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1000Base-T LAN Adapter

 
Donald J. Butera
Occasional Advisor

1000Base-T LAN Adapter

Hi All,
I've run into an intriguing network connectivity issue I wanted to toss out for consideration. Here's the scenario...I've got an N4000 running HP-UX 11.00 with quad 550's, 4 GB RAM. In addition to the core LAN adapter, there is a 1000 Base-T LAN card (HP Product A4929A). Our LAN/WAN is running on dual Cabletron SSR-8000 FC switches with dual GTX32-02 adapter modules installed and configured. The A4929A card is set to AUTONEGOTIATE, FULL DUPLEX and all applicable patches are loaded and current. The card can auto-sense and connect at all speeds (10/100Mbps) except 1000Mbps. At 1Gig speeds, the card "links" to the switch but does not respond to ping, telnet, etc...

Have any of you experienced this and know the drill around? Any and all info will be helpful. Thanks in advance.

Don
4 REPLIES 4
Handy Arry
Occasional Advisor

Re: 1000Base-T LAN Adapter

Hi, Don,

This could be a patching issue. The latest Gigabit patch for HP-UX 11.0 is PHNE_22930 (released 16th Jan 2001), which is version B.11.00.15 of the driver. The patch text does not specificly mention a similar problem, but my past experience with Gigabit cards in V-class systems was that most of the interconnection problems could be fixed by patching with the latest Gigabit patch and dependents (PHNE_21217, PHKL_21165, and PHSS_21083).

The gelan driver for the Gigabit cards does not log errors to syslog but to nettl and dmesg only - if nothing is being noted in dmesg then the next step would be to look at a 1000Mbit connection with nettl tracing of the GELAN subsystem.

It might also be worth checking what MTU size the switch is using as it might be automaticly using jumbo packets. The A4929A can use jumbo packets but requires an entry in the /etc/rc.config.d/hpgelanconf file:
HP_GELAN_MTU[0]=9000

Check the patching first, then we can look at the nettl output.

Regards,
Matt Bryant,
UK Account Support Organisation,
Hewlett-Packard.

Handy Arry
Occasional Advisor

Re: 1000Base-T LAN Adapter

 
janders
Advisor

Re: 1000Base-T LAN Adapter

Hi,
You can also use the gbeutil command to check info/status of the card/driver. lanadmin (depending on the patch level) is also a good trouble-shooting tool. Make sure the switch settings match the card and you have a solid link led on the card then use gbeutil to get the status. ie. #gbeutil /dev/gelan3 card_info
For the card to work Driver State has to be GELAN_ONLINE and Auto Negotiation: On This command will also give the driver version as well. In this example the card was using device file /dev/gelan3 corresponding to lan3 from an ioscan & lanscan. Another good option is #gbeutil /dev/gelan3 stats Man page shows other options and configuration parameters. To make configuration parameters static after a reboot make the appropriate changes in the /etc/rc.config.d/hpgelanconf file. In the past there have been bad/corrupt hpgelanconf files which caused configuration issues, a clean copy can be found under /usr/newconfig/etc/rc.config.d
If you verify the switch settings and the card settings match and still cant get it working then go for the latest driver if not already loaded.

Hope that helps ya trouble-shoot.
Donald J. Butera
Occasional Advisor

Re: 1000Base-T LAN Adapter

Hi All and thanks to everyone that responded. You all made some very useful recommendations which I used to verify my particular configuration. In the end, though, the problem was with the Cabletron Gigbit switch. Our networks support specialists had the port configured properly but did not understand the necessity of binding the port to a "virtual" lan (vlan). Once the port was properly bound, everything worked as advertised. Again, thanks to each of you for your time and expertise.

Don Butera