Scheduled Electric Power Outage. UPSes Died so Nodes Powered Off.

[jzchen]

I have: AXE16000 primary node; AXE11000, RT-AX86U, RP-AX56, and RT-AC68U nodes. The RP-AX56 is connected to a wall outlet and died immediately when the power went out. The rest have UPS/battery backup. The RT-AC68U went down first. (The battery must be weak). The AXE11000 went down next. The AXE16000 and RT-AX86U were still on when we left the house. When we came back the power was back on. The AXE16000 and RT-AC68U reestablished uplink. The AXE11000, RT-AX86U, and RP-AX56 I needed to disconnect, move to nearby the AXE16000, perform hard reset, then add back to the AiMesh. This was quite tedious, and the AXE11000 refuses to connect via 2.5 G ethernet, only via 1 G WAN port (ethernet backhaul). Prior to the power outage a long while back it was connected by 2.5 G ethernet backhaul to the AXE16000. Just before the outage for the past couple of weeks it was connected via 6 GHz backhaul (Auto backhaul preference, automatically switched).

The reason for the power outage was a nearby pole upgrade. I hope our power is more stable, it took a long time to repair my AiMesh network, (and I lost the 2.5 G backhaul connection that used to work on the AXE11000 node).

[Saltgrass]

It would seem, the network configuration is still in the devices. If there was a problem with them coming back, you should have been able to just shut them all down, then bring the devices back, one at a time, starting with the primary router.

Although I am still a little confused as to how the 2.5/1G WAN/LAN port functions. Possibly, it is not coming back in the correct configuration.

[jzchen]

I can't say I tried that to be honest. They started back up on their own before we came back home. I didn't even notice the power was back on until I realized I had accidentally turned on a light switch, and the light was on when saw it. (Even then I didn't make the connection that the power was restored, not so smart. It took a few minutes to make the connection)...

This morning I feel better (not 100%) as I hurt my back moving a gas generator to power our fridges last Friday. So this morning I decided to disconnect the AXE11000 ethernet cable from the blue 1 G WAN port. Immediately the AXE11000 loses uplink, even though I immediately plug it into the 2.5 G WAN/LAN port. Following what you say I plug the ethernet cord back into the blue 1 G WAN port, and uplink reestablishes. After a little bit I notice the AXE11000 switches to 6 GHz backhaul, (as I reported it has been maybe 2 weeks or 2 1/2 weeks now). Cool, I unplug the ethernet cord from the blue 1 G WAN port, plug it into the 2.5 G WAN/LAN port. (Shouldn't hurt right, because it's using 6 GHz backhaul)? Wrong! I come back to my computer logged into ASUSwrt (web GUI) and uplink has been disconnected. It notes ethernet backhaul mode and a red slash showing no uplink! It appears I have to keep the 1 G (blue) WAN port connected to keep the uplink active, so I move it back. Ethernet backhaul reconnects, then after a little while: It has now reconnected via 6 GHz backhaul.

[ForkWNY]

I've always found with AiMesh nodes, as Saltgrass mentioned, the AiMesh nodes should never be brought up before the primary router has fully booted and is connected to the WAN. Then you have to power the AiMesh nodes on one at a time...wait for the first one to show up in your Network Map > Aimesh Node, then go ahead and power up the next one, and so on and so forth, until they're all back on and in that AiMesh node list. If you power them all up at once, or power them on before the main primary router has booted up, you're likely to have some problems.

[jzchen]

That’s great to know. Thank you.

I have no idea whether the battery backup supplying the AXE16000 went down or whether it was able to keep it powered. I had replaced the bad SLA batteries with LiFePO4s I had found on Amazon, so I do not know whether it powered up simultaneously with the rest.

The AX86U is on the floor in my son’s room to provide the downstairs corner room of the house signal (so my back didn’t want me tinkering with that as much as possible). It’s a little late now, but I was able to add both the AX86U and the AXE11000 connected to their 2.5 G ports via the AiMesh add a node. Strange thing is, after adding the AX86U, I move it back up to his room, reconnect it via 2.5 G port, and it works normally. I am also able to find the AXE11000 connected by it’s 2.5 G port, and I successfully add it to the AiMesh. But once it restarts it’s immediately disconnected/no uplink. So I add it connected via blue 1 G WAN port, and it appears that has to be connected to keep the uplink! I did try forcing it by setting Priority to 2.5 G port, but that does not appear to work. I suspect the most recent firmware update must have disabled the 2.5 G port as WAN/backhaul…

[jzchen]

Learned something new. We have ethernet ports in most rooms in the house so I connect the nodes there. The wires were run to the closet box where I wall mounted 2 TrendNet TEG-S380 switches, which replaced a Linksys SR2016 (with wailing/failing fan). AiMesh add a node can find nodes through 1 switch, but not the 2nd. I just rearranged the connections to the two switches in a way that all the nodes can be found without moving them. (They all connect through the 1st switch).

I somehow lost all the nodes except the AC68U again, but I am not sure how to recreate it, hence the rearranging ethernet lines and readding the nodes.

[jzchen]

Also found a work around for the 1 G (blue) WAN/LAN port disconnect issue. First select 6 GHz priority. After it switches to 6 GHz backhaul, then you can move the ethernet connection from the 1 G port to the 2.5 G port. After doing that move the Priority setting back to Auto. (This is on the web GUI AiMesh tab on the left, select GT-AXE11000 in the middle, Management tab on the right, Backhaul Connection Priority setting. You do not need to do anything beyond selecting the setting, it automatically applies and reconnects. Just give it a minute or so patience).

[jzchen]

Did some more trying... Currently the AXE11000 is connected via 2.5 G port. It was added back to AiMesh via WiFi signal while connected at the 2.5 G port to the network.

The AiMesh tab (on the left) when selected, the map in the center column shows a grey line with two slashes through it (like a diagonal equal sign) indicating it is not connected via AiMesh, but strangely says "Clients 1". (There are two ethernet printers connected to LAN 3 and LAN 4.) If I click on GT-AXE11000 in the middle column, the right side shows Connection Quality with a red ! point next to it. Clicking on the ! opens a pop up: "Your AiMesh node cannot connect to your uplink AiMesh device. Ensure that both devices have been powered on. If your node still fails to connect, power cycle your devices and move them closer to each other." BUT right underneath a big "Great".

The Network Map tab -> AiMesh Node: 4 (The 4 is blue and clickable). If 4 is selected the right side lists all your nodes. Here the AXE11000 shows Clients: 1 and the symbol of an ethernet port indicating it is connected to the network.

Scratching my head I send a page to one of the printers and it prints....

So the node is connected, it seems backhaul is the 2.5 G port...

[jzchen]

A couple of screenshots on the iOS app. (My apologies upfront I just avoided portions showing the MAC address).