CPU usage on RB411 + R52 CPE

WillowBee · July 17, 2008, 6:45am

Greetings from South Africa! I have been trolling the forums for a week now and decided it was time to post!

I have seen other posts on CPU usage and more often then not, there seems to be a problem with faulty hardware.

I have been dabbling with MikroTik 411’s and RouterOS 3.6 for little more than a week now. I have just completed my CPE installations and connected my DSL last night. While no PPPOE was configured, my CPU usage seemed to randomly jump between 0%, 4% and 100%. Is this normal? I’m about to seal off the CPE’s so would like to resolve it now and not later if there is indeed a possibility of a faulty RouterBoard.

The other thing is that WinBox randomly disconnects with an error “other side not responding” although I am immediately able to reconnect again.

normis · July 17, 2008, 6:57am

Welcome to the forum!

you should try to disable unused packages, check for strange traffic coming to/through router, upgrade to v3.11 and also upgrade the bootloader (after upgrade to v3.11 run “system routerboard upgrade”)

mostly, though, cpu usage doesn’t mean anything unless it stays on 100% and you can feel some slowdown

WillowBee · July 17, 2008, 7:29am

Thanks for the welcome Normis.

I’m probably just being paranoid but I wanted to make sure about RouterOS upgrades etc. before sealing off the CPE i.e. mounted on masts at both ends and the trouble of taking them down to get access to the serial ports. (Is this the only way to upgrade? Does one have to take the CPE down every time to open it up?)

Regarding the upgrade, is this something relatively simple with little casualties? (Unlike updating a PC motherboard BIOS which can leave you with a dead board!)

I also thought something was amiss when it seemed I had “RouterOS v3.6” which appears to coincide with the version of WinBox. Where the heck do I see the RouterOS version exactly?

normis · July 17, 2008, 7:32am

version of winbox is definitely not 3.6 you probably also see the RouterOS version there. best way to look - in the package list (system → packages).

upgrade is as easy as drag’n’drop new combined package to the “files” window in winbox, and then a simple reboot.

bootloader upgrade is as easy as that command I wrote above.

WillowBee · July 17, 2008, 7:43am

Hang on.. are you saying I don’t need to install RouterOS and the Bootloader via the serial port?

Drag and drop? I don’t think I’ve read that before - thanks, I’ll go and research and post again if I get stuck.

normis · July 17, 2008, 7:50am

yes, for RouterOS - drag’n’drop this file:
http://files.quicklinkwireless.com/mikrotik/3.11/routeros-mipsbe-3.11.npk

Bootloader is inside the file, after successful upgrade, just run “/system routerboard upgrade” to also upgrade Bootloader.

WillowBee · July 17, 2008, 8:20am

You’re a legend bro - thank you!

WillowBee · July 17, 2008, 7:45pm

Okay, I see the WinBox Loader is v2.2.13.

Erm, so how come I have a v3.6 ROS? I thought the latest was v3.11?

  MMM      MMM       KKK                          TTTTTTTTTTT      KKK
  MMMM    MMMM       KKK                          TTTTTTTTTTT      KKK
  MMM MMMM MMM  III  KKK  KKK  RRRRRR     OOOOOO      TTT     III  KKK  KKK
  MMM  MM  MMM  III  KKKKK     RRR  RRR  OOO  OOO     TTT     III  KKKKK
  MMM      MMM  III  KKK KKK   RRRRRR    OOO  OOO     TTT     III  KKK KKK
  MMM      MMM  III  KKK  KKK  RRR  RRR   OOOOOO      TTT     III  KKK  KKK

  MikroTik RouterOS 3.6 (c) 1999-2008       http://www.mikrotik.com/

[admin@MikroTik] /system package> print
Flags: X - disabled 
 #   NAME                                     VERSION                                    SCHEDULED              
 0   routeros-mipsbe                          3.6                                                               
 1   system                                   3.6                                                               
 2 X mpls                                     3.6                                                               
 3 X ipv6                                     3.6                                                               
 4   routerboard                              3.6                                                               
 5   security                                 3.6                                                               
 6   dhcp                                     3.6                                                               
 7   ppp                                      3.6                                                               
 8   wireless                                 3.6                                                               
 9   hotspot                                  3.6                                                               
10   advanced-tools                           3.6                                                               
11   routing                                  3.6

Edit

Thanks, I found why I was thinking like this. ^

Source

WillowBee · July 17, 2008, 8:35pm

Normis, please can you move all off-topic posts to this thread.

WillowBee · August 19, 2008, 7:43am

Just a quick update after my network has been running stable for the past few weeks. CPU usage jumps anywhere between 0-25% and there is no problem as Normis said. Thus my RB411’s have no issues and I was just being paranoid.

jacoblydon · September 4, 2008, 2:42am

Seems like you have everything worked out, I ran into similar problems, and asked the forum, they said that the cpu usage is not accurate. I did try something interesting though. If you start with a virgin config and only access to the router board with cat5 and add cpu to the router board display. The router board will spike to 100% with no load. veird