topic Re: Alpha 4100 and DEGXA-TB in Operating System - OpenVMS

Alpha 4100 and DEGXA-TB

Guy W. Noce — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 20:19:14 GMT

I know it's unsupported, but I've installed a DEGXA-TB in an Alpha 4100 which VMS v8.2 recognizes, but not at the srm level. I've installed the most recent LAN, DRIVER, UPDATE and TCPIP (for good measure) updates. Also, the SRM version is 6-1.1.

The device shows up but won't configure in TCPIP.

The LANCP characteristics are as follows:

Device Characteristics EWA0:
Value Characteristic
----- --------------
1500 Device buffer size
Normal Controller mode
External Internal loopback mode
FF-FF-FF-FF-FF-FF Default MAC address (Hardware LAN address)
Multicast address list
Ethernet Communication medium
FF-FF-FF-FF-FF-FF MAC address (Current LAN address)
128 Minimum receive buffers
256 Maximum receive buffers
Yes Full duplex enable
No Full duplex operational
FF-FF-FF-FF-FF-FF MAC address (Current LAN address)
TwistedPair Line media type
1000 Line speed (mbps)
Enabled Auto-negotiation
Enabled Flow control
Disabled Jumbo frames
Disabled/No Failset Logical LAN state
0 Failover priority
Link Down Link state

Thanks in advance for any suggestions (even if it's "futile, forget it."--Guy

Re: Alpha 4100 and DEGXA-TB

Steven Schweda — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 21:32:39 GMT

> The device shows up but won't configure in
> TCPIP.

This means what, exactly? That is, what,
exactly, did you do, and what, exactly,
happened when you did it?

Re: Alpha 4100 and DEGXA-TB

Hoff — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 00:08:32 GMT

ignore srm, so long as vms finds the nic. (if you poke around in pci-space using srm, you'll find the device id and vendor id listed there.)

tcpip> define communication_controller (or some such) and tcpip> list communication_controller (or some such), to add and to list the device to those recognized by tcp/ip services. That's how you can get ucx to accept the controller, iirc. (It's been a while since I've tried this particular sequence, and I don't have a ucx box handy.)

Re: Alpha 4100 and DEGXA-TB

Guy W. Noce — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 12:05:23 GMT

The device shows up in VMS as follows:

Device EWA0:, device type DEGXA, is online, network device, error logging is
enabled, device is a template only.

Error count 0 Operations completed 0
Owner process "" Owner UIC [SYSTEM]
Owner process ID 00000000 Dev Prot S:RWPL,O:RWPL,G,W
Reference count 0 Default buffer size 512
Current preferred CPU Id 0 Fastpath 1

The communication controller shows up as a defined device:

Controller: EW Internet Interface: W
Description: PCI bus Ethernet Adapter
Type: CLUSTER ETHERNET

When I do a TCPIP SET INTERFACE WE0, I get the following:

TCPIP> set inter we0
%TCPIP-E-INVINTER, error defining interface: WE0
-TCPIP-I-DRIVERQIO, interface operation from internet driver QIO failed
-TCPIP-E-INVNETFLAG, invalid interface flags
ioctl failed: status = 908
ifconfig: no such interface: WE0
%SYSTEM-W-NOSUCHDEV, no such device available

which kicks me out of TCPIP.--Guy

Re: Alpha 4100 and DEGXA-TB

Hoff — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 15:18:26 GMT

Would this configuration be related to the

http://forums12.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1195112

thread?

Which version of TCP/IP Services? (Current?)

Per the support matrix, the Tigon III DEGXA is not supported on the AlphaServer 4100, and the previous and current reports do not bode well.

If work is to continue here toward an unsupported configuration, what do the TCPIP> LIST and DEFINE COMMUNICATION_CONTROLLER commands present to you? (The "no such device" error in TCP/IP implies it's either not in the communications controller list that is used by TCP/IP Services to find and identify NICs, or that the DEGXA is being expressly excluded for some reason.)

As for an alternative, try the DEGPA GbE NIC, which is listed as supported on this box. Or pick up a fully-loaded and gently-used AlphaServer DS20e for USD$1500 a year ago, like I did for a customer. I'd expect the system prices have subsequently dropped, too.

Stephen Hoffman
HoffmanLabs LLC