[c-nsp] High ESMP value for 4006 CPU

[Amol Sapkal]

Hi all,

Here's an interesting problem that I came across on one of my 4006's.

------------------------------
SWITCH#sh proc cpu sorted
CPU utilization for five seconds: 58%/1%; one minute: 20%; five minutes: 18%
 PID Runtime(ms)   Invoked      uSecs   5Sec   1Min   5Min TTY Process
  28  1137757060 936939968       1214* 43.03%  6.73%  5.48%   0 Cat4k Mgmt
LoPri*
  27  2148680476 419997595       5115 11.11% 10.84% 10.71%   0 Cat4k Mgmt
HiPri


Cisco says, a high 'Cat4k LoPri' indicates that packets are being
process-switched (58%/1% indicates the same)

Now, on running a cpu packet statistics, I get this:

SWITCH#sh platform cpu packet statistics
--cut--

Packets Received by Packet Queue

Queue                  Total           5 sec avg 1 min avg 5 min avg 1 hour
avg
---------------------- --------------- --------- --------- ---------
----------
*Esmp                        2783535625       118       119       118
118*
Control                      122376210         7         7
7          7
Host Learning                 13976079         0         0
0          0
L2 Fwd Low                    96492617         7         7
7          8
L3 Rx High                      100616         0         0
0          0
L3 Rx Low                      2167446         0         0
0          0
ACL fwd(snooping)            314400304        23        22        22
24
--cut--

ESMP stands for Even Simple Management Protocol. Documentation says that
these are control packets sent to the CPU. Anyone here has more information
on this? My switch goes upto 95% utilization (cat4k mgmt loPri eats most of
it).

About the switch:
IOS: 12.2(18)EW4
Ports: Gig ports for connectivity to servers (ports are bundled and connect
to servers)
Spanning tree: enabled
Port-fast: not enabled
Switch is doing L2 (only configured with a management IP)

Can anyone let me know what does ESMP exactly do? I would like to reduce the
CPU utilization.






-- 
Warm regards,

Amol Sapkal

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