WAN_Support_for_DIGITAL_UNIX_Systems________________ Release Notes May 1997 These Release Notes are applicable to the product WAN Support V3.0 for DIGITAL UNIX[R] Systems. You should read these Release Notes before attempting to install the product. Operating System: DIGITAL UNIX, V4.0. Software Version: V3.0. Digital Equipment Corporation Maynard, Massachusetts ________________________________________________________________ May 1997 Digital Equipment Corporation makes no representations that the use of its products in the manner described in this publication will not infringe on existing or future patent rights, nor do the descriptions contained in this publication imply the granting of licenses to make, use, or sell equipment or software in accordance with the description. Possession, use, or copying of the software described in this publication is authorized only pursuant to a valid written license from Digital or an authorized sublicensor. © Digital Equipment Corporation 1996 The postpaid Reader's Comments forms at the end of this document request your critical evaluation to assist in preparing future documentation. The following are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation: AlphaServer, DEC, DECnet, DECnet-DOS, DECserver, DECstation, DECsystem, DECterm, DECUS, DECwindows, DNA, LAT, MUXserver, OpenVMS, PDP, Q-bus, ULTRIX, UNIBUS, VAX, VAXcluster, VAXstation, VMS, VT, VT300, XUI, and the DIGITAL logo. The following are third party trademarks: OSF/1 is a registered trademark of Open Software Foundation, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, licensed exclusively through X/Open Company Ltd. This document is available on CDROM. This document was prepared using VAX DOCUMENT Version 2.1. _________________________________________________________________ Contents Preface................................................... vii 1 Installation 1.1 DMS Not Supported............................. 1-1 1.2 Installation Subset Interdependencies......... 1-1 2 Configuration 2.1 Configurator (wansetup) May Crash When Configuring Relay PVCs........................ 2-1 2.2 Inoperative Help Key.......................... 2-1 2.3 DECterm Interactions Between DIGITAL UNIX and ULTRIX........................................ 2-1 3 Operation 3.1 NCL SHOW Commands May Initiate Core Dumps..... 3-1 3.2 SSCC Driver Requires Rebuild of Kernel........ 3-1 3.3 X.25 Mail..................................... 3-1 3.3.1 Received Messages ........................ 3-2 3.3.2 Configuring X.25 Mail..................... 3-2 3.3.3 Error Messages in mail.log When Sending and Receiving X.25 Mail................... 3-2 3.4 WAN Device Drivers............................ 3-2 3.4.1 PCI Configuration......................... 3-2 3.4.2 PBXDI Line Drivers........................ 3-3 3.4.2.1 Using PBXDI Cards on EISA Buses......... 3-3 3.4.2.2 Reported Interface Types................ 3-3 3.4.3 Creating NCL Management Entities for Users of the WAN API............................ 3-3 iii 3.4.4 DSY and DNSES Line Drivers................ 3-3 3.4.4.1 DSY and DNSES Line Drivers Require Device Unit to be Enabled............... 3-3 3.4.4.2 NCL Command Sequences................... 3-4 3.4.4.3 Boot-Time Hanging....................... 3-4 3.4.5 Modems and Modem Eliminators.............. 3-5 3.4.5.1 Interchange Circuits.................... 3-5 3.4.5.2 Local and Remote Loopback Tests......... 3-5 3.4.5.3 Retraining (Loss of Clear To Send)...... 3-5 3.4.5.4 Modem Connect Management................ 3-5 3.4.6 Scripts That Need /vmunix to be Active.... 3-5 3.5 Common Trace Facility......................... 3-6 3.5.1 Installing CTF After X.25................. 3-6 3.5.2 CTF Crashes After Several Hours of Live Tracing................................... 3-6 3.5.3 Multiple Traces of "x25 client" on Gateways Not Supported.................... 3-6 3.5.4 Time Displayed Inaccurately............... 3-6 3.5.5 CTF Remote Trace Over TCP................. 3-7 3.5.6 CTF Cannot be Paused for a Long Time...... 3-7 3.5.7 Tracing on the Local Node While the Node Name is Specified and DECnet is Used as Transport................................. 3-7 3.5.8 Option "notruncate" in CTF Does Not Work Without "full" Option..................... 3-8 3.6 ISDN.......................................... 3-8 3.6.1 Starting IP/ISDN When Kernel Rebuild Was Required.................................. 3-8 3.6.2 Delay When Configuring IP/ISDN Hosts...... 3-8 3.6.3 Lockmode 4 Not Supported for ISDN......... 3-9 3.6.4 X.25 Clear Confirm Packets Sometimes Lost in X.25 over ISDN......................... 3-9 3.6.5 Lockup While Attempting X.25 Call Over ISDN...................................... 3-9 3.7 WAN Datalinks................................. 