Hi everyone,
I wanted to create a thread regarding this particular switch from Mikrotik, namely the CRS354-48P-4S+2Q+.
While this looked like a dream of a switch, packing 48 copper 1G ports, 4 SFP+ Cages and 2 QSFP+ and dual PSU for less thant 500$, it turned out to be a nightmare and an incredible joke.
For some mysterious reason (I am convinced it is some hardware issue) one block of 8 ports will stop passing traffic randomly.
According to our experience it will always be the same bloc on a given switch but it won't be the same on all of them
(switchA will be freezing ports 1 to 8 and switch B will be freezing port 9 to 17).
The issue is vicious as the ports remains up on the switch and the connected device, it will just stop forwarding traffic.
The issue was reported on Mikrotik forum on April 2020 and multiple users complained about it.
Mikrotik presented a fix in a 6.48beta5 RouterOS release in May 2020, then beta 12 in July, followed by beta 23 in August, then beta 26, beta 27..
In September Normis, Mikrotik Support Guru, pitched in and stated that latest beta should have fixed everything..
But ports kept freezing and winter was coming.. and when beta 40 came out, the issue was still present.
In November 2020, a statement was released by mikrotik support " The discussed CRS354 Ethernet interface forwarding issue is related to CRS354 chip configuration and solving it involves internal parameter tuning of the device. By cooperating with the chip manufacturer, we are researching it and doing more extensive testing to properly fix this problem. "
So ok, there is some issue with the chip.. yet it is not possible to return the switch as defective as ther is no official product recall..
April 2021, one year later, users are still complaining abou the issue, RouterOS has seen multiple version release and the issue is still present.
There have been fixes in the software, as stated by Mikortik support "
Yes, there is a fix in software update regarding CRS354 forwarding problem -
the newly released v6.48.2 contains significant improvements which
have been extensively tested before the release. "
But no luck..
Even using SwitchOS, the striped down OS for mikrotik devices did not help.
Time went on, another winter and as of today, March 2022, nearly 2 years after, there is no fix and no RMA possible, in a few month, warranty will be gone.
Mikrotik has been silent on the matter since one year, ar at least did not post any feedback on their forum.
So I wanted to open this topic here to have some feedback :
-Have some STH readers been fooled by this particular switch ?
-Do you happen to have a CRS354 that has no freezing ports ?
-Have you ever seen this kind of mess on an hardware item ? (faulty device, promises of software fixes that never comes and then warranty expiration)
(Full topic about the issue on their forum :
CRS354-48P-4S+2Q+ traffic problem on ports 1 to 8 - Page 2 - MikroTik ) (edited)
I wanted to create a thread regarding this particular switch from Mikrotik, namely the CRS354-48P-4S+2Q+.
While this looked like a dream of a switch, packing 48 copper 1G ports, 4 SFP+ Cages and 2 QSFP+ and dual PSU for less thant 500$, it turned out to be a nightmare and an incredible joke.
For some mysterious reason (I am convinced it is some hardware issue) one block of 8 ports will stop passing traffic randomly.
According to our experience it will always be the same bloc on a given switch but it won't be the same on all of them
(switchA will be freezing ports 1 to 8 and switch B will be freezing port 9 to 17).
The issue is vicious as the ports remains up on the switch and the connected device, it will just stop forwarding traffic.
The issue was reported on Mikrotik forum on April 2020 and multiple users complained about it.
Mikrotik presented a fix in a 6.48beta5 RouterOS release in May 2020, then beta 12 in July, followed by beta 23 in August, then beta 26, beta 27..
In September Normis, Mikrotik Support Guru, pitched in and stated that latest beta should have fixed everything..
But ports kept freezing and winter was coming.. and when beta 40 came out, the issue was still present.
In November 2020, a statement was released by mikrotik support " The discussed CRS354 Ethernet interface forwarding issue is related to CRS354 chip configuration and solving it involves internal parameter tuning of the device. By cooperating with the chip manufacturer, we are researching it and doing more extensive testing to properly fix this problem. "
So ok, there is some issue with the chip.. yet it is not possible to return the switch as defective as ther is no official product recall..
April 2021, one year later, users are still complaining abou the issue, RouterOS has seen multiple version release and the issue is still present.
There have been fixes in the software, as stated by Mikortik support "
Yes, there is a fix in software update regarding CRS354 forwarding problem -
the newly released v6.48.2 contains significant improvements which
have been extensively tested before the release. "
But no luck..
Even using SwitchOS, the striped down OS for mikrotik devices did not help.
Time went on, another winter and as of today, March 2022, nearly 2 years after, there is no fix and no RMA possible, in a few month, warranty will be gone.
Mikrotik has been silent on the matter since one year, ar at least did not post any feedback on their forum.
So I wanted to open this topic here to have some feedback :
-Have some STH readers been fooled by this particular switch ?
-Do you happen to have a CRS354 that has no freezing ports ?
-Have you ever seen this kind of mess on an hardware item ? (faulty device, promises of software fixes that never comes and then warranty expiration)
(Full topic about the issue on their forum :
CRS354-48P-4S+2Q+ traffic problem on ports 1 to 8 - Page 2 - MikroTik ) (edited)
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