Invalid ip address/subnet mask

[Debbie Fleith]

I'm having trouble configuring a 100BaseT NIC card in an HP D220 server. I've been informed that the reason is because of the planned ip address of 10.0.0.250 and subnet mask 255.255.255.0 are invalid (violates RF 1122).

Can anyone explain why ip address 10.0.0.250 and subnet mask 255.255.255.0 are not configurable without using some unsupported ndd commands?

[Mike McKinlay]

Debbie -- what use are you planning on putting this server to? The IP address and mask should be fine for internally routed systems. However, if you want to put the system on the Internet, you cannot use the 10.xxx.xxx.xxx network. This is a special-use network defined by the RFC for non-routability on the Internet.

[Debbie Fleith]

This server will be used internally. It has two NICs. lan0 is the 100BaseT nic, lan1 is the built-in 10BaseT nic which we don't plan to use.

SAM won't allow me to configure the GSC 100BaseT NIC using these addresses, do I tried editing the netconf file directly to use them:
INTERFACE_NAME[0]=lan0
IP_ADDRESS[0]=10.0.0.250
SUBNET_MASK[0]=255.255.255.0
BROADCAST_ADDRESS[0]=10.0.0.255
INTERFACE_STATE[0]=up
DHCP_ENABLE[0]=0
====
I get these errors on boot up:

Configure HP 100BT interfaces
Output from "/sbin/rc2.d/S323hpbase100 start":
----------------------------
No 100BT device configured in system (btlan3)
"/sbin/rc2.d/S323hpbase100 start" SKIPPED

Configure HP GSC 100BT interfaces
Output from "/sbin/rc2.d/S331hpgsc100 start":
----------------------------

Configure LAN interfaces
Output from "/sbin/rc2.d/S340net start":
----------------------------
ERROR: lan0 interface: ifconfig: ioctl (SIOCSIFNETMASK): bad value
ERROR: Failed to add route entry because its interface is not
yet initialized. May need to add this route entry with
a route commad after the interface is up :
add net default: gateway 10.0.0.254: Network is unreachable
"/sbin/rc2.d/S340net start" FAILED
====

[James R. Ferguson]

Debbie:

Be sure to add the btlan3 driver to the kernel. Use SAM to add in this driver and regenerate the kernel.

...JRF...

[Debbie Fleith]

This system has a GST 100 BT nic which is using the btlan4 driver. Do I still need the btlan3 driver?

[James R. Ferguson]

Debbie:

You don't say what OS version. What is it?
I would get current SAM cumulative patches and try adding the btlan3 driver.

...JRF...

[Debbie Fleith]

This is an 11.0 server.

[Vladislav Demidov]

You have to modify startup networking script /sbin/init.d/net and add the next comman to starting section of this script.
ndd -set /dev/ip ip_check_subnet_addr 0
then reboot your server.
refer to man page on ndd command for additional information.

[James R. Ferguson]

Debbie:

I've been poking around in the patch database. PHNE_21687 for 11.0 is an interesting critical patch that appears to fix lots of things. It requires a reboot but looks worth it.

...JRF...

[Steve Massey_1]

Debbie

A quick answer to your original question. There are some posts on this elsewhere

HP adhered to RFC1122 which did not allow variable length subnetting, RFC's since accepted this need (running out of IP addresses) and allowed VLSM.

HP did not adopt this - so using ndd is basically a "fudge" to get around the problem

Hope this helps

Steve