Mesh failover caused a network loop?

Mesh failover caused a network loop?

Mesh failover caused a network loop?
Mesh failover caused a network loop?
2024-07-14 21:44:06 - last edited 2024-07-15 00:31:23
Model: EAP653  
Hardware Version: V1
Firmware Version: 1.0.14 Build 20240415 Rel. 70264

I had an interesting experience today while trying to set-up a dual WAN on my router, as part of that process involved rebooting the router. This was the first router reboot since I added my second AP.

 

While the router rebooted it seems that one of my APs (LivingRoom-AP) was "isolated" and then connected to my main AP (Hallway-AP) via mesh. As both APs are wired this seemed to panic the router when it restarted, as it detected a network loop between the wired and mesh links, and responded by disabling the uplink ports on both of my office switches.

 

I corrected this situation by restarting both office switches (as I wasn't sure what was happening at the time), though I assume this only worked because it also killed the PoE connection to my main AP which broke the mesh link.

 

I have since disabled the mesh feature since I don't need it, but I feel like I should raise this as an issue since it feels like a minefield. I'm not sure which part of the network equipment was at fault though.

 

I've included a screenshot of my network topology for reference:

 

EDIT:

Re-reading my logs it seems that the port blocking happened 5 minutes before the AP reported as isolated, so I'm not sure now whether that really was the cause. I can't think of any other explanation for the loop though...

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Re:Mesh failover caused a network loop?
2024-07-15 02:58:48

  @TalkiToaster 

Please check that you are only experiencing this issue when you reboot the router. And can you consistently duplicate the problem and see the same behavior when you reboot the router? Please also thoroughly analyze the network to see if there are any loops detected.

Best Regards! >> Omada EAP Firmware Trial Available Here << >> Get the Latest Omada SDN Controller Releases Here << *Try filtering posts on each forum by Label of [Early Access]*
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Re:Mesh failover caused a network loop?
2024-07-15 09:45:37 - last edited 2024-07-15 10:00:10

  @Hank21 I assume then that you'd also want me to re-enable the mesh feature? I can't really risk deliberately breaking my live network during the week, but I may reattempt the dual WAN set-up at the weekend.

 

I can say that I've had no issues rebooting the router in the past, and that the only change to my network since the last router reboot was adding LivingRoom-AP.

 

It's not a complicated network; one router connected to 3 switches, with each switch being a leaf. There's 2 APs connected to 2 of the switches (as shown in the diagram in my first post).

 

The only loop I could see is if the wired APs also meshed together, though I should note that "WAN/LAN1" (the unused port on the router that I switched to my second WAN port) was accidentally used by some of my VLANs. The issue persisted after I switched that port back to being a LAN port though, and only ended after I restarted the 2 office switches (which would have also restarted the controller and main AP).

 

It's also not clear to me why Office-Switch ended up disconnected, as that switch connected only to the router and not to any APs. I also don't know how I was even able to access the controller during this time, as that connects to Office-Switch-PoE, which had its uplink port disabled. It should have been unresolvable, as were my DNS servers on that switch (which broke the internet).

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Re:Mesh failover caused a network loop?
2024-07-15 18:54:17

  @TalkiToaster 

 

Just so we can follow along better, can you repost the Topograhy image but with the "Labels" enabled?  It will then show ports and wifi strength.

<< Paying it forward, one juicy problem at a time... >>
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Re:Mesh failover caused a network loop?
2024-07-15 23:46:49

  @d0ugmac1 Topology with labels

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Re:Mesh failover caused a network loop?
2024-07-17 09:49:13

  @TalkiToaster 

I have reported this to our senior engineer. To avoid loops, disable Mesh while connecting APs via wires.

Best Regards! >> Omada EAP Firmware Trial Available Here << >> Get the Latest Omada SDN Controller Releases Here << *Try filtering posts on each forum by Label of [Early Access]*
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