Wireless Access

Hi,

We have several controllers with this error in the log:

Auth GSM : DEV_ID_CACHE publish failed for mac "mac-address" dev-id Android(1) result error_no_free_slots

Controller model is an Alcatel OAW-4550, equivalent to Aruba 7210.

The controller datasheet shows that this controller supports up to 16384 devices/users, We have around 5000 users connected.

We have opened a TAC case with Alcatel, but they are not able to explain this message, and the last thing they says is the controller is exceding the maximun suported devices and they are giving me the following information:

Show gsm debug channel user | include Obj

Total Num of Objects :6585

#Show gsm debug channel mac_user | include Obj

Total Num of Objects :5528

#Show gsm debug channel ip_user | include Obj

Total Num of Objects :5145

Sum of all the objects 6585 + 5528 + 5145 = 17258 user sessions

Anybody knows if this is true? I don't get the point, if the total number of users is 16384 but this number is divided in three due to gsm channels, the real number of users supported in this controllers is more or less 5000 not 16384.

I will apreciate if someone can tell me if this is true, or if the total number of users should be 16384 like datasheet says no matter how the controller internally manage this stuff.

Thanks a lot for your help!

This does'nt look right.

 Auth GSM : DEV_ID_CACHE publish failed for mac "mac-address" dev-id Android(1) result error_no_free_slots

So a backdrop on the message:

Auth and GSM are modules on the controller responsible for authenitcation and memory allocation respectively for a user.

DEV_ID_CACHE - This is what the controller classifies your device as and allocates a DEVice ID to be stored in the cache memory (handled by GSM).

error_no_free_slots - Memory is usually organized into stacks which are referenced by a Hex address range. A slot means a specific area in the memory to store the data on the device as an object that could be referenced using a hex address value.

So this means that the message indicates that there is an issue with the memory allocation for users.

This does not have anything to do with the maximum users supported on a controller model.

What do you see in the output of the command :

show gsm debug channel dev_id_cache status

This should give you an idea about the max objects supported by the controller and the number of objects currently allocated by the controller to users.

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Hi

Thanks for your reply. 

This exactly what I thought, but Alcatel TAC is trying to close the SR with nonsenses explanations.

show gsm debug channel dev_id_cache status

GSM Channel status for Channel:DEV_ID_CACHE

CSM:: Key = 0X2CA, Size = 3293412 B
DSM:: Base Key = 0X2CB, Size = 3145728 B Max number of segments = 1 Segments created = 1
DSM:: In current segment: free_slots = 0

Object Size = 80 B, Key Size = 6 B

Max number of Objects = 32768

Number of Allocated Objects = 35211

Number of Objects in use = 35211

As you can see the device is exceding the cache, is always withe 35211 objets, wiht doesn't make any senses, firts of all because the maxium objetcs is 32768, and second, I believe the controller should flush this allocated objets when not are in use.

It seems to me like a bug, the controller is not able to free up this cache, this is why we are seeing this message in the log all the time.

So is the controller unable to delete stale entries and goes on populating newer ones leading to overflow of the memory ?

This is clearly a memory issue and most definitely a code glitch.

Have it fixed at the earliest so as to not affect your production network (not to mention all the complaining users).

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Hi,

thanks for your reply. I belive Alcatel tac is totally wrong in their afirmations. The service seems to be ok, so this message is cosmetical, but obviously if the platform supports 16.000 users, I believe that supports device identification for 16000 too. Furthermore, we have around 5000 users conneceted, so this message should'nt appear in the log. 

Anyway, I Will try to escalate the SR to other group.

Thanks