Conference help::decnet-osi_for_vms

    If the target node of the TELL is a phaseV node, then no.  DECnet/OSI
    and DECnet-Plus do not support NICE.
    
    One way to handle this with an OpenVMS PhaseV system might be to
    execute a remote command procedure (ala TELL.COM) and issue a command
    to DECNET_REGISTER and direct the output back:
    
    $ fakencp :== $decnet_register
    $ fakencp show node canth
    
    Directory Service: Local name file
    
    Node name:         LOCAL:.canth
    Phase IV synonym:  CANTH
    Node address:      49::00-04:AA-00-04-00-32-10:21 (4.50)
    
    Number of nodes reported on:  1
    
    >The VXT is a mature product and the opportunity to do engineering
    >changes is very small.
    
    The same situation generally exists with DECnet/OSI.
    
    --Scott
    

The NCP Emulator that comes with DECnet Plus has the TELL functionality that
you are looking for.  Just call it via MCR NCP and you're on your way.  It has
limited functionality in other areas though.  Check out 

		SYS$UPDATE:NCP_EMULATOR.TXT

for more information.

	David

Ok, what you are trying to do is supported by the NCP emulator.  What version of
DECnet PLUS are you running and on which platform?  When I was on the project as
the testing project leader, I had tested that to make sure that the documented
compatibility functions did in fact work.  They did.  Maybe there is something
else going on here.

I used to have a Phase IV node here in Salem that I could try it out on.  I'll
have to see if it is still around somewhere.  Do you have a Phase IV node on
the Easynet that I could TELL to?

	David

    The NCP emulator was designed to allow PhaseV nodes to manage PhaseIV,
    not the other way around.
    
    There is no NML application listening for NICE requests on a
    DECnet-Plus system, thus a TELL command will always fail when the
    target system is DECnet-Plus, regardless of whether that command was
    issued from a PhaseV or PhaseIV system.
    
    --Scott
    

Scott,
	Guess I misread what phase the source node was.  I had thought he was
trying to manage a Phase IV node from a Phase V node.  In that case, my comments
were correct.  You are of course correct in the reverse case.

Regards,
	David

At one time this was considered, see note 1845 in this conference. But
apparently the idea never made it...

Regards,

Oswald

It was probably on the list but never high enough to be scheduled.  As always if
there is a large amount of money in the balance riding on this feature, let
Barbara Karten, the product manager, know.


	David

We have 3 customers now asking for this and I daresay there will be more as
customers migrate their VMS systems from Phase IV to DECnet/OSI.

The VXT Engineering/Support team will disappear by the end of June 1997.

Thanks for the suggestion about using a "Remote Command" to do this. VXT does
use "Remote Command" to launch DECnet X sessions and so the suggestion
sounded very practical. Unfortunately, the source code that handles the
resolution of nodename-to-address doesn't have the error detection that
would have made this easy to integrate and so the changes would be too 
extensive to support without an engineering team to follow up.

I have now asked about the "Revenue Lost"/"Customer Dis-satisfaction" to see
if we can financially influence the implementation of NICE on OpenVMS.

Failing this, the position statment for VXT DECnet name resolution boils 
down to:

  DECnet/OSI and DECnetPlus for OpenVMS do not support the NICE service
  required by VXT to resolve node names to addresses. If you require 
  this feature, you must have a system that provides this service such 
  as DECnet/OSI on Digital UNIX or DECnet Phase IV on OpenVMS.

Thank you all for your replies,

    Dave Faulkner

[Posted by WWW Notes gateway]

It took me about a day to implement this for DECnet/OSI for Digital
UNIX.  This can be done in a separate program for OpenVMS since
you can look at the SYS$NET logical to see what the remote side
is requesting and then start NML or CML as appropriate. 

The protocol code from DECnet/OSI for Digital UNIX should be
easily ported to OpenVMS.  You will need to write routines to
convert names to addresses and addresses to names (and to test
the PhaseIV-ness of an address).  Those functions should be
available via $IPC.

The VXT folks could write the program and give it to OpenVMS
folks to integrate (if it's that critical for them).