Multicast Packets Killing Network

[rogerpatel]

Afternoon team, really struggling and need some solid advice.

We are randomly experiencing near enough complete network outages because of end user equipment.  In most cases it’s a copier or printer. It’s a long story but I’ll keep it short.

The network is as below:

Third Floor (core switch)

ISP Internet Router (GATEWAY DEVICE for all 30 vlans)

Stack 1 : 5 x IXC 7150POE, 10gb single link to first floor and Ground Floor Stack

First Floor

6 x ICX 7150, linked using 1gb daisy chain.  Switch 6 has a 10gb to the third floor stack.

Ground Floor

Stack 2 : 5 x IXC 7150POE Switch 5 has a 10gb to the third floor stack.

Description

39 VLans

Each client device port setup as admin edge port and bpdu enabled.

Rstp configured for all vlans.

Internet router stack one port 1/1/1 , 30 access Points,

This is a multi dwelling office for shared clients. Each is a small office maximum 30 devices.  Comprising off wireless and floor ports.  Secured using vlans and DPSK for Wireless.

We do not have control of the floor ports; we cannot offer any mac address registration.

Problem

Ramdomly network ginds to a hault, we can see this is caused by flooding of multicast packets.  Example last night a device (hp printer) sent billions of packets which in turn brought the lan down.  After removing the printer from the network returned to normal after around 20 mins.

Diags

We can see when we ran the command “de” the na_learn was jumping up in hundreds.

Show int e x/x/x shows 1549600 multicast and constantly growing.

So to sum up, a HP MFC printer in one VLAN brought every vlan down!

What can we do to protect or minimise this occurring again.  Please note we have no control in what these offices can do. We also cannot disable any LAN ports.  I’m sure there must be something we can enable on these ICX switches?  Please shout if you need anything more info. 

Cheers in advance!  But I’d love to know what others do to stop multicasting doing this?

[aalvarez6]

Hi Rogerpatel, 

Thank you for sharing the case number with me, it looks like the engineer assigned is working towards an RCA with you. Thank you for using the forum and sharing your questions with us.

Regards,

Ayleth Alvarez
Sr Technical Support Engineer | L2 TAC Wired

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