Check connectivity between two servers

[Stephanie Gonos]

Where in OPENVMS can I see what servers are listed or talk with the box. I am trouble shooting a network issue and being formerly
windows and linux, need to find the equvalience of the ets/hosts file to make sure
box 1 can see and talk to box 2.

Box 1 is openvms V8.3 and the other is HP unix B 11.31. U ia64.

thank you

[Hoff · Accepted solution]

AFAIK, the /etc/hosts stuff is not particularly associated with IP network connectivity but rather with a comparatively primitive form of name-to-address translation, so I'm not entirely sure where you're going.

Regardless...

Once per login (or in your LOGIN.COM)

$ @sys$manager:tcpip$define_commands

Then

$ ping hostname.example.com
$ ping your.target.ipaddress.here

etc.

The Unix /etc/hosts file is replaced with the TCPIP utility and its command SET HOST

Details on this /etc/hosts stuff are here:

http://labs.hoffmanlabs.com/node/1533

Here are some details on setting up a DNS resolver, and troubleshooting:

http://labs.hoffmanlabs.com/node/1432

[Robert Gezelter]

Stephanie,

I concur with Hoff, most of what you are looking for is within the TCPIP utility (many of the *IX commands are supported from within the utility).

One note of caution. Various routers and firewalls on an internal network can often disrupt connections. When PING does not work, it means EITHER a) there is no connectivity or b) the ICMP port is blocked.

I have seen many client situations where connectivity is inadvertently blocked.

- Bob Gezelter, http://www.rlgsc.com

[Andy Bustamante]

See Hoff's info and use the TCPIP utility to manage your hosts information.

Second, what protocol are you troubleshooting? As long as you need to check TCP/IP connectivity, you're on track. If this is cluster communication or DECnet, that a different issue and may or may not have anything to do with TCP/IP configuration and allowed network traffic.

[Hoff]

For some added background, this question is likely a part of debugging an Oracle connectivity error and Oracle diagnostic as discussed in another recent thread:

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1438664

It would appear that this Oracle error is either a network-level error, or quite possibly a problem with the Oracle configuration or operation on a remote Unix box of some ilk; that the OpenVMS box is probably a bystander here.