Problem starting DECNET

[Rich Hearn]

Hi,

A couple of months ago I upgraded the 2nd member of my test cluster (2 DS20's) from vms7.3-2 to vms 8.3. I've kept Decnet at Phase IV, but didn't try running it. I seem to be having a problem getting it going now. I've put some info in the attachment. I'm looking for any ideas on where I might want to start to try to fix this. Please let me know what other info I might provide.

Thanks for any thoughts,
Rich

[Rich Hearn]

might be nice if I included the attachment...

[Hoff]

General thought: shut down all networking protocols (or shutdown and reboot), and ensure that DECnet starts first, and then start all other network protocols.


With DECnet Phase IV, Phase IV needs to start first or anything that starts before it has to be compatible with Phase IV addressing.

In general, DECnet Phase IV is the first protocol that starts.

And also ensure you don't have more than one NIC connected to the same or a bridged or vLAN'd network segment; that won't work due to network address collisions.

The attachment (in ISO Latin 1 text format and tested as readable on OpenVMS) is included here.

[Andy Bustamante]

Are you starting DECnet while you have other network protocols running or is this in a reboot? DECnet IV needs to be the first network protocol started since it changes the MAC address of the nic. If there's another network protocol active, the change fails. If this is the case, with a cluster member a reboot is the easiest solution.

Andy

[Robert Gezelter]

Rich,

I have to run to a meeting, but I am not sure that START/NETWORK works with Phase IV. Have you tried running SYS$MANAGER:STARTNET.COM manually?

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

[Hoff · Accepted solution]

START /NETWORK can work with DECnet Phase IV, or pretty much any other networking (or network-ish) package you configure it to work with.

Invoking the DECnet startup command procedure directly (and entirely ignoring the START /NETWORK and STOP /NETWORK and related friends) is (still) typical (and longstanding) practice.

If DECnet Phase IV has been configured, you'll usually find the SYS$STARTUP:SYS$NET_SERVICES_DECNET.COM procedure.

I just posted up a very quick article on this stuff at the web site; key terms and where to look in the HELP text...

http://labs.hoffmanlabs.com/node/1348

[Rich Hearn]

1st of all my thanks to you three gentlemen who have taken the time to respond (Hoff, Andy, Bob).

I have a feeling I've made a mistake asking for assistance. I should have checked Multinet before asking about DECNET. I believe my problem lies there as opposed to here.

Thanks again,
Rich

We'll "close" this and consider it complete