3-10 3.7.1 System May Crash When Repeatedly Enabling and Disabling LLC2 Subentities............ 3-10 iv 4 Documentation 4.1 Clarification of Behavior of X25Decode........ 4-1 4.2 Available X.25 Documentation.................. 4-1 4.3 Location of Documentation..................... 4-2 v _________________________________________________________________ Preface These Release Notes are applicable to WAN Support for DIGITAL UNIX Systems V3.0. You should read these Release Notes before attempting to install the product. The Release Notes are divided into four chapters. o Chapters 1, 2, and 3 contain information that you should be aware of and possible problems that may arise during installation, configuration, and operation respectively. Where appropriate, solutions to those problems, or workarounds, are provided. o Chapter 4 details the documentation supplied with this version of WAN Support for DIGITAL UNIX Systems. vii 1 _________________________________________________________________ Installation 1.1 DMS Not Supported WAN Support for DIGITAL UNIX Systems is not supported for installation in a dataless environment (DMS). 1.2 Installation Subset Interdependencies If you do not intend to install all the subsets provided in the kit, refer to Appendix B of the WAN Support for DIGITAL UNIX Systems - Installation Guide for details of the subset interdependencies. You should do this before invoking the installation script. Installation 1-1 2 _________________________________________________________________ Configuration 2.1 Configurator (wansetup) May Crash When Configuring Relay PVCs After you add a Relay PVC and modify it, if you attempt to add another Relay PVC, the configurator may crash. In addition, adding more than one Relay PVC in a single session of wansetup may corrupt the PVC list. To avoid this problem, add one Relay PVC, then save the configuration and exit. Repeat this operation for as many Relay PVCs as you need to configure. 2.2 Inoperative Help Key While either the basic or advanced mode of wansetup is running in a DECterm window started from an ULTRIX system, the Help key does not work. Press to obtain help, or issue the following command to enable the Help key before running wansetup: # /usr/bin/X11/xmodmap -e "add Mod5 = Help" 2.3 DECterm Interactions Between DIGITAL UNIX and ULTRIX The WAN Support for DIGITAL UNIX Systems-Configuration Guide recommends that you set the terminal type to vt320 when running in a DECterm window. There is a problem with setting the terminal type and saving the configuration when operating in a heterogeneous network of DIGITAL UNIX and ULTRIX machines. If your home directory is shared between systems running different operating systems, the DXterm defaults file written by a DIGITAL UNIX DECterm may cause the spawning of DECterms on ULTRIX systems to fail. It is recommended that you do not save the DECterm configuration when running in a heterogeneous network. Configuration 2-1 3 _________________________________________________________________ Operation This chapter provides information that you should be aware of prior to using WAN Support for DIGITAL UNIX Systems. The chapter is divided into a number of major sections. For: o X.25 Mail: refer to Section 3.3; o WAN Device Drivers: refer to Section 3.4; o Common Trace Facility: refer to Section 3.5; and o ISDN: refer to Section 3.6. 3.1 NCL SHOW Commands May Initiate Core Dumps Issuing such NCL SHOW commands as the following may initiate NCL core dumps: ncl> show x25 access template * all To avoid this, specify the names of the attributes to be displayed rather than specifying ALL. 3.2 SSCC Driver Requires Rebuild of Kernel Although this kit supports dynamically loadable subsystems, the SSCC driver, which uses the integral synchronous communications port on DEC 3000 systems, still requires the kernel to be rebuilt and your system rebooted. Instructions are provided when you run the wansetup kernel utility and select "scc" as your device. This problem will be remedied in subsequent versions of DIGITAL UNIX. 3.3 X.25 Mail Operation 3-1 3.3.1 Received Messages Five blank lines are prepended to messages received by the x25mail utility. 