Richard> Hi! I have a problem that I was hoping I could get some
Richard> advice on. In particular, where to start looking...

Richard> I inherited a Rocks Cluster which I am trying to make
Richard> semi-usable. There are 31 nodes in the cluster, so in order
Richard> to create the cluster network, two Dell switches are used --
Richard> a PowerConnect 5224 and a PowerConnect 5324. The head node
Richard> and most of the computer nodes are plugged into the 5224, and
Richard> the rest are plugged into the 5324 which then is plugged into
Richard> the 5224. The problem that I'm having is that the clients on
Richard> the 5324 cannot be PXE booted properly. If I plug them into
Richard> the 5224, let them boot and install, and then plug them back
Richard> into the 5324, they work correctly, until the next time I
Richard> need them to reboot (to add a package, or something).

Richard> I assume there is some kind of packet that is not being
Richard> properly forwarded by the 5324 (or not being allowed by the
Richard> 5224). What I would like is to convince the two switches that
Richard> they are really one big(ger) switch, so they don't block
Richard> anything from going around. Unfortunately, I really don't
Richard> know much about networking beyond the basics -- in
Richard> particular, I don't know the terminology. Looking at the
Richard> configurations of the switches, I see things like
Richard> "spanning-tree", "bridging", "trunks", etc.

Richard> What should I be looking at? I tried to Google various
Richard> things, but I'm not convinced I even know where to start --
Richard> at least, nothing I've found seems to address my question, or
Richard> at least make sense to me.

Try checking that port-fast is/isn't turn on for the ports.  We have a
problem here with our DELL 5224s not working right with our Cisco 4507
running IOS showing the same symtoms.  So far I haven't beaten on it
enough to chase down the real config issue, mostly because I only
kickstart once in a while and I don't run the switch and don't want to
run the switch.  

Nate also has some good thoughts here, and more details too.  Good
luck.

John
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