Viewing switch mesh status

Syntax:

show mesh

show mesh mac-address

show mesh traceroute mac-address MAC-addr vlan vid

These three commands list the switch ports configured for meshing, along with the state of each mesh-configured connection, the hostname and MAC address of the switch on the opposite end of the link (Adjacent Switch), the MAC address of the port on the opposite end of the link (Peer Port), and whether or not any mesh warnings have been generated. Mesh warnings are written to the event log.

The switch presents show mesh output in the following format:

Adjacent Hosts

Port  State       | Hostname  Address    Peer Port   Mesh Warning
----- ----------- + -------- ----------- ----------- ------------
See the log file for details of warnings.

Port

Lists the ports on the switch that have been configured for meshing.

State

Shows the operating state of the port:

Established: The port is linked to a meshed port on another switch and meshing traffic is flowing across the link. The show mesh listing includes the MAC addresses of the adjacent switch and direct connection port on the adjacent switch.
Not Established: The port may be linked to a switch on a port that is not configured for meshing or has gone down.
Initial: The port has just come up as a meshed port and is trying to negotiate meshing.
Disabled: The port is configured for meshing but is not connected to another device.
Error: Error caused by external traffic that also happens to be an apparent duplicate MAC address.
Topology Error: Other sources of traffic may trigger a topology error, but may be simply dropped.

Hostname

The name of the adjacent switch (the switch at the other end of the link).

Address

The base MAC address of the adjacent switch.

Peer port

The MAC address of the port on the adjacent switch to which the mesh link connects.

Mesh Warning

Indicates whether the meshing process has generated a warning for the mesh link.

Yes: One or more warning messages have been generated and written to the event log. Use the show log command to see the warnings.
No: No warning messages have been generated by the meshing process for this port.

Viewing show mesh output

Switch# show mesh

Adjacent Hosts


Port   State           | Hostname Address        Peer Port     Mesh Warning
------ --------------- + -------- ------------- ------------- ------------
13 Established         | East    001560-f9e300  001560-f9f3f3     No
14 Established         | South   001f28-244a00  001f28-245ac3     No
15 Established         | West    001279-884300  001279-8853f3     No

See the log file for details of warnings.

A mesh topology

Syntax:

show mesh mac-address

Lists information about devices connected to the switch mesh in the following format.

MAC Address  VLAN  Port  Owner  Switch   Hostname
------------ ----  ----  ------ ------- ----------

MAC Address: The MAC address of the device connected to the switch mesh.
VLAN: The VLAN of the switch mesh.
Port: The port on the originating switch through which the device’s MAC address was obtained.
Owner Switch: The base MAC address of the switch to which the device is connected.
Hostname: The hostname of the switch to which the device is connected.

NOTE:

The information shown by the show mesh mac-address command is not static. Addresses age out of a switch’s meshing address table after approximately five minutes of inactivity, and the switches in a mesh exchange meshing address information at intervals of approximately five minutes. So client devices that appear in the listing may have disappeared the next time you view the listing. If you wish to see device information for a device that is no longer shown in the MAC address listing, a simple way to activate the device’s entry in the meshing address table and make its MAC address reappear in the listing is to ping the device’s IP address.

Viewing device information

For the mesh topology shown in the preceding figure, the show mesh mac-address command issued from the North switch displays the following device information. This listing shows the MAC addresses of the clients connected to the South, East, and West switches.

Switch# show mesh mac-address
MAC Address  VLAN Port Owner Switch   Hostname
------------ ---- ---- ------------- ----------
001517-0bdc0c 1   14  001f28-244a00   South
001517-0bdc8d 1   13  001560-f9e300    East
000e0c-33b2a8 1   15  001279-884300    West
There are 3 addresses in the meshing address table

Syntax:

show mesh traceroute mac-address MAC-addr vlan vid

Traces the route from a source switch in a mesh to a device connected to the mesh.

MAC-addr: MAC address of the target device.
vid: VLAN number of the mesh, between 1 and 4094.
Hop: The hop count of the trace, beginning at 0.
Address: The base MAC address of the switch involved in the hop.
Hostname: The hostname of the switch involved in the hop.
Inbound-Port: The number of the port through which the trace enters the switch.
Outbound-Port: The number of the port through which the trace exits the switch.

The direction of the trace is from the originating switch to the target device.

Viewing traceroute information

For the example mesh topology shown in the figure, the following switch mesh traceroute command traces the route to the client attached to the South switch.

Switch# show mesh traceroute mac-address 001517-0bdc0c vlan 1

Traceroute to MAC Address: 001517-0bdc0c VID: 1

Hop    Address        Hostname      Inbound-Port     Outbound-Port
0     0024a8-d60b80    North                             13
1     001560-f9e300    East             A13              A14
2     001f28-244a00    South            C14              A1

Trace route is completed. Total hops to destination is 3

NOTE:

In this case the trace traverses two links (North-to-East and East-to-South), rather than going directly from the North switch to the South switch. The mesh chooses the route based on traffic loads on the links and other factors. As a result, the mesh may choose different paths between any two points at different times. You may notice these differences when you trace routes through the mesh.