Conference 7.286::fddi

899.0. "LAT failover problem" by GIDDAY::CHONG (Andrew Chong - Sydney CSC ) Tue Mar 16 1993 01:48

I posted the following note in LATMASTER conference. 
Would appreciate any comment on it. 
One thing I haven't been able to find out is the firmware version of the DEMFA.
How do I find out what the frimware version ? can this be done online ?

FXDRIVER is X-20.


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Note 946.0           LAT$LINK deleted but FXAn device stays           No replies
GIDDAY::CHONG "Andrew Chong - Sydney CSC "           42 lines  15-MAR-1993 07:03
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Hi,

	Would like to get an opinion about a problem reported to me. I have 
a feeling it's hardaware but would like a second opinion.

	The customer has a few VAX6420 and VAX9000. Each system has an FDDI 
and an Ethernet controller. At boot time LAT is started on the FDDI controller. 
The customer would like, in the event of a failure on the FDDI controller,
switch LAT traffic to use the ethernet controller via a command procedure. A
similar procedure is used to switch from ethernet to FDDI .This works fine on 
all except one system, A VAX6420. 

	The command procedure basically does the following:

	- sets decnet line and circuit (MFA-0) to state off
	- clear decnet line and circuit (MFA-0)
	- latcp set link LAT$LINK/STATE=OFF
	- latcp delete link LAT$LINK

	then
	- set decnet line and circuit (BNA-0) to state on
	- latcp create link LAT$LINK/DEVICE=MFA0:/STATE=ON
	
	This failover procedure is currently being tested by disconnecting 
the cable at the FDDI/Ethernet controller. The comm procedure is then run 
to do the switch over. On this one VAX620, switching from ethernet to FDDI
is fine but it will not do the reverse (FDDI to ehternet). 

	The observed symptom is that when the comm procedure is run, the 
LAT link LAT$LINK gets deleted but device FXAn still hangs around. Furthermore,
the link counter in latcp suddently shows up with some high number (the same
number on all entries in the link counters.)

	Because all the systems run same version of software (VMS V5.5-2,
    LAT patch version yet to be checked), I am inclined to think that this 
    is a hardware problem. It is important to note that under normal 
    condition , there is no problem observed on the FDDI controller. 
    The symptom can be reproduced everytime when the cable is disconnected. 

	Any thoughts ,comments ,similar experiences welcome.

Andrew

To find the firmware revision level of the DEMFA, in SDA do
SHOW LAN/DEV=FXA.  If it doesn't show up there (I'm not sure if
it is displayed), do EX FXA+804 which contains the contents of the
XDEV register which has the revision in the 3rd byte and 0823 device
type in the low word.  For other than V5.5-2 you might have to look
around this location but just look for the 0823.