Thursday, June 18, 2020

Old Nortel ERS 5520-48T-PWR Headaches - No PoE and can't access backup switch via network

I went back to the office first time since the pandemic and found everything PoE powered dead since earlier in the month. The switch shows PoE as working normally, but no output on any of the ports. I notice that it has suffered multiple fan failures. I'm sourcing some new fans in case it hasn't suffered permanent PoE damage and is in some kind of protected state, but I would like to get things up and running again quickly.
I have 2 fresh backups (ascii and binary) of this switch.
I have another identical switch I hadn't used before, which I have now reset to factory defaults using the UI button on the front (both the 3 second then 5 press etc and 3 second then 3 press etc methods just in case.) I can't access its web UI or telnet to it at the default IP of 192.168.192.168.

The console cable port is damaged on the new switch, although I've bent it back into what I think will be a usable form. I only had access to 'screen' on my mac at the time, and set to 9600 I received multiple lines of gibberish with 2 rj-45 to serial console cable adapters via a usb adapter. With a straight-through cable I had 1 or 2 symbols. I will source a new straight-through cable just in case.

The old switch was running the latest available firmware. The new switch is unknown. Last thing I tried was setting the old switch as base and fitting a cascade cable I had sitting. At least remotely, the old switch is now no longer network accessible, although it is obviously working as I can connect to the network.

Does anyone have any ideas on what I can try next?



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