Problems with SMP on NW 5.1

[Ayman Altounji]

This problem is probably a Novell issue, but I though I would post the question here as well to see if anyone else has experienced this problem.

On our network we've seen an issue where a NetWare 5.1 (SP1 or SP2a) server with multi-porcessors running eDirectory 8.5 (Tao) abends (and forces a server reboot) when we force a DSTRACE setting (usually the backlink process SET DSTRACE=*B). The problem does not show itself during normal DS syncronization / replication. The problem only shows up when an administrator forces a DS process to run.

Even after unloading any third party products the problem still happens. Strangely, the servers were previously running NetWare 4.11 SMP/DS 6x and 5.1 SMP/DS7x without any issues. Only when
we upgraded to eDirectory 8.5 (DS.NLM 85.01r) has this problem shown up.

We can recreate this problem in the lab with just two servers (both holding replicas of a partition). All the servers are Compaq Proliant
3000s, 6000s, and 6400Rs) and we have tried both the CPQMPK.PSM as well as the MPS14.PSM. The BIOS (Compaq System Config) is correctly set for NetWare 5.1 (1P, SMP).

In searching the knowledge base at support.novell.com we have failed to find any information reguarding a problem like this. We have disabled the SMP drivers so that the problem doesn't take out our servers, but we really want the SMP back (even though the second processor mainly handles interrupt requests).

Any help would be useful.

TIA

Mark Patchett, MCNE, MCSE

[Ayman Altounji]

Mark,
You're right - you probably need to open a ticket with novell or Compaq Services - files related to Novel directory out a little outside the scope of warranty hardware support.