[j-nsp] Failures in HD-only M7i routers

[Andrew Mulheirn]

Hi - 

This may be due to a known issue:

It is an issue we've had at some of our customers with M7i and M10i routers. It is documented under PSN-2006-06-010.  According to Juniper it is caused by continuous read/write activity on the disk over an extended period - this prevents the hard disk performing its own internal maintenance functions.  The result is usually either the RE locks up, or the router gets stuck in a BIOS boot loop.

The solution is to upgrade to at least 7.2R3, 7.3R3, 7.4R2 or any newer R1 release.  These versions have something Juniper call an "adaptive standby" function, which gives the hard disk some breathing space in order to do its internal stuff.

If you can't see the PSN because you don't have access to Juniper's website, their workaround is similar to yours.  They say to do the following:

1. Power off and wait 5 mins.

2. Boot the router.  When it is up, do a "request system shutdown"

3. When a message about spinning down disks appears on the console, wait 5 mins and reboot.

If you don't do steps 2 and 3, the maintenance functions might not have been done, and the likelihood of this recurring is higher.


Hope this helps,

Andrew 

-----Original Message-----
From: juniper-nsp-bounces at puck.nether.net on behalf of Raniery Pontes
Sent: Fri 28/09/2007 22:02
To: juniper-nsp at puck.nether.net
Subject: [j-nsp] Failures in HD-only M7i routers
 

>the last 12 months, we had an issue with 3 of these M7i´s: they crashed 
>and couldn´t recover "by themselves". These failures happened usually in 
>association to power failures in facilities, and logs also indicate 
>problems when writing to the hard-disk.
>
>After the crash, usually we´ve seen these routers continuously trying to 
>boot from HD, but without success. Then, we had to disconect power, take 
>a breath (it´s serious, about 5 minutes long) and power up the router 
>again. After that, theses routers were able to recover, loading Junos 
>correctly.

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