Common Software Failures of Industrial Switches

Industrial Switches, also known as industrial Ethernet switches, are Ethernet switches used in the field of industrial control. Due to the network standards used, they have good openness, wide application and low price, and use the transparent and unified TCP/IP protocol. , Ethernet has become the main communication standard in the field of industrial control.The software failure of the industrial switch refers to the failure of the system and its equipment, which is mainly divided into the following categories.

(1) System error:

The industrial switch system is a combination of hardware and software.There is a refreshable read-only memory inside the industrial switch , which saves the necessary software system of the industrial switch.This kind of error is also the same as our common Windows and Linux. Because of the design at that time, there are some gaps. When the conditions are suitable, it will lead to the occurrence of industrial switches full load, packet loss, wrong packets and other situations.Therefore, the industrial Ethernet switch system provides methods such as Web and TFTP to download and update the system.Of course, mistakes may also occur when upgrading the system.

For such problems, we need to develop the habit of frequently browsing the website of equipment manufacturers. If there is a new system or a new patch, please update it in time.

(2) Installation error:

Beginners are not familiar with industrial switches. Perhaps because of the different equipment of various industrial Ethernet switches, administrators often make installation mistakes when installing industrial switches.For example, improper VLAN distinction leads to network failure, ports are closed by mistake, and the modes of industrial switches and network cards do not match.Such faults are sometimes difficult to find and require a certain amount of experience.If there is no guarantee that there is a problem with the user's installation, please restore the factory default equipment first, and then install it step by step.It is best to read the manual before installation, which is also one of the good habits for network management to develop.Each industrial Ethernet switch has detailed setup manuals, user manuals, and detailed explanations for each type of module.Because the manuals of many industrial switches are written in English, users with poor English should consult the engineer of the supplier before detailed installation.

(3) Lost password:

This is probably something every administrator has experienced before.Once you forget the password, you can recover or reset the password through a certain operation process.Others are as simple as pressing a button on an industrial switch.And some need to go through a certain operation process to solve.

This type of situation generally occurs when data is lost due to human forgetting or a failure of an industrial switch.

(4) External elements:

Due to the existence of viruses or hacker attacks, or a host sends many data packets that do not meet the encapsulation rules to the connected port, the industrial switch processor is too busy, causing the data packets to be too late to forward, resulting in buffer overflow. Packet loss phenomenon. Another situation is broadcast storm, which not only consumes a lot of network bandwidth, but also consumes a lot of CPU processing time.If the network is occupied by many broadcast packets for a long time, the normal point-to-point communication cannot be carried out normally, and the network speed will be slowed down or paralyzed.

A network card or a port failure may cause a broadcast storm.Because the industrial switch can only cut the collision domain, but not the broadcast domain (without distinguishing VLANs), when the number of broadcast packets accounts for 30% of the total communication, the transmission efficiency of the network will drop significantly.

Generally speaking, software faults should be more difficult to find than hardware faults. When solving the problem, it may not cost too much money, but it will take more time.It is best to develop the habit of keeping a journal in your usual work.Whenever a fault occurs, record the fault phenomenon, analyze the process of the fault, solve the fault, and summarize the fault classification in a timely manner, so as to accumulate their own experience.