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Conference azur::mcc

Title:DECmcc user notes file. Does not replace IPMT.
Notice:Use IPMT for problems. Newsletter location in note 6187
Moderator:TAEC::BEROUD
Created:Mon Aug 21 1989
Last Modified:Wed Jun 04 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:6497
Total number of notes:27359

4742.0. "SSB V1.3 Autoconfig problems" by ADO75A::BOUCHER () Tue Mar 23 1993 01:33

    Help, please.
    
    I am running SSB V1.3 on a large network (Approx 12 domains, 1500 nodes
    including PC's), and the protocols used are DECnet and TCP/IP.  I have
    tried running the IP autoconfiguration utility and the only device that
    is found is the gateway that I specified (cisco router, running IGRP)
    and its 7 interfaces.  No other nodes were found.
    
    When I ran the PhaseIV autoconfiguration utility the only way that I
    could get it to work was by specifying the domains to search (would not
    accept more than 2), as well as search by address.  This took upwards
    of 5 hours.  When the map was drawn it consisted of multitudes of
    domains, some with only one node in them.  In addition, nodes that
    could not be reached (because they weren't there) were also in the
    registration files.  If I selected all nodes in a LAN it would try the
    starting node selected (my node) then fail when it tried to contact the
    router (no NML object).  I also tried nodes in selected areas and
    specifying a seed node in each area, but with no luck.
    
    Q1:  How many nodes in a domain is the S/W set for, and can it be
    changed in this version ?
    
    Q2:  Is there any way that the autoconfig can interogate either a
    router or a nodes NCP database for other known nodes, in order to
    reduce the time that it searches for nodes ?
    
    Q3:  What does the IP autoconfiguration rely on in order to discover
    nodes ?  Is this a lengthy process as well, as we are in an evaluation
    against HP's OPENview, which has very good autodiscovery (for IP
    devices) ?
    
    Q4:  Once all nodes are discovered and registered, is there a way of
    discovering new nodes without repeating what you have already done in a
    new domain ?
    
    Your help is appreciated.
    
    
    Reece Boucher
    Adelaide, Australia
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4742.1TOOK::JCH486::huangJoAnn HuangMon Mar 29 1993 16:3638
Re.: -1

>>    Q1:  How many nodes in a domain is the S/W set for, and can it be
>>    changed in this version ?

      Maximun is 40 and minimun is 3 per domain.
    
>>    Q2:  Is there any way that the autoconfig can interogate either a
>>    router or a nodes NCP database for other known nodes, in order to
>>    reduce the time that it searches for nodes ?

      Autoconfig does the configuration search based on the router(s) discovered
      by UCX.  In general, you should not need to change this/these in the .CF
      file, but you may add distant router(s) for your need.  However, real
      time consuming process is the NCP command on these discovered nodes.
      Autoconfig has no control on speeding up NCP processes.
    
>>    Q3:  What does the IP autoconfiguration rely on in order to discover
>>    nodes ?  Is this a lengthy process as well, as we are in an evaluation
>>    against HP's OPENview, which has very good autodiscovery (for IP
>>    devices) ?

      Autoconfig issues UCX commands to discover nodes.  The performance 
      of this discovery process should be compatible with HP.  
    
>>    Q4:  Once all nodes are discovered and registered, is there a way of
>>    discovering new nodes without repeating what you have already done in a
>>    new domain ?

      The current Autoconfig is not providing this capability.  We are
      working on new AutoDiscovery function to include this feature in some
      future release.


Regards,
JoAnn
    

4742.2Thanks, but more understanding neededADO75A::BOUCHERMon Mar 29 1993 19:3935
    JoAnn,
    
    Thanks for the reply, but I am still a little unclear.
    
>>    Q1:  How many nodes in a domain is the S/W set for, and can it be
>>    changed in this version ?

    Are you referring to PhaseIV or IP ?  If PhaseIV, what is the config
    file to edit ?
        
>>    Q2:  Is there any way that the autoconfig can interogate either a
>>    router or a nodes NCP database for other known nodes, in order to
>>    reduce the time that it searches for nodes ?

    Your answer refers to UCX.  Is there a way that this can be done within
    the PhaseIV autoconfig ?
    
    Currently the only way to discover remote DECnet nodes is to search for
    adjacencies, and this means interogating every node.  Can it go to a
    remote NCP database for example, and get a list of all available nodes
    from that database ?  This would speed up the configuration time
    considerabley, and verification of reachability could be done at
    registration time.
    
    Q:  Is there a clean way of doing a configuration in a network that has
    routers that do not support NICE ?  I tried following the example in
    the manual of specifying a seed node on the far side of the router, but
    it went straight to the router, then failed.
    
    Regards,
    
    
    Reece..
    
    	
4742.3TOOK::JCH486::huangJoAnn HuangTue Mar 30 1993 11:5550
    
>>    Q1:  How many nodes in a domain is the S/W set for, and can it be
>>    changed in this version ?

    Are you referring to PhaseIV or IP ?  If PhaseIV, what is the config
    file to edit ?

    >>I meant for the IP Autoconfiguration (isn't it what you are trying 
    >>to do?) ... The min and max numbers refer to the number of hosts connected
    >>in a domain and are used by the IP autoconfig mapper algorium.  
        
>>    Q2:  Is there any way that the autoconfig can interogate either a
>>    router or a nodes NCP database for other known nodes, in order to
>>    reduce the time that it searches for nodes ?

    Your answer refers to UCX.  Is there a way that this can be done within
    the PhaseIV autoconfig ?
 
    >>UCX is used by IP Autoconfig to discover the default router to start
    >>with.  By the way, the configuration file generated by this utility
    >>is "MCC_<your_domain_name>.CF".  
   
    Currently the only way to discover remote DECnet nodes is to search for
    adjacencies, and this means interogating every node.  Can it go to a
    remote NCP database for example, and get a list of all available nodes
    from that database ?  This would speed up the configuration time
    considerabley, and verification of reachability could be done at
    registration time.

    >>You are talking about the DECnet Phase IV Autoconfiguration utility
    >>here, right?  Basically, it executes the following NCP commands:
    >>      NCP> TELL <node> SHOW EXEC CHAR
    >>      NCP> TELL <node> SHOW ACTIVE CIRCUIT
    >>      NCP> TELL <node> SHOW LINE <circuit> CHAR
    >>The Phase IV autoconfig utility rely on output from these commands.
    >>I don't think you can do any tuning within the utility at the moment.
    
    Q:  Is there a clean way of doing a configuration in a network that has
    routers that do not support NICE ?  I tried following the example in
    the manual of specifying a seed node on the far side of the router, but
    it went straight to the router, then failed.

    >>I don't have good answer for this.  We can not test everything in our
    >>environment.  Some work, and some don't ...  Hopefully, there will be
    >>a plan to clean this up in the future.

Regards,
JoAnn


4742.4TOOK::FLETCHERRobin G. Fletcher ..Tue Mar 30 1993 13:276
Non-address based searches for DECnet Phase IV AutoConfig
rely on the routers understanding NICE queries.  

This is a severe limitation of the current big-bang
DECnet PhaseIV AutoConfig.  We are working on this
issue.