Conference netcad::hub_mgnt

1063.0. "DETMR Ipx Problems" by BOHIO::WROSARIO () Thu Jun 02 1994 13:05

	This note was posted also in Etherworks conference as note 278.
    
	This note is almost 150 lines and it explain a problem report to 
Colorado witohut any result as of today.  As you'll see the problem is when try
to run some IPX tests under DEC equipment and 3Com Link Builder.  The situation
at the customer is very HOT.  Any inputs will be apprecciate.


	Accounting Department has an application named Solomon, which was 
having problem when they tried to used it.  This application runs under Novell 
IPX, right know they have Novell running with IPX and Coexistence without any 
problem.

	Due to this problem the Solomon people sent Cruz Azul some tests that 
they need to perform in order to "analyze" the LAN and identify if this is the 
problem or not.  Basically what this test made is to create a lot of traffic in 
the LAN for an amount of time and at the end, if we are lucky to see it, it 
display some statistics in reference to the tests that was performed. 

	When you run the test in the area of the accounting department you'll 
see that a PC will hang and then as a result of this all the others PC's 
running the test will hang also.

	When you run the same test in the EDP area where another Novell server 
is running, without any problem but when not using Solomon, the test runs 
without any problem or without any major problem.  Why? because when this occur 
we are using a 3com repeater, 10 BaseT, and not a DEC repeater.  Difference 
between them? No, just the name, because this is not an intelligent product 
this is just a repeater, like when you used a power outlet strip which from one 
connection could give you 6 or 8 additional connections.

	We found a lot of curios things while the tests were performed last 
Thursday, sometimes the tests runs when using just DEC products and then if you 
repeat the tests under the same environment without any change, the test didn't 
run.
	Right know they have two 3com repeaters and some NIC cards, Network 
Interface Controllers, that are not from DEC.  During the tests we made a lot 
of them combining the NIC cards to try to identify if the problem were our 
cards, as the consultant is saying.

	Here is a brief summary of the tests performed last Thursday and the 
results.


Test no. 1
Location EDP Area

The test was performed using NIC cards NE2000, DEC NIC Cards. The connections 
of the PC's was performed via the 3com and the 3com connected to the DEC LAN.

Results - PASS


Test no. 2
Location Accounting

The test was performed using just DEC NIC cards connected via a Repeater 90T 
and the same connected to the DEC LAN.

Results - FAILED


Test no. 3
Location Accounting

The test was performed using just DEC NIC cards connected via a Repeater 90T 
and disconnected from the DEC LAN, just a standalone connection.

Results - FAILED


Test no. 4
Location Quality Control - EDP AREA

The test was performed using DEC NIC cards connected to DEC repeaters 90T and 
the Novell Server connected to the 3com repeater.

Results - FAILED


Test no. 5
Location Quality Control - EDP AREA

The test was performed using DEC NIC cards connected to DEC repeaters 90T and 
the Novell Server connected to DEC repeater 90T also.

Results - FAILED


Test no. 6
Location Quality Control - EDP AREA

The test was performed using DEC NIC cards connected to the 3com repeater, 
including the Novell Server, and the 3com repeater connected to the DEC LAN.

Results - 2 of 3 PC's PASS the test


Test no. 7
Location Quality Control - EDP AREA

For this test I read One of the manuals of the 3com repeaters, and found what I 
tough their repeater's manual said the same that our said.  The 3com repeater 
have some advantage for troubleshooting that ours didn't have, and it is that 
they use a display for connection, another display for traffic, another display 
for partitions and another display for collisions.  In this way you can 
identify more easily any problem just looking at the display.  Our repeaters 
have just one display, and depending of the status of the light, steady, 
blinking or off, the same is telling you if you have connection partitions or 
the port was disable by management.  When I saw management I remembered that we 
worked with the management option last December when we had the TCP/IP problem.  
And the management was left as disable.  This was recommend to in order to 
avoid any other problem at that time, but I said that it won't be helpful for 
testing when another problem arrive, now the problem is here.  If we don't set 
the Hub_management to ENABLE, then the repeater won't know when to partition a 
port due to excess of collisions or when to turned the port off by management 
due to a lot of collisions detected.  So, I proceed to activate the 
Hub_management in just the hub that we were working.  In this case all PC's 
including the server were connected to DEC repeaters 90T and to the DEC LAN.

Results - 4 of 5 PC's pass the test


Test no. 8
Location Quality Control - EDP AREA

Just to make sure that we made something different we turned off the hub 
management and left the connections in the same place, all DEC equipment.

Results - FAILED


All the tests 1 - 8 were set for an amount of 50.  After we found that there is 
something with the Hub_management enable I asked Alberto to increment the test 
to 100 or 500 in order to be able to go out to eat something and then comeback 
to see the results.  It was impossible, the hub was set to enable, the test 
started and the PC start hanging, having the same environment as the one 
mentioned in test no. 7  with the unique difference of the amount.  We started 
trying again but without any success now the test were hanging with the hub 
management disable and enable.

Due to the time I ask Alberto to made some tests in the accounting area in 
order to see what results we found.  Tests were performed using Digital NIC 
cards, with DEC equipment, hub management enable and disable and never see the 
statistics at the end of the tests because the PC's were hanging no matter what 
change we made.