[nsp] 7200, 12.0(21)S4 and "show int" counters?

[Pekka Savola]

On Wed, 21 Aug 2002, Gert Doering wrote:
> is it just me, or has Cisco engineering reached a new all-time high in
> "show int" counter brokenness?

Don't count on it.

This almost wins my favoourite:

ATM0/0/0 is up, line protocol is up
  Hardware is cyBus ENHANCED ATM PA, address is 0010.2fcc.6800 (bia 0010.2fcc.6
  [...]
  5 minute output rate 1014029704 bits/sec, 1682 packets/sec
  [...]

It's nice to know STM1 ATM managed to accelerate to 1 Gbit/s.. and big 
packets those are, too! :-)

(This was fixed, at least for currently, somewhere between 12.0(15) and 
12.0(17)).
 
> I just upgraded one of our 7200s to 12.0(21)S4 to get some of the S2/S3
> bugfixes plus the "E3/T3 adapters don't work" bugfix S3->S4.
> 
> The good news: the T3 PA works fine (PA-2T3).
> 
> The bad news: the "show int" output counters are finally and completely
> broken - they don't hang eventually (as in earlier releases), but they 
> don't count *at all* anymore.  Or to be precise, they count "something"
> but that has no relation to reality.
> 
> Look at this:
> 
> Cisco-M-XII#sh int p4/0
> POS4/0 is up, line protocol is up 
>   Hardware is Packet over Sonet
> [..]
>   Last input 00:00:00, output 00:00:00, output hang never
>   Last clearing of "show interface" counters never
> [..]
>   5 minute input rate 8321000 bits/sec, 1341 packets/sec
>   5 minute output rate 2838000 bits/sec, 638 packets/sec
>      513382 packets input, 396467799 bytes, 0 no buffer
>      Received 0 broadcasts, 0 runts, 0 giants, 0 throttles
>               0 parity
>      18 input errors, 18 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored, 0 abort
>      28 packets output, 2658 bytes, 0 underruns
>      0 output errors, 0 applique, 2 interface resets
>      0 output buffer failures, 0 output buffers swapped out
>      0 carrier transitions
> Cisco-M-XII#sh int p4/0 acc
>                 Protocol    Pkts In   Chars In   Pkts Out  Chars Out
>                       IP     518490  400148237     237198  136223697
>                      CDP          7       2457          6       2130
> 
> I'm amazed.  How difficult can it be to implement interface counters
> that actually count what's being sent out of the interface, and do so 
> *correctly* and *all the time*?  This is broken since 11.2P, and I
> tend to give up hope that it will *EVER* be fixed.  
> 
> (Yes, some sort of bug fix went into 12.0(22)S, but I'm not going to
> touch *that* can of worms)
> 
> It would be so easy - just return the SNMP counters minus a correction 
> value that is saved when you type "clear counter int ..." - as the SNMP 
> counters are (mostly) correct.
> 
> Did I mention that the SNMP values for "5 minute ... rate" differ up to
> 20% from the "show int" values for the same rate?  I have no idea how
> they managed *that*. 
> 
> thoroughly annoyed,
> 
> gert
> 
> 

-- 
Pekka Savola                 "Tell me of difficulties surmounted,
Netcore Oy                   not those you stumble over and fall"
Systems. Networks. Security.  -- Robert Jordan: A Crown of Swords