3.3.2 Configuring X.25 Mail You must specify a template when configuring X.25 Mail. If this is not done, the following message appears in the mail.log file: /var/adm/syslog.dated/22-Jul-14:29/mail.log < Jul 22 15:45:32 pardon Master Mailer[734]: Error: MakeCall Specified template does not exist 3.3.3 Error Messages in mail.log When Sending and Receiving X.25 Mail When sending and receiving X.25 Mail, the following error message may appear in the file /var/adm/syslog.dated /May 1, 1997/mail.log file: Apr 3 11:24:12 alfons Slave Mailer[1609]: X25ReadData Error: Operation failed - call cleared This message does not represent a failure to transfer the mail. 3.4 WAN Device Drivers 3.4.1 PCI Configuration With certain combinations of I/O adapters including PBXDPs the console firmware on some systems (particularly AlphaServer 4100 and AlphaServer 4000 systems) will be unable to complete PCI configuration. This is due to an otherwise harmless bug in the PCI interface chip on the PBXDP. The bug results in the firmware thinking the PBXDP is making multiple requests for huge blocks of PCI I/O address space. It is recommended that any system using a PBXDP upgrade the firmware to the latest appropriate version of firmware that will be included in the V3.8 (or later) Firmware CD. In particular, AlphaServer 4000 and AlphaServer 4100 systems should be upgraded to firmware V3.0 or later. 3-2 Operation It should be noted that the version of the firmware CD is not the same as the version number of all the different console firmware images contained on the CD. 3.4.2 PBXDI Line Drivers 3.4.2.1 Using PBXDI Cards on EISA Buses The use of the PBXDI card on EISA bus systems is not supported at this time. 3.4.2.2 Reported Interface Types Due to limitations in the hardware of the PBXDI card, it is not possible to distinguish between EIA-232-D (V.24) and V.35 cables. Both these types of cables are reported by the modem connect entity as V.35 interfaces. 3.4.3 Creating NCL Management Entities for Users of the WAN API The network management entities necessary to establish a configuration for use with the Direct Driver Application Programming Interface to the WAN Drivers are created when the wddsetup utility is run. This utility is either run directly when the WAN Drivers and Datalinks subsets are installed or as part of the wansetup utility when other parts of the X.25 product are installed. Programmers wishing to use the HDLC and LAPB Application Programming Interface to the WAN Drivers and Datalinks will have to manually configure the HDLC and LAPB management entities. The HDLC and LAPB entities are usually created when the wansetup utility is run to build an X.25 configuration. WAN Datalinks programmers should read the X.25 for DIGITAL UNIX-Configuration Guide and the X.25 for DIGITAL UNIX-Management Guide to become familiar with these entities. 3.4.4 DSY and DNSES Line Drivers 3.4.4.1 DSY and DNSES Line Drivers Require Device Unit to be Enabled The DSY and DNSES line drivers will not function properly unless the device unit entity is present and in the Running state. To find out whether the device unit entity for a particular device is in the correct state, enter the NCL command: Operation 3-3 show device unit state If it is not in the correct state, enter the commands: ncl> create device unit name ncl> enable device unit If you enter a large number of NCL commands while the device unit is not running, some commands (for example, enable lapb link) may fail with the error message No Resource Available. 3.4.4.2 NCL Command Sequences Care is required when issuing disable, set, and enable NCL command sequences on DSY Modem Connect Line entities, or on LAPB/HDLC entities that use DSY Modem Connect Line entities as the physical line. If multiple instances of these commands are issued in quick succession, for example from a script, the DSY driver will exhaust its command buffer pool and halt operation. A firmware reload is required to bring the device out of this state. 3.4.4.3 Boot-Time Hanging If a line on the DSY is connected to a modem that does not terminate the TestMode, RingIndicate, or SpeedSelect lines correctly, the system can hang on a reboot with the message intr: stray interrupt vector=2048, ipl=4 displayed repeatedly. The solution to this problem is to halt the machine, and set the BOOT_RESET console environment variable to ON using the command: >>> setenv BOOT_RESET ON The machine can now be booted safely, and the problem will not show up in future reboots. 3-4 Operation 3.4.5 Modems and Modem Eliminators 3.4.5.1 Interchange Circuits Some types of modems and modem eliminators may leave interchange circuits, such as Ring Indicator (CCITT 125) and Test Indicator (CCITT 142), unterminated. This condition will allow these signals to float and cause continual device interrupts, with a corresponding loss of system performance. You should verify that signals are correctly terminated, and rectify this situation if they are not. 3.4.5.2 Local and Remote Loopback Tests Information sheet EK-BS19D-IS-001 outlines conditions under which the adapter connector 12-27591-01 should be used. It should be noted that if this adapter connector is used then automatic local and remote loopback tests can no longer be performed. 