clear statistics ethernet 1/1x


I hope you can set the devices and the switch to auto/auto as if that is set on both ends it should work fine.  Otherwise, if you have it hard set, it needs to be the same on both ends.


I am running the L2 firmware except where we do routing, but we are running the exact same code 08.0.80sa, and it is perfectly fine.

Here is an example of 40 days uptime and no errors..: in over 27 Gigabytes!

GigabitEthernet1/1/3 is up, line protocol is up
  Port up for 40 day(s) 19 hour(s) 1 minute(s) 9 second(s)
  Hardware is GigabitEthernet, address is 748e.f8c0.af22 (bia 748e.f8c0.af22)
  Configured speed auto, actual 1Gbit, configured duplex fdx, actual fdx
  Configured mdi mode AUTO, actual MDI
  Member of 4 L2 VLANs, port is dual mode in Vlan 144, port state is FORWARDING
  BPDU guard is Disabled, ROOT protect is Disabled, Designated protect is Disabled
  Link Error Dampening is Disabled
  STP configured to ON, priority is level0, mac-learning is enabled
  Flow Control is config enabled, oper enabled, negotiation disabled
  Mirror disabled, Monitor disabled
  Mac-notification is disabled
  Not member of any active trunks
  Not member of any configured trunks
  No port name
  Inter-Packet Gap (IPG) is 96 bit times
  MTU 1500 bytes
  300 second input rate: 120 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec, 0.00% utilization
  300 second output rate: 96512 bits/sec, 104 packets/sec, 0.00% utilization
  545559 packets input, 90154858 bytes, 0 no buffer
  Received 5 broadcasts, 117477 multicasts, 428077 unicasts
  0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 ignored
  0 runts, 0 giants
  309246543 packets output, 27237976953 bytes, 0 underruns
  Transmitted 52940371 broadcasts, 255794928 multicasts, 511244 unicasts
  0 output errors, 0 collisions
  Relay Agent Information option: Disabled


I have another switch that has an uptime of 31 days with 0 CRC errors and this this much data went through... Not a single error in over 5 TB of data!  In contrast you barely squeezed 4 GB through.

  300 second input rate: 56586032 bits/sec, 7264 packets/sec, 0.57% utilization
  300 second output rate: 9689320 bits/sec, 3568 packets/sec, 0.09% utilization
  6591468807 packets input, 5461881553119 bytes, 0 no buffer
  Received 0 broadcasts, 524934 multicasts, 6590936960 unicasts
  0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 ignored
  0 runts, 0 giants
  3470716527 packets output, 1184322086689 bytes, 0 underruns
  Transmitted 33675 broadcasts, 2419215 multicasts, 3468260454 unicasts
  0 output errors, 0 collisions

[brian_hiatt_529]

In the 2 hours since the last post, the errors haven't gone up.
But I've cleared them.
I thought it was a speed duplex issue as well, which is why I attempted to lock the port at 100 full.  

I seem to have the following options for speed/duplex settings:

SSH@ICX6430-24 Switch(config-if-e1000-1/1/7)#speed-duplex
  10-full            10M, full duplex
  10-half            10M, half duplex
  100-full           100M, full duplex
  100-half           100M, half duplex
  1000-full-master   1G, full duplex, master
  1000-full-slave    1G, full duplex, slave
  10g-full           10G, full duplex
  auto               Autonegotiation

I know Auto didn't work right (I have the video drop out issue).  100-full didn't seem to help.
10 and the *-half settings didn't make sense, and I don't have 10G hardware.

I've put it back to auto, and cleared stats for you.
I'll kick off a streaming job from 2/1/3 to 1/1/10 and just let it run for an hour or 2 .so you can get some data numbers.  Its mostly idle, so its not surprising there isn't data flowing.