Troubleshooting
Authentication failed
Section titled “Authentication failed”Cause: Wrong credential set for that device, or DPAPI file encrypted by a different Windows user.
Fix: Check which credential set the device accepts. If the file was created by a different user:
cd src.\setup_credentials.ps1Always run as the same Windows user that runs Netpilot.
Error reading SSH protocol banner
Section titled “Error reading SSH protocol banner”Cause: Device dropped the connection before the SSH handshake completed. Transient network issue.
Fix: Retry. Use --retry to re-run only the failed devices:
python -m src --task SNMPV3 --commands snmpv3 --retry --workers 10Command read timeout
Section titled “Command read timeout”Cause: Device is slow to respond to commands.
Fix: Netpilot already uses send_command_timing for Alcatel devices. If timeouts persist, reduce --workers to lower concurrent load on the device.
Failed to read credential files
Section titled “Failed to read credential files”Cause: Credential file missing or encrypted by a different Windows user account.
Fix: Re-run setup_credentials.ps1 as the correct user. See Credential setup.
No IP column found
Section titled “No IP column found”Cause: Status CSV passed to --status-file does not have a host or ip column.
Fix: Add a host column to your CSV, or rename the existing IP column to host.
1344 invalid devices (or similar count)
Section titled “1344 invalid devices (or similar count)”Cause: Device hostnames contain parentheses or other special characters that earlier versions rejected.
Fix: Upgrade to the latest release — parentheses are stripped automatically in update_inventory.py.
Alcatel-specific notes
Section titled “Alcatel-specific notes”No configure terminal mode
Section titled “No configure terminal mode”AOS OmniSwitches use direct commands only. Do not add configure terminal to Alcatel command files.
CERTIFY mode banner
Section titled “CERTIFY mode banner”Some switches print Setting CERTIFY Timeout for 800 seconds on login. Netpilot handles this automatically — no action needed.
poe_switch vs dataswitch
Section titled “poe_switch vs dataswitch”Older firmware (poe_switch role) uses different syntax:
| Feature | alcatel_dataswitch | alcatel_poeswitch |
|---|---|---|
| AES | sha256+aes256 | sha256+aes |
| Trap | snmp authentication trap enable | snmp authentication-trap enable |
Using the wrong file causes silent misconfiguration. Verify the role in devices.csv.
AOS-W WLC syntax
Section titled “AOS-W WLC syntax”WLCs use auth-prot sha / priv-prot aes — not Cisco-style auth sha / priv aes. See the Alcatel WLC vendor page.