3.4.5.3 Retraining (Loss of Clear To Send) If the modem drops CTS (CCITT 106) for a period greater than the value of the Maximum Enable Transmit Timer attribute of the Modem Connect Line entity (which has a default of 2 seconds), Modem Control will be cycled by dropping DTR (CCITT 108.2) and RTS (CCITT 105). If this situation causes problems, the value of the Maximum Enable Transmit Timer attribute should be increased. 3.4.5.4 Modem Connect Management If a Modem Connect line is deleted, then the Modem Connect data ports must also be deleted before reusing the associated communications port. The data port can be deleted by disabling the Modem Connect Client. 3.4.6 Scripts That Need /vmunix to be Active The following scripts depend on netstat -i and cannot be run if the active kernel is something other than /vmunix: setld -v WDABASE200 setld -d XXAIP200 cons_setup cons_setup is from the XXAEXAMPLES200 subset. Operation 3-5 3.5 Common Trace Facility 3.5.1 Installing CTF After X.25 If X.25 was installed followed by CTF, then the following messages appear: To complete your installation of DEC CTF for DIGITAL UNIX, please perform the following step: -- Configure CTF by executing the command: # /usr/sbin/ctfsetup Instead of executing /usr/sbin/ctfsetup, you should execute the command: /usr/sbin/wansetup KERNEL as this configures all the components of X.25, including CTF. 3.5.2 CTF Crashes After Several Hours of Live Tracing When you use the live trace function in CTF for an extended time, CTF may experience a memory fault that causes the program to halt and generate a core file. To avoid this situation, use the detached tracing functionality described in sections 3.5.2, 3.6.2, and 3.7.3 of the CTF for DIGITAL UNIX Systems - CTF User's Guide. 3.5.3 Multiple Traces of "x25 client" on Gateways Not Supported There is a limitation when tracing the x25 client tracepoint on remote Gateways. The Gateway will support only one trace session at a time for this tracepoint. If there is already an x25 client trace session started on a Gateway, any attempts to create further x25 client trace sessions will appear to work, with CTF returning notification of tracepoints being traced, but no trace records will ever be received from the Gateway. 3.5.4 Time Displayed Inaccurately It is not possible to display the times from remote non DIGITAL UNIX nodes as local times. Using the set time local command while tracing such nodes will cause timestamps to be displayed incorrectly as the remote nodes do not supply time zone information. 3-6 Operation 3.5.5 CTF Remote Trace Over TCP The TCP port number for CTF remote tracing has been corrected. Consequently, remote tracing over TCP between two machines, one with this version of CTF and one with an earlier version, is no longer possible. Either the older version of CTF should be updated, or DECnet should be used as an alternative transport. 3.5.6 CTF Cannot be Paused for a Long Time An error in CTF will not allow high activity traces to be paused for an extended length of time. For instance, this error will occur if you start tracing a X.25 Protocol DTE dte-0 with the command CTF> start x25 proto dte dte-0 /live /full and pause the trace with the Pause command. If there is a lot of activity over this circuit, after approximately 30 minutes the CTF buffers will fill, and CTF will exit with a access violation. To remedy this error, tracepoints should not be paused for an extended length of time. Where possible, Stop should be used in preference to Pause. 3.5.7 Tracing on the Local Node While the Node Name is Specified and DECnet is Used as Transport If the user started a trace in CTF specifying the transport to be DECnet and the node to be the local node as follows: CTF> start node , transport=decnet the following error message will be displayed : Connection failed: Node Name Translation Failed Cannot process command: Connection Failed It is recommended that the user specify the node name to be 0 (zero) instead of the actual name when the tracepoint being traced is on the local node. CTF> start node 0 , transport=decnet Operation 3-7 or CTF> set default node 0 CTF> start , transport=decnet 3.5.8 Option "notruncate" in CTF Does Not Work Without "full" Option CTF trace output is truncated if it is wider than the screen. If you are interested in the call packet data, the use of the option full is recommended. For a more readable display, you should increase the width of the window that is running the trace. 