M4300 and Timer Schedules / time-range Status always goes to Inactive - How to fix?

Question

We have several M4300 (52G/96x) and switches and I am trying to setup working schedules to switch off POE for several ports

during the night and the weekends when the offices are empty.

The involved switches are:

M4300-52G-PoE+ ProSAFE 48-port 1G PoE+ and 2-port 10GBASE-T and 2-port 10G SFP+, 12.0.17.8, B1.0.0.17

M4300-96X ProSAFE 96-port 10G, 12.0.17.8, B1.0.0.17

When I create a a new Timer Schedule (System->Timer Schedule->Advanced->Global Configuration), it comes up as active.

However as soon as I define a first (or more) entry (System->Timer Schedule->Advanced->Timer Schedule Configuration) for it

the Schedule becomes inactive.

My question is why does the Schedule get set to "Inactive" and how do I get it back "Active"

The Schedules I set are as simple as:

No absolute entry set

--------

Timer Schedule Type: periodic

Timer Schedule Entry: 1

Time Start: 00:00

Time Stop: 07:00

Date Start: 1-Sep-2023

Date End: No End Date

Recurrence Pattern: Daily

Daily Mode: Every Weekday

----------

As soon as I add this, the Timer Schedule status goes to "Inactive".

Why? And how can I get it to active?

The seems to be no documentation on this whatsoever and also next to no mentioning of this feature on the web.

I also need the 2nd and 3rd corresponding entries:

Timer Schedule Type: periodic

Timer Schedule Entry: 2

Time Start: 20:00

Time Stop: 00:00

Date Start: 1-Sep-2023

Date End: No End Date

Recurrence Pattern: Daily

Daily Mode: Every Weekday

-----------

Timer Schedule Type: periodic

Timer Schedule Entry: 3

Time Start: 00:00

Time Stop: 00:00

Date Start: 1-Sep-2023

Date End: No End Date

Recurrence Pattern: Weekly

Weekly Mode: Every Weeks 1 (I also tried to leave it empty)

Weekday: Sun & Sat ticked

-------------

I also tried to find a way to change it to active via CLI, but there doesn't seem to a a command for it.

The only thing I could find on the web was "try to change the scheduled and save it" but that didn't help either.

So I am stuck here.

Is there anybody more knowledgeable then me who can help me to get this seemingly simple configuration to work?

Thank you in advance.

MikeNeuffer · Answer

I order to document my findings:&nbsp;We have undocumented behaviour here:Once a schedule has been configured for a Timer Schedule, the status of the timer schedule (active/inactive) is determined by wether one of the schedules is _currently_ triggering/running or not. Before it is always active.&nbsp;I found a severe bug in the current FW release 12.0.17.13 (not sure if it is also present in older releases):If you update a Schedule of a Timer Scheduleit will immediately reset the affected ethernet portsas soon as you click on &lt;Apply&gt;if the schedule will trigger next in more then a handful minutes.I didn't experiment in oder to find the exact required time differential,but is was able to see the ports being reset when I was clicking on &lt;Apply&gt; about 10min before the Schedule would trigger, and it didn't reset them when the time differential was about 3 minutes.Actually I first tested the 3 minutes differential, then with a modified schedule the 10min differential.&nbsp;This is absolutely&nbsp;reproducible on the M4300 I did my tests on when I was discussing the active/inactive issue with 2nd/3rd level support.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

schumaku · Answer

This...
&nbsp;
Time Start: 00:00
Time Stop: 00:00
&nbsp;
...does not sound meaningful to a network device, for an all-day schedule.

MikeNeuffer · Answer

schumaku&nbsp;First of all thank you for you answer, howeveras I wrote previously, the whole timer schedule goes to inactive as soon as I enter the first entry, so this already invalidates your comment.&nbsp;I've documented the behaviour with a few screenshots:Add a new Timer ScheduleAdd new Timer Schedule&nbsp;The Timer Schedule is activeThe new Timer Schedule is active - but with no Schedules attached yet&nbsp;Add a periodic Schedule to the Timer ScheduleAdd the new periodic schedule to the Timer Schedule by clicking on the &lt;Add&gt; button (not in the screenshot). It makes no difference if I use a day in the past, todays date or some day in the future for "Day Start".According to the documentation this schedule will run (ie switch off POE) Mon-Fri from one minute past midnight until 7am.&nbsp;&nbsp;However:The Timer Schedule has become inactiveNow the Timer Schedule has become inactive.&nbsp;What is wrong here ? How to switch on the schedule?&nbsp;&nbsp;Coming back to your posting, why should 00:00-00:00 not be a meaningful entry?How else should I qualify that POE should be down on the port for the whole day?00:00 - 24:00 is not a valid entry and results in an error:&nbsp;"Error! Invalid 'Time End' format: 24:00"&nbsp;Switching on POE for one minute per day (23:59 - 00:00) by setting it to 00:00 - 23:59 seems kind of non-sensical.The devices (mostly, but not exclusively IP telephones) would start to boot, just to be choked off again almost immediately - not exactly very healthy for the hardware.&nbsp;

schumaku · Answer

MikeNeuffer&nbsp;wrote:
Coming back to your posting, why should 00:00-00:00 not be a meaningful entry?.

You re arguing with the wrong person here my friend. Just another community member here, I can just answer based on some longer experience with several Netgear switch generations which don't support continuous and 24h schedules.
&nbsp;
MikeNeuffer&nbsp;wrote:
How else should I qualify that POE should be down on the port for the whole day?
00:00 - 24:00 is not a valid entry and results in an error:&nbsp;
"Error! Invalid 'Time End' format: 24:00"

This would make more sense, however - your result is predictable ...&nbsp;
&nbsp;
MikeNeuffer&nbsp;wrote:
Switching on POE for one minute per day (23:59 - 00:00) by setting it to 00:00 - 23:59 seems kind of non-sensical.

It won't kill any hardware if its powered up for one minute only. Not nice, I admit. Let's see of you can get some better answers from the Netgear side...
&nbsp;
MikeNeuffer&nbsp;wrote:
The devices (mostly, but not exclusively IP telephones) would start to boot, just to be choked off again almost immediately - not exactly very healthy for the hardware.

Not nice, I admit. Let's see of you can get some better answers from the Netgear side...
&nbsp;
Had lengthy discussion in the past over this oddity already.