1. ACLI Configuration Guide
  2. Transcoding
  3. Acme Packet 6300 NIU Hotswap Guidelines

Acme Packet 6300 NIU Hotswap Guidelines

TheOracle® Enterprise Session Border Controller 6300 provides a 3-slot chassis. Each chassis is monitored by a dedicated Hot-Swap sensor that maintains state information for the resident Network Interface Units.

The Oracle® Enterprise Session Border Controller 6300 is the first multi-slot SBC that runs C series software. A hotswap sensor, located on each of the 6300's three slots, provides the ability to track the state of individual network interface units (NIUs) in the 6300 chassis.

There are 8 possible associated states as shown below. 

PRESENT/NOT PRESENT       Checks the physical presence of a NIU inserted in a 6300 slot
LATCH OPEN/LATCH CLOSED   Checks the physical latch in the back of a NIU
POWER GOOD/ POWER BAD     Checks the power conditions of an NIU
READY/NOT READY           Checks all of the three previous state

A fully functional NIU is always in the following state: present, latch closed, power good, and ready.

The status of each NIU can be check by issuing the command show platform hotswap from the ACLI.

Network Interface Unit Removal/Replacement -- Standalone Node

A user or field engineer can remove a Network Interface Unit (NIU) from the 6300 chassis. When an NIU is removed, all services associated with the NIU (for example, media transmission, signaling, transcoding, and so on) will be interrupted and the system will be out-of-service (OOS).

Use the following procedure to remove an NIU.

  1. Working from the back of the chassis, carefully open the NIU's latch. The hotswap LED placed directly above the NIU will transition from green (present/latch close/ready) to blinking blue. After 10 seconds it will stop blinking and remain blue (present/latch open/not ready).
  2. You can now safely remove your NIU.

Removing the NIU generates a critical alarm notifying the user that the NIU has been removed. Additionally, the Vacuum Flourescent Display (VFD) displays a hardware alarm and starts blinking.From the ACLI, issue a "reboot force" command.

To see the alarm use: "display-alarms" from the ACLI.

To replace an NIU, insert an NIU of a different or the same type as the one used before.

The alarm manager clears the critical alarm, and issues new minor alarm to alert the user that an NIU was inserted after the boot sequence. At this point the system is still OOS.

After rebooting the system, service will be restored, and the new NIU will be functional

NIU Removal/Replacement -- High Availability Deployment

You cannot remove an NIU from the chassis of a 6300 SBC functioning in the active mode. If an NIU is accidentally removed, (1) all services will be interrupted; (2) a critical alarm will be triggered to notify the user that the NIU has been removed; (3) the system will relinquish its active state; and (4) proceed to reboot itself.

Under this scenario, service will not be interrupted because the standby node will assume the active role

In a 6300 functioning in standby mode, the user or field engineer can remove an NIU from the chassis. All services associated with the NIU (for example, media transmission, signaling, transcoding, and so on) will be interrupted and the standby node will be OOS. Removal of an NIU from the standby, however, will not affect the active node which remains in service.

Use the following procedure to remove an NIU from the standby node.

  1. Working from the back of the chassis, carefully open the NIU's latch. The hotswap LED placed directly above the NIU will transition from green (present/latch close/ready) to blinking blue. After 10 seconds it will stop blinking and remain blue (present/latch open/not ready)
  2. You can now safely remove the NIU. To replace an NIU, insert an NIU of the same type as the one used before.

Removing the NIU generates a critical alarm notifying the user that the NIU has been removed. Additionally, the VFD displays a hardware alarm and starts blinking

To see the alarm use: "display-alarms" from the ACLI.

The alarm manager clears the critical alarm, and issues a new minor alarm to alert the user that an NIU was inserted after the boot sequence. At this point the system is still OOS.

From the ACLI, issue a "reboot force" command.

After rebooting the standby, it will revert to standby mode.