procurve switch 2524

[Shimon_1]

Is there a known problem about printing from a Novell server to a HP print server? The rest of network is working good (with sw 2524).any idea ?

[Ron Kinner · Accepted solution]

Yep. Spanning tree kills you.

http://www.hp.com/rnd/support/faqs/23xx_25xx.htm

Q: When I power on my PC, I get the message "a file server could not be found." How do I fix that?
This is a well-known issue given the following situation:

The PC is directly connected to a switch
The PC is running Novell's VLMs or Client32
The switch has Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) enabled

In this situation, when the directly connected PC is powered on, the switch senses linkbeat on that port. This causes the switch to go through the four Spanning Tree states: blocking, listening, learning, and forwarding. It takes 30 seconds for the switch to complete that sequence and begin forwarding packets to and from that port. During those 30 seconds, Novell sends 3 requests for a server, then stops looking. By the time Spanning Tree completes its job, Novell reports that "a file server could not be found."

There are several workarounds available:

Disable Spanning Tree on the switch (if Spanning Tree is not needed, i.e. no loops in the network topology).
For VLMs, add a "pause" just after calling VLM.EXE in STARTNET.BAT. When the user reboots a PC, have them wait at least 30 seconds before continuing the sequence. This workaround is documented on Novell's Knowledgebase (www.support.novell.com, search for document 2920460).
For Client32, add a registry entry in the PC, as documented on Novell's Knowledgebase (search for document 2925582).

In the Fall of 1998, HP released switch firmware (version C.05.07 or greater) with an enhancement to resolve this timing problem between Novell and STP. The enhancement allows users to configure Spanning Tree so that it does not go through the 4 states, on a port-by-port basis. Instead, for those configured ports, Spanning Tree will immediately begin forwarding packets to and from the port. This allows Novell clients to communicate with the server as soon as the network card (NIC) is enabled. After that, the switch continues to listen for and send Spanning Tree packets on those configured ports. This protects the user who might inadvertently connect a hub or switch to that port and create a network loop???Spanning Tree will detect the loop after a short time, since the port listens for and sends STP packets on that port.


Ron

[Shimon_1]

Mrs. Ron Kinner hello.
Tanks for your help, I will try it.

Shimon