3.6 ISDN 3.6.1 Starting IP/ISDN When Kernel Rebuild Was Required When configuring IP over ISDN, certain configurations require the kernel to be rebuilt and the system rebooted. After the reboot, you must configure IP over ISDN using wansetup advanced. After this, to start ISDN correctly, you must issue the following command: # wanstartup RESTART That is, you must specify the RESTART option instead of the START option. Subsequent reboots will not require this. 3.6.2 Delay When Configuring IP/ISDN Hosts When configuring IP/ISDN, you will enter a hostname that identifies a remote IP/ISDN host. If your ISDN system uses a name server, such as BIND or NIS, there will be a delay after you exit that screen if the hostname you enter is not known to the name server. The delay could be quite long, but eventually the configuration program will display the next screen. This delay will also occur if you enter a local IP/ISDN hostname not configured in the name server. If you add the local and remote hostnames to the name server, this delay will not occur. 3-8 Operation 3.6.3 Lockmode 4 Not Supported for ISDN Lockmode=4 is not supported for ISDN in this release. It is suggested that lockmode=3 be used. This can be done by editing the file: /etc/sysconfigtab and inserting the following: generic: lockmode=3 3.6.4 X.25 Clear Confirm Packets Sometimes Lost in X.25 over ISDN In dynamic call control for ISDN, when one end of an ISDN link sends a CLEAR CONFIRM packet for the last VC in use, it clears the ISDN call and shuts down LAPB. However, the CLEAR CONFIRM packet can be lost during LAPB shutdown. 3.6.5 Lockup While Attempting X.25 Call Over ISDN When an X.25 call is attempted over the ISDN interface and the call is unsuccessful, a timeout can cause the LAPB machine to become locked in the halted state. From that time on, no ISDN calls can be made over the X.25 interface to ISDN. If the LAPB machine is locked in the halted state, then: o in the NCL facility, the LAPB link state is shown as halted; and o an attempt to perform an X29 login will return the message Layer 2 is disconnected The LAPB state machine moves from the initialising state to the halted state when it times out. Normally (for synchronous devices) when the physical layer comes up the state machine will move back to the running layer. However, ISDN call control does not automatically reschedule calls, and so the physical layer never comes up and LAPB remains in the halted state. Enter the following NCL commands: ncl> disable lapb link ncl> enable lapb link Operation 3-9 and reattempt the call. 3.7 WAN Datalinks 3.7.1 System May Crash When Repeatedly Enabling and Disabling LLC2 Subentities If you run a shell script that rapidly enables and disables the LLC2 subentities, a system crash may result. To avoid this problem, enable and disable the LLC2 entities by using the supplied wanstartup and wanshutdown commands. 3-10 Operation 4 _________________________________________________________________ Documentation 4.1 Clarification of Behavior of X25Decode The description of X25Decode in both the man page and programming documentation is contradictory in that in one place it is suggested an int value is returned for packet-size, window-size, etc, and in another place it is suggested a short int is returned for these parameters. The documentation should consistently say a short int is returned. 4.2 Available X.25 Documentation The following WAN Support for DIGITAL UNIX Systems documentation is available: WAN Support for DIGITAL UNIX Systems-Introduction WAN Support for DIGITAL UNIX Systems-Installation Guide WAN Support for DIGITAL UNIX Systems-Configuration Guide WAN Support for DIGITAL UNIX Systems-Problem Solving Guide WAN Support for DIGITAL UNIX Systems-Management Guide WAN Support for DIGITAL UNIX Systems-Programmer's Reference Manual WAN Support for DIGITAL UNIX Systems-Security Guide WAN Support for DIGITAL UNIX Systems-ISDN User's Guide- DEC 3000 Systems WAN Support for DIGITAL UNIX Systems-PAD User's Guide WAN Support for DIGITAL UNIX Systems-RoamAbout Transport Server User's Guide WAN Support for DIGITAL UNIX Systems-Device Drivers- Application Programmer's Guide CTF for DIGITAL UNIX Systems-CTF User's Guide Documentation 4-1 4.3 Location of Documentation Bookreader versions of the manuals are available on the DIGITAL UNIX Online Documentation Library CD-ROM. Details of how to access the Bookreader documentation are provided in the WAN Support for DIGITAL UNIX Systems-Cover Letter. Hardcopy versions of each manual can be ordered from DIGITAL. 4-2 Documentation