error-down auto-recovery on Huawei switches

Some of you may know Ciscos err-disable recovery feature, which allows to automatically bring a
port from err-disable back to up state. Huawei switches have similar functionality, which is called
error-down auto-recovery.

There are five reasons a port can enter into error-down state:

BPDU protection
EFM threshold
EFM remote failure
Auto defend
Link flapping
MAC address flapping

Lets take a look, how this feature works, in a network running STP, when BPDU protection is the
reason that a port goes into down state. If you are not familiar with BPDU protection feature, read
my previous article Protecting STP on Huawei switches.

I have configured STP BPDU protection on the Ethernet 0/0/1 interface of labnarioSW1 switch as
follows:

[labnarioSW1]int e0/0/1
[labnarioSW1-Ethernet0/0/1]stp edged-port enable
[labnarioSW1]stp bpdu-protection

Error-down auto-recovery feature has been enabled on the switch using command:

[labnarioSW1]error-down auto-recovery cause bpdu-protection interval 30

Option interval specifies how long (in seconds) our interface will be in down state before it
transitions to up state. Any integer ranging from 30 to 86400 can be chosen.

On the other end of this Ethernet link labnarioSW2 switch is connected, to simulate STP attack. STP is
temporary disabled on the Ethernet 0/0/1 port of the labnarioSW2, to prevent the Ethernet 0/0/1
port of the labnarioSW1 switch from transition to down state.

The only role of the labnarioSW2 switch is to generate BPDU frames. Any other device, which can
send STP BPDU frames, can be connected as well. So lets start sending STP BPDUs:

[labnarioSW2-Ethernet0/0/1]stp enable

Please see log messages, generated by the BPDU protection and error-down auto-recovery feature,
enabled on labnarioSW1 switch:
[labnarioSW1]
May 23 2013 21:30:34-08:00 labnarioSW1 %%01MSTP/4/BPDU_PROTECTION(l)[62]:This edged-port
Ethernet0/0/1 that enabled BPDU-Protection will be shutdown, because it received BPDU packet!
May 23 2013 21:30:34-08:00 labnarioSW1 %%01ERRDOWN/4/ERRDOWN_DOWNNOTIFY(l)[63]:Notify
interface to change status to error-down. (InterfaceName=Ethernet0/0/1, Cause=bpdu-protection)
May 23 2013 21:30:34-08:00 labnarioSW1 ERRDOWN/4/ErrordownOccur:OID
1.3.6.1.4.1.2011.5.25.257.2.1 Error-down occured. (Ifindex=6, Ifname=Ethernet0/0/1,
Cause=bpdu-protection)
May 23 2013 21:30:34-08:00 labnarioSW1 %%01PHY/1/PHY(l)[64]: Ethernet0/0/1: change status to
down

To display the status of the error-down auto-recovery, use the command:

[labnarioSW1]display error-down recovery int e0/0/1

interface error-down cause recovery remainder time(sec)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ethernet0/0/1 bpdu-protection 30 17

[labnarioSW1]display error-down recovery int e0/0/1

interface error-down cause recovery remainder time(sec)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ethernet0/0/1 bpdu-protection 30 8

[labnarioSW1]display error-down recovery int e0/0/1

interface error-down cause recovery remainder time(sec)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ethernet0/0/1 bpdu-protection 30 3

After 30 seconds, error-down auto-recovery feature transitions port back to up state:

May 23 2013 21:31:03-08:00 labnarioSW1 %%01ERRDOWN/4/ERRDOWN_DOWNRECOVER(l)[67]:Notify

interface to recover state from error-down. (InterfaceName=Ethernet0/0/1)
May 23 2013 21:31:03-08:00 labnarioSW1 ERRDOWN/4/ErrordownRecover:OID
1.3.6.1.4.1.2011.5.25.257.2.2 Error-down recovered. (Ifindex=6, Ifname=Ethernet0/0/1,
Cause=bpdu-protection, RecoverType=auto recovery)
May 23 2013 21:31:05-08:00 labnarioSW1 %%01PHY/1/PHY(l)[68]: Ethernet0/0/1: change status to
up