VMS 7.3-2 LAN Failover Configuration

[David Harrold]

I have a test system (DS20E) that I have upgraded to VMS V7.3-2. It has a DEGPA-SA and a DE-602 for network adapters. Port B of the DE602 and ther DEGPA are on the same network, so I am trying to set up LAN Failover for those 2 devices.

However, the LL device doesn't get created at boot time. If I manually create the device after the system is up, it gets created and I can then start DECnet, TCPIP, SCA, etc. on the device.

Has anyone else set this up and tested it yet?

Details of the configuration:

LANCP> DEFINE DEVICE LLB0/FAILOVER=(EWA,EIB)/ENABLE
LANCP> DEFINE DEVICE EWA0/PRIORITY=20
LANCP> DEFINE DEVICE EIB0/PRIORITY=10

As work arounds, HP had me add some commands to SYCONFIG.COM to stop SCS traffic on the 2 devices, but that did not resolve the problem. They also had me add the LANCP SET commands to SYLOGICALS.COM, but that didn't work either.

Thanks for any input.

Dave Harrold

[labadie_1]

Hello

I am not sure about what you want to achieve, but if you want to manage SCS on different adapters (various Ethernet cards, Fddi...) since Vms 7.3, you can use Scacp, to start and stop the SCS traffic, or to play with priorities:
mc scacp
set lan_device/priority=3 ewa
set lan_device/priority=4 ewb
for example

The procedures lavc$start_bus and lavc$stop_bus were used to start or stop the Scs traffic, but it is better to keep the other adapters available as failover.

[David Harrold]

What I was trying to say wasn't strictly about SCS traffic. We just noticed that SCS was running on the 2 adapters and thought that might be preventing the failover device from initializing.

Thanks for the idea.

Dave Harrold

[Zahid Ghani]

David,
Ihave been looking at the failovers and came to the conclusion that IP failover is a better option. This failSAFE IP feature is in TCPIP V5.4. It is quite easy to instal and has the advantage of loadbalancing on your NICs. Have look at the article in HP VMS Technical Journal V2 'Configuring TCP/IP for High Availablity'. I found it to be very helpfull.

[David Harrold]

Hi Zahid,

FailsafeIP is also on my list to test and evaluate.

I am looking at LAN failover because it will protect all network protocols (e.g DECnet and SCS, in my environment). Also, because of the failure time detection difference. IIRC, failsafIP wil be about 5-7 seconds to detect a failure and LAN failover will be in the area of 10 ms to detect failure.

My real thoughts, though, are to use both. We'll see how that works out.

Thanks,

Dave Harrold

[Zahid Ghani]

Hi David,
I'll be interested to see what your thoughts are once you;ve looked at both LAN failover and failSAFE IP. I can't go to OVMS 7.3-2 because i am waiting for HB Minimerge that is going to be released on 7.3-1 and I have been waiting for it fo nearly 2 years.