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Conference 7.286::fddi

Title:FDDI - The Next Generation
Moderator:NETCAD::STEFANI
Created:Thu Apr 27 1989
Last Modified:Thu Jun 05 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:2259
Total number of notes:8590

1690.0. "NIF frames stopped" by CX3PST::NOTAMI::A_ANDERSON (CX03 2/H13 NSU/VAX MacGhille Aindrais) Tue May 16 1995 18:39

Hello All,

I got a call from a customer today complaining that his Alpha's stopped 
transmitting NIF frames after a reboot.  He would like to know why and
how to restart the NIF frames.  He is monitoring this with a sniffer.  All 
applications and systems appear to be running correctly.

Is it possible to stop sending NIF frames?  Or is his sniffer just lying to 
him. 



Thanks,

Alan Anderson
Network Support CSC CS
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name		DateLines
1690.1NETCAD::STEFANIWelcome to the Revolution!Tue May 16 1995 21:2014
>>Is it possible to stop sending NIF frames?  Or is his sniffer just lying to 
>>him. 
    
    His Sniffer's probably lying to him.  Did the adapter come back up
    after the reboot?  The NIF frames are controlled by the SMT code in the
    adapter firmware and as long as the driver initialized the adapter
    properly, will work regardless of the OS/CPU environment.
    
    Silly questions...what kind of Alpha system, FDDI adapter (model?), and
    operating system is running?
    
    Alpha's don't transmit NIF frames on their own.  :-)
    
    /l
1690.2Stil trying to gather more information.CX3PST::NOTAMI::A_ANDERSONCX03 2/H13 NSU/VAX MacGhille AindraisThu May 18 1995 14:3118
A little more info

The customer and I stopped playing phone tag, and he has two nodes on the FDDI 
ring showing this problem.  He looks at the down stream neighbor of one of 
these two nodes does not list the upstream address in its line status.  It list
an address of 00-00-F8-00-00-00.  So its not just his sniffer.

The customer will try to gather the VMS version and SYS$FZdriver version and 
call me back. 

Every thing is running normally except for the lack of NIF packets from these 
two nodes.

I tried to tell him they were not critical for the proper operation of a FDDI 
ring, he still wants an answer.


Alan
1690.3VMS 6.1CX3PST::NOTAMI::A_ANDERSONCX03 2/H13 NSU/VAX MacGhille AindraisThu May 18 1995 19:2720
Its a DEC 3000/300 running VMS 6.1 THe FCdriver is:

    structure level: 2
        maximum record size: 512
        module name: "SYS$FCDRIVER"
        module version: "X-3"
        creation   date/time: 14-APR-1994 11:47
  

I am sending them the AXpLAN03_061 ECO to see if this helps.

In talking to the system manager, they only rebooted one of these nodes, but two 
of them stopped sending the Nif frame.  Now after a day and a half the node that 
was rebooted started to send the NIF frame.


Alan
1690.4NETCAD::STEFANIWelcome to the Revolution!Thu May 18 1995 22:285
    Since the customer is running a DEC 3000, I'll assume they are using a
    DEFTA adapter.  Verify that the adapter is running the latest firmware
    revision.  I don't know what's current.
    
    /l
1690.5Firmware version 3.1CX3PST::NOTAMI::A_ANDERSONCX03 2/H13 NSU/VAX MacGhille AindraisWed May 24 1995 13:4511
Ok got the firmware version.

Both nodes have a Hw Version if 20312E31.  From what information I was
able to come up with that breaks down to: 
20 = Hardware version, 31 = Firmware version, 2e31 = Device type.

I have the complete SDa SHOW LAN/FULL from both systems if you need and more 
information.


Alan