Missing ARP records on Nortel 8310

[mhartrick]

Good Afternoon Everybody...

I have Passport 8310 that recently started acting up, im not 100% sure its even the switch.. but here goes..

without rhyme or reason certain computers are unable to access other subnets or routes through the switch, or even access DHCP through the DHCP Helper.  They can ping other computers on their subnet and their gateway.

The first time I noticed it happening, it was one of my domain controllers.. and it got my attention... After inspecting all the physical equipement, with no where else to turn I cleared the ARP cache on the switching, thinking maybe it was poisoned..  Immediately everything was working again...

I then had to do it a few times each day when different computers were having issues.. 

I don't see any evidence of MAC/ARP spoofing...

I did notice any computer that was having issues did NOT have an ARP record in the table.. after clearing it, the ARP would show up and everything would be fine.

CPU Utilization is steady around 20%... it spikes a bit when i clear the ARP cache and everything responds at once.

The network isn't that big, about 200 devices give or take.  No config changes or VLAN changes were made in months.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance,
Mike

[Paul L]

if nothing has changed I doubt its the switch. 
I would check the logs and make sure you don't have a duplicate IP somewhere.

I would also look at replacing that ERS8300 ASAP.   It is well End of Life.

[TankII]

Change your bridge timer to 21601 from 300 and see if that helps.

TankII

[oldNortelguy]

I had this happen on the ERS 8600 product 10-12 years ago. In the end newer OS upgrade fixed it. We had some 8300's in closets and they were also doing it. I ended up replacing them about 10 years ago with simple 4500 stacks. Problems were in the rear view mirror. Is it functioning as your core? (sounds like it)