Conference netcad::hub_mgnt

    Hello ?
    
    I just went back to this site, and looked at the FDDI counters again. 
    The customer has asksed me if I have any data about this counter.  I
    told him that I was still looking into it's meaning.
    
    I have looked at the four DECbridge 900MX, and one PEswitch900TX, and
    they are seeing the OVERSIZE frames in their  FDDI port counter
    display.  There are only three other nodes (DECNIS 600's) on the ring,
    and none of these have any errors.  Specifically they have a counter
    called "FDDI Station x link y PDU Length counter" which is NOT incrementing.
    
    Is this incrementing counter a feature of v1.5.2?   I have enabled RING
    purger on the four bridges, and that didnt' get rid of them.  There are
    no ENDNODES on the FDDI.  So I am really confused.
    
    
    

    I just received another call from this customer, who wants to know if
    this counter increments on everyone's network at this pace, or if
    something at this site is strange.
    
    Could someone out there who has a DECswitch 900EF on an FDDI, please
    run HUBwatch, and look into the FDDI Counters window, and tell me if
    the OVERSIZE FRAMES count is incrementing every second, or staying at
    0.
    
    
    I don't need a scientific survey, but just some real data about whether
    this number is only crazy at MY site, to let me know if I need to be 
    worried about this counter.   Each of the Switch modules se the error,
    except the module that was two or three years old...  All are at
    v1.5.2, and NONE of the DECNIS routers (who are the only other three
    nodes on the FDDI) have logged any FDDI errors (oversize or otherwise).
    
    Does anyone else see this counter ?
    
    JR
    

    I looked at a couple DECbridge 900MX and did not see the OVERSIZE
    incrementing. (They all had the value 12 interestingly, this is after 
    months on uptime.) I dunno what it means.
    
    md 

    Wow.   Ok.  I must have a problem then.  ;^(    Mine have been 
    incrementing constantly every second two or three packets, since the 
    installation Thanksgiving weekend.   (big numbers by now...)
    
    Gotta grab a FDDI analyzer.
    
    JR

    Well, 
    
    I just got home from the site, I ordered a Network General FDDI
    Analyzer and took it to the site.  I monitored between a HUB900's
    DECswitch 900EF, and a DECNIS.   While the HUBwatch counter for that
    switch continually incremented it's oversize frame counter, I watched
    the packet SIZE indicator on the sniffer, and the oversize frame error
    indicator.
    
    The NG sniffer did not see a single oversize frame.  In fact, the
    largest frames it saw were 1500 bytes.  It did see some frames less
    than 40 bytes, which confused me.    
    
    I also was very confused by the traffic level.  The HUBWatch traffic
    indicator on all five of the DECswitch modules shows an FDDI traffic
    level jumping between 20% to 55%.     I was really amazed to see that
    the NG saw a level of only 3%.  Why is the HUBwatch traffic meter ten
    times higher than the sniffer?
    
    What does the HUBwatch traffic indicator mean?  Percent of module
    utilization?  Amount of memory use on the switch?   It certainly did
    not correspond to the NG readings.  
    
    What should I do with these oversize frame counters that the customer
    is now annoyed about.  They don't increment on the three DECNIS, or my
    NG sniffer.  Only the DECswitch modules, and only the four newer ones.
    

    
    If you search this file, you'll find a note about the FDDI counters.
    They don't work right now. Maybe the oversize counter has the same
    problems.

I'm also seeing the oversized frame errors and believe its a firware bug?
Has this been confirmed? Is there a fix available?

Geoff..