recievng NCP error upon reboot

[Lucie]

Volker,
If I purge EWA-0 from the database, won't it affect EWA0 I thought the "names" correspond? EWA-0 = EWA0, EWA-1 = EWA1 ETC.

Also, I will need to configure LLA0 with the correct cards.

I am sorry I am confused on this, but it doesnâ t make sense. If I purge ewa-0 and ewa-1, what will the failover devices for LLA0 be? EWB0 AND EWA?

[Robert Gezelter]

Lucie,

PURGE only affects the configuration as DECnet sees it. It does not affect the underlying OpenVMS devices, which are what LLDRIVER is using.

Drawing a diagram in text is difficult, but

DECnet EWA-0 LLA-0
OpenVMS EWA0: LLA0: (composed of EWA0: and EWB0:)

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

[Volker Halle · Accepted solution]

Lucie,

EWA0 is the representation of the physical LAN interface in OpenVMS.

EWA-0 is the DECnet line and circuit, which is controlling and running the DECnet protocols on top of EWA0.

Same explanation for EWB0 and EWA-1.

You have configured EWA0 and EWB0 into a LAN failover set (LLA0) and you've configured DECnet to run over this LAN failover set (DECnet Circuit/Line LLA-0).

The DECnet configuration procedure (NETCONFIG.COM) is not 'clever' enough to recognize, that EWA0 and EWB0 are part of a LAN failover set and therefore NOT AVAILABLE for other uses.

Please PURGE and CLEAR DECnet LINEs and CIRCUITs EWA-0 and EWA-1 and all these error messages will disappear. And you DECnet configuration will be correct and clean.

If you don't use EIA0 and EIB0 (EIA-0 and EIA-1 respectively) for running DECnet, you may also want to consider to PURGE/CLEAR those circuits/lines.

Volker.

[The Brit]

My apologies to Bob, he is of course correct. "Define" will not remove the entries from the permanent db.

However, I would still suggest that setting the Lines and Circuits to "State = OFF" in the permanent DB, would achieve the same result of getting rid of the error messages.

While I agree that running Purge/Clear to actually remove EWA-0 and EWA-1 is an OK thing to do, as I recall it does make things a little more complicate if the Failover Set is subsequently disolved, since the circuits and lines would have to be recreated in NCP.

If I am wrong, please say so. I'm always looking to tighten my understanding of these things.

Dave.

[Lucie]

I purged and cleared the lines and circuits to EWA-0 AND EWA-1 before The Britâ s comments (I should have turned them off) I rebooted the system and did not receive any errors.
I am still confused about DECNET vs. LAN failover. Is there a good manual or whitepaper that I may read to get a better handle on DECnet and LAN failover?

I appreciate everyone indulgence with in my lack of knowledge with DECnet and LAN failover configurations.

[Robert Gezelter]

Dave,

No apology is necessary.

My main suggestion here is to avoid creating confusion if someone else has to look at things in the future.

If I were in Lucie's situation, I would be strongly tempted to either use DEFINE to set state to OFF (as you suggested), OR to PURGE the definitions.

Generally, my inclination is to PURGE. This is not a temporary situation. I have seen sites with many lines defined, for long defunct configurations, that no individual on the site has any recollection of. It makes sorting out problems difficult.

What I would recommend is perhaps creating a command file with the NCP commands to define the LINE/CIRCUIT configuration, with full comments (in NCP, lines beginning with "!"; admittedly this is lightly documented).

Example:

! LLA-0 is presently composed of EWA-0 and EWA-1
! used as a LAN Failoverf set
! Changes to hardware configuration require
! corresponding changes to the failover set
! using LANCP.
DEFINE CIRCUIT ...
DEFINE LINE ...

The automatic creation of NCP commands by NETCONFIG.COM is useful, but complex configurations can out-distance its utility.

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

[Volker Halle]

Lucie,

LAN Failover is described in the 'HP OpenVMS System Manager's Manual, Volume 2' in chapter 10 in the sub-chapter 'Understanding LAN Failover'

http://h71000.www7.hp.com/doc/82final/aa-pv5nj-tk/aa-pv5nj-tk.html

In short: you create a LAN Failover Set (LL device) from physical LAN interfaces. Only one of these LAN interfaces is active at any time. If the link of the active LAN device to the switch is lost, LLDRIVER will switch to another LAN interface in this set. This is transparent to ALL procotols running on top of the LL device (IP, DECnet, SCS, LAT etc.).

ANAL/SYS and SDA> SHOW LAN shows all LAN interfaces and the protocols running on them. You'll see that there will be no procotols on EWA and EWB, all the protocols are running on LLA.

Volker.

[Ian Miller.]

Another handy command

$ MCR LANCP SHOW CONF EWA/USE

to show what protocols are using EWA