Charon-AXP instance BUCHECKs with "NETNOSTATE, NETACP - no state transition"

[Jeremy Begg]

Hi,

I am setting up a Charon-AXP environment which is running under Wndows Server 2008 R2.  The basic Charon configuration was performed by the Charon reseller.  I then modified the configuration to add some more disk images, and after that the system bugchecks while starting DECnet.  Restoring the previous configuration file doesn't fix the problem.

The crash is "NETNOSTATE, NETACP - no state transition" and happens when the DECnet startup procedure runs NET$NSP_TRANSPORT_STARTUP.NCL.  So I assume it has something to do with it trying to change the Ethernet MAC address (but I could be wrong).

The Windows server's NIC address is already set to the "DECnet" MAC address AA-00-04-00-14-2C and this is the MAC address which Charon shows when a SHOW DEV command is run on the emulated Alpha console.

If I modify SYLOGICALS.COM to define NET$IGNORE_DECNET before DECnet starts, the system boots successfully (albeit without DECnet).  I can start and use TCP/IP Services without any problem.  If I then try to start DECnet the machine crashes again.

So I'm wondering if anyone has seen this behaviour before, and knows of a fix.

Thanks!

Jeremy Begg

[Jeremy Begg]

I hesitate to say this problem is solved but I have fixed it for the time being.

The Windows server has multiple NICs, some of which are paired into "teams".  The NIC used by Charon is one of these "teams", and with Charon shut down it was showing the DECnet MAC address as its hardware address.

I used the "reset to default" feature to reset the NIC's hardware address to its factory default address and this seemed to fix the problem for Charon and VMS.  (Yet if I look at the NIC team again it shows the DECnet MAC address again, so I don't have a good understanding for what's really going on here.)

It looks to me like a DECnet bug: it shouldn't issue a NETNOSTATE BUGCHECK if the NIC's MAC address already matches the address it's trying to set!

Regards,

Jeremy Begg

[Duncan Morris]

Jeremy, key question - what version of DECnet and any patches?

$ prod show prod/fu decnet*
------------------------------------ ----------- --------- ------------------------------------ ------------------------------------
PRODUCT                              KIT TYPE    STATE     MAINTENANCE                         

------------------------------------ ----------- --------- ------------------------------------ ------------------------------------
DEC AXPVMS DECNET_OSI V8.4           Full LP     Installed DEC AXPVMS DNVOSIECO01 V8.4         

------------------------------------ ----------- --------- ------------------------------------ ------------------------------------

[Volker Halle]

Jeremy,

could you please post/attach the CLUE file ? Or send it to me (via PM) ?

Volker.

[Brad McCusker]

Jeremy,

Some random comments....

I'd go back to the reseller with these issues.  You more than likely paid for a year's support - take advantage of it.

The model of Charon AXP emulator might be relevant here - there are at least two code bases in use depending on the model.

I wonder if Charon actually supports network  teaming, particularly with Windows2008?  We've not used it.  What is the actual host?  Is this running on a blade?

I've never set the MAC address in any of our Charon configs.  I have used lines like these to deal with the MAC address change:

set station_address="AA-00-04-00-0c-04"

set EWA0 port_enable_mac_addr_change=false

Why are you setting the MAC address at Windows?

Brad McCusker

Software Concepts International

www.sciinc.com

[Jeremy Begg]

Duncan - this is VMS 7.2-2 and fully patched.  The problem was seen both before and after the patches were installed.

Volker - see attached

Brad - The version of Charon was recommened by the local distributor and they did the initial setup.  I'd be really surprised if they had configured it to use a teamed interface knowing that such were unsupported.

I don't believe the MAC address was ever manually set (not intentionally, anyway).

For the moment I'm inclined to let it run as-is and see what happens.  The main role of this machine is to be a "cluster quorum node"

Regards,

Jeremy Begg

[Duncan Morris]

Hmmm, 7.2-2?

The release notes for the later Decnet 7.3-2 ECO02 include

 4.23 SYS$LOADABLE_IMAGES:NET$TRANSPORT_NSP.EXE:

Image Identification: "V7.3-2 ECO02" 20-OCT-2005
01:56:17.50

ECO02:

- This release has changes in NET$TRANSPORT_NSP.EXE
which will prevent crashes (of type NETNOSTATE) due to
faulty frame received during connect initiate attempt.

I wonder if your 7.2-2 version has the same latent issue which is being triggered by the teaming setup?

[Rudy_De_Keyser]

Teaming is not supported yet on the host for the network cards to be used by charon.

Regards,

Rudy

[Volker Halle]

Rudy,

I would suggest to contact Stromasys for the current status of network device teaming support. We have received statements, which indicate, that this setup may be supported, if certain criteria are met (like preventing MAC address changes by pre-setting the required MAC address at all levels).

Volker.

[Rudy_De_Keyser]

Hi Volker,

Well this is a statement from Stromasys (to be honest about 2 years ago), when a customer of mine wanted to use teaming on his host, and yes decnet was in the picture. I haven't heard since them but i will ask again at the next stromasys training end of this month here in Brussels Belgium.

Cheers,

Rudy