Introduction
This document describes potential issues encountered on Catalyst 6800IA switches that act as Instant Access Client / Fabric EXtender (FEX) switches that initially might look like hardware-related issues but are caused by software defects.
Problem
On the Catalyst 6500 / 6880 controller with connected Catalyst 6800IA clients, these errors / issues can be observed:
- "POST: ACT2 Authentication : End, Status Failed" and/or "%ILET-1-DEVICE_AUTHENTICATION_FAIL:" messages observed in the 6800IA bootup process after soft-reset / reload, visible only when console is connected directly to 6800IA switch, during Power-On Self Test (POST).
- "hulc_sfp_iic_intf_read_eeprom sfp _index 3 yeti_iic_read_retry fail" error message when you run the show idprom command on the 6800IA switch.
- Stack split (stack that is properly cabled during soft-reset / reload boots as two independent stacks).
These issues might occur intermittently and are observed after soft-reload / reset. At the same time, these symptoms should not happen when Cisco Catalyst 6800IA stacks are hard-reloaded / power-cycled.
Solution
These issues are related with a software defect that is tracked via Cisco bug ID CSCus26920 and affects these releases: 15.1(2)SY, 15.1(2)SY1, 15.1(2)SY2, 15.1(2)SY3, 15.1(2)SY4, 15.1(2)SY4a as well as 15.2(1)SY.
The fix will be available in the future Software Releases 15.1(2)SY5 and 15.2(1)SY1.
Note: A hard boot where you unplug the power cable in order to power off / on the switch might be required for switches that experience the problem prior to the upgrade.
Workaround
For a workaround, you can hard-reload / power-cycle the Catalyst 6800IA stack.
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