Cisco 2960 - RPS LED is blinking amber

[vl3-neuss]

Hello,

after a recovery of a main power failure the RPS LED on my Cisco 2960 is blinking amber.

The command sh env power on the Switch tells me: POWER is faulty.

sh env rps says: RPS is supplying.

On the RPS2300 the DC output LED is blinking green.

Due to the manual this means:

The RPS 2300 is backing up the connected device.

So far so true. The RPS has backed up for the time the main power supply was down.

But actually both, the Powersupply from the RPS and the main power are available.

But the Switch didn't switch back to it's bultin powersupply, so still the RPS ist suppling the switch.

What can we do to get the Cisco 2960 into the correct state?

Is there a special command which i can use?

The command line reference wasn't very helpful.

thanks in advance

Michael

[Amit Aneja]

Michael,
There is a button on the RPS to switch the power back to internal power
supply. Please press the RPS button twice which will switch the power
from RPS back to internal power supply and verify the LED status. 
If LED doesn't change the status, press the button again till LED status changes to "Blinking Amber". 
A blinking Amber LED indicate that RPS is in Standby mode.
On 2960, you cannot do the switchover through any command. 
Automatic backoff feature is not supported on 2960. This is a hardware limitation.
Automatic backoff for Catalyst 3750-E and 3560-E switches. 
When the internal power supply of the connected switch resumes operation, the switch sends
a back-off command to the RPS 2300, which seamlessly backs off.
HTH,
Amit Aneja

[vl3-neuss]

Hi Amit,

thank you for your quick answer.

I already guessed that there is no way by configuring the 2960 :-(.

Sorry to bother you, but i've a few questions left.

What Button on the RPS do you mean? On our RPS2300 there are only two Buttons:

"Select" and "Stndby/Active"

There is no RPS Button.

If i use the "Stndby/Active" Button, the RPS stops powering the switch and the switch immediately stops working and i loose all network connections.

In this state i have to unplug the power cable to the bultin power supply of the switch and plug it in again. Now the switch will restart using it's own power supply. After the switch is working again i can activate the RPS and everything is ok. So it happend to me this morning.

So that's the wrong way to do it ;-).

What can i do to switch back to the internal power supply of the switch without loosing network connectivity?

Many thanks in advance.

Michael

[Amit Aneja]

Hi Michael,

Unfortunately, this is the only way to do it. By RPS button, I meant Active/standby which you guessed right.

Switching from the RPS back to the internal supply on the switch requires a reboot. This is expected behavior for the 2960, as only the E-series of 3560 and 3750 are capable of reverting without a

reboot or service interruption.

The failover is uninterrupted only while switching from the internal supply to the RPS.

So, what you are doing is correct, there is no way you could switch back to internal power supply without rebooting the switch.

I remember that this was one such enhancement feature which was requested by almost everybody who was using the 2960 switch, however, hardware didn't support it. so, they fixed in 3750E & 3560E series switches.

HTH,

Amit Aneja

[vl3-neuss]

Hi Amit,

that explains everthing. So we've to live with this feature.

To avoid any loss of network connectivity we've put the internal powersupply directly on our UPS.

So the only reason we could face this problem again is, if the internal power supply fails und the RPS has to supply the switch.

This closes our problem.

Many, many thanks you for your support.

Michael

[Amit Aneja]

Hi Michael,

I am glad that I could help. Please mark the question as answered if you don't have any follow up questions.

Regards,

Amit

[neilsantiago123]

Hi Amit,

I am experiencing exactly the same problem.

Right now, the RPS is the one providing power to the switch although the internal power supply is on.

My question is, should there be a power interruption on the RPS source, would it switchover back to the internal power supply? Or, would it cause a reboot on the switch?

Regards,

Neil

[Niklas Sauer]

Hope that helps:

Redundant Power System (RPS) LED - Shows the RPS status. If the LED is off, the RPS is off or not properly connected. If the LED is green, the RPS is connected and ready to provide back-up power. If the LED is blinking green, the RPS is connected but is unavailable because it is providing power to another device. If the LED is amber, the RPS is in standby mode or in a fault condition. If the LED is blinking amber, the internal power supply in the switch has failed, and the RPS is providing power.

Recovering From a System Crash

The boot loader provides access into the switch if the operating system cannot be used because of missing or damaged system files. The boot loader has a command-line that provides access to the files stored in flash memory. 

The boot loader can be accessed through a console connection following these steps:

Step 1. Connect a PC by console cable to the switch console port. Configure terminal emulation software to connect to the switch.

Step 2. Unplug the switch power cord.

Step 3. Reconnect the power cord to the switch and, within 15 seconds, press and hold down the Mode button while the System LED is still flashing green.

Step 4. Continue pressing the Mode button until the System LED turns briefly amber and then solid green; then release the Mode button.

Step 5. The boot loader switch: prompt appears in the terminal emulation software on the PC.

The boot loader command line supports commands to format the flash file system, reinstall the operating system software, and recover from a lost or forgotten password. For example, the dir command can be used to view a list of files within a specified directory as shown in the figure.

Note: Notice that in this example, the IOS is located in the root of the flash folder.