>From: Mikko Lahti <makko at cygate.fi>
>
>Our customer has a problem with Max20's crashing frequently.  Does someone
>have experience of similar problems before?  Or, can someone give 
>advice how to find out what makes the boxes to crash?

IME, the following makes the DSL Max 20/DSL Terminator 100 unstable:
1. Flapping profiles (cause crashes).
2. RADIUS Authentication (various problems, including crashes).
3. OSPF (can cause Ethernet to go deaf).
4. Physical disconnect of DS-3 (fixed in 8.0.3).
5. Turning them on. ;-)

>They have some dozens of Max20's, equipped with either one or two SDSL-16
>cards.  Most of the Max20's crash frequently.  After a crash, a power reset is
>needed to get the box up and running again.  Some of the boxes crash very
>frequently, up to 4 or 5 times a day.  The software level is 7.10.6.

They almost always come up again after a crash, IME. Only once or 
twice I've seen routing be flaky and I had to reset again.

Have you tried fsave, nvramclear?

>Things that seem to affect the probability to crash:
>- - Number of SDSL cards in the box.
>    Boxes with two cards crash more frequently.
>    However, boxes with only one SDSL card crash also,
>    but not so frequently.
>- - Number of lines used on those cards.
>    More lines in use => more probable to crash.

We only use one with a single SDSL card. It is totally stable, 
running 8.0.3. The rest use T1 and/or ATM DS-3.

>The Max20's are configured to:
>- - PPP
>- - RADIUS authentication
>- - customer subnets are parts of C-class networks

Try migrating a single box to local profiles (you can still use 
RADIUS for accounting). Does it get better?

>In the beginning, only static routes were used.  Later, RIP2 has been
>used.  This change seemed to have no effect on the crashes.

RIP is not a problem.

>Syslog does not give any information about the crashes.  The boxes die
>without giving any syslog messages.  Also, there's no information 
>coming to a RADIUS server at the time of a crash.  Is there a way to 
>get more information, what is happening in a Max20 at the moment of 
>a crash?

What does the fatal error log show? Diagnostics>'fatal'

>The customer has tried 8.0.3 software, but it had even more problems.

Such as? It's better than all previous releases for me.
-- 

Peter Lalor           Infoasis
plalor at infoasis.com   http://www.infoasis.com/

"Where's my burrito?" -- Homer
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