We are running a 6509 switch with dual sup 720 module and a 48 gig port module. It is our main networking device. All devices are in the same vlan. The issue we are seeing is deathly slow file transfers over the network. The input rate is 10 packets/second and the output rate is 2 packets/second. Any ideas what the cause of this could be?

Have you done any packet captures?? What is the CPU usage?? Is this affecting all file transfers or just certain ones between certain endpoints?? Any interface errors??

yes do a e.g show interface fastethernet 0/1

Check usual stuff like duplex, and speed on either side of the link. Also, if it's optical fibre, check connections and if there's a fibre media converter that can sometimes cause problems. I suppose you need to tell us more about your connections so that we can help you.

Cheers,

Fisher

It's all just paper cups and bits of string!!!!!!!!!

CCNA, CCDA, ACIS - Implement IP Office, ACSS - Implement IP Office, Convergence + etc...

I'll put money on it being either STP related or duplex mismatches...

You need to post more information as the make-up of the network and what other devices are connected to the 6500 - you say

Quote:

our main networking device

but fail to mention what other networking devices you have.

Andy

I don't think even duplex mismatches would produce those kind of numbers . Really can't believe something like that is a switch issue .

"The input rate is 10 packets/second and the output rate is 2 packets/second. "

Sounds to me like basically nothing's happening.
Duplex mismatch slows down a file transfer by increasing the amount of retransmits - port utilisation goes *up*, not down.

Sounds something like a high-latency link (like, 1000ms+) with poorly-configured windowing on the hosts.

Main_Switch#sh int vlan1
Vlan1 is up, line protocol is up
Hardware is EtherSVI, address is 0006.d67d.280a (bia 0006.d67d.280a)
Internet address is 10.0.23.190/16
MTU 1500 bytes, BW 1000000 Kbit, DLY 10 usec,
reliability 255/255, txload 1/255, rxload 1/255
Encapsulation ARPA, loopback not set
ARP type: ARPA, ARP Timeout 04:00:00
Last input 00:00:00, output 00:00:00, output hang never
Last clearing of "show interface" counters never
Input queue: 0/75/0/0 (size/max/drops/flushes); Total output drops: 0
Queueing strategy: fifo
Output queue: 0/40 (size/max)
5 minute input rate 14000 bits/sec, 19 packets/sec
5 minute output rate 2000 bits/sec, 4 packets/sec
L2 Switched: ucast: 11142153651 pkt, 10269335978541 bytes - mcast: 14482485 pk
t, 1282164761 bytes
L3 in Switched: ucast: 0 pkt, 0 bytes - mcast: 10 pkt, 1368 bytes mcast
L3 out Switched: ucast: 0 pkt, 0 bytes
15056281 packets input, 1334134707 bytes, 0 no buffer
Received 15043899 broadcasts (996422 IP multicast)
0 runts, 0 giants, 0 throttles
0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored
14775 packets output, 1111660 bytes, 0 underruns
0 output errors, 0 interface resets
0 output buffer failures, 0 output buffers swapped out

This is the central switch on a flat network. I have 8 3524xl catalyst switches at satellite sites no mor than 500 yard with multimode fiber connecting them. It just appears to me that the input for an entire vlan with 40 users in this switch would be higher.

Jim Rapier
"Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy a big ass boat and you can sail right up to it." - Johnny Depp

What does the specification of input rate of x mean, is this usable information?

Jim Rapier
"Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy a big ass boat and you can sail right up to it." - Johnny Depp

Those input rates indicate that virtually no traffic is being passed.

As there are no errors on the interface, you can conclude that this switchport is receiving a very, very small amount of traffic with 100% success.

You are showing the logical VLAN SVI here and not any physical interfaces. If all you have is VLAN 1 and your devices are all layer-2 adjacent then the traffic isn't hitting the VLAN SVI its just being switched at layer-2 so the counters won't be incrementing. Use the same command and show two physical interfaces (i.e. interface GigabitEthernet3/1 etc).

Andy

This makes sense now. So the counters are relative to the amount of data as opposed to the speed of said data. I have shut of spanning tree and file transfer speed seems to have increased. I appreciate all of the help.

Jim Rapier
"Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy a big ass boat and you can sail right up to it." - Johnny Depp

OK, so you have disabled STP on the 6500 and things have improved? Were the slow speeds between sites or just local? It seems to me like you have a loop in your network and probably one of the 3500XLs is root and therefore you have suboptimal paths? Its a bit difficult to say without seeing the topology and the configurations. Just disabling STP isn't really a fix and will likely cause you more issues....

Andy

I agree with your statement ADB, but our topology is just a star. There are no redundant connections. All connections are fiber, GBIC to GBIC, one per satellite switch. I also suspect a looping packet but cannot seem to find one when sniffing. I am working to educate myself on using wireshark properly to possible find the erroneous packet. Is STP necessary without redundant connections?

Jim Rapier
"Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy a big ass boat and you can sail right up to it." - Johnny Depp

Just because your switch uplinks aren't looped, doesn't mean someone couldn't have looped two ports together or some faulty nic teaming configuration.

Not sure if you have layer 3 capability, but a quick way to check for loops is to ping end devices and if the TTL expires quickly then you have a loop......

chieftan,
Can you elaborate on that, I dont't have more than two hops to any end device, what would decrement the ttl?

Jim Rapier
"Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy a big ass boat and you can sail right up to it." - Johnny Depp