DTC 48's and routing

[Fred Martin_1]

I've got a few remote branches with DTC 48's. They are served from an HP9000 (dtcmgr) here at the main office. Static IPs.

Currently it's a flat network; routers are bridging.

I am about to subnet, so IP's are all changing at the remote sites.

I want to make sure that these DTC's don't lose contact with the main office - permanently or while I'm in the middle of this cutover.

First - can these DTCs operate over a routed network? (Static routes by the way)

It seems so, since in dtcmgr I found the "routing" page on the LAN config where you define the default route (currently all blank).

Second, I'm thinking that if I go into dtcmgr, and modify the IP info, the DTC will lose contact with the server. Once the routers have been modified can I physically power-cycle it and then expect it to come up happy? Any red flags?

Do I need to worry about anything else, rbootd, etc?

(I understand ddfa IP's will need to change)

Thanks for any help, I'm doing this cutover in a few days and I'm trying to pre-plan.

Fred

[Masatake Hanayama]

FYI

Options for Managing a DTC Remotely
http://docs.hp.com/en/14259/dtcmanagerment.pdf

[Tom Monaghan · Accepted solution]

Hi Fred,

Even though you are configuring IP addresses and routing information for the DTC, you must understand that this adress information is downloaded to the DTC and is lost when the DTC is reset. So, when the DTC powers up (or is reset), it has no IP address and broadcasts a download request that will not be passed across a routed network. The entire download sequence uses a proprietary link level protocol, so this download traffic must be bridged between the HP9000 and the DTC. Your only option with that model DTC would be to configure the router to continue to bridge that DTC download traffic and other DTC management traffic (port reset and status would also use proprietary link level protocol). I would think that bridging could be configured with filters to pass all non-IP traffic to and from the MAC address of the DTC. Also The boot request from the DTC is a multicast to address 090009000004. Once the DTC is downloaded, the IP traffic to and from the DTC would be routed the same as all the other IP traffic.

If the traffic can't be bridged, the only solutions would require new hardware:

1. Replace the DTC48 with a DTC16RX which has IP and routing information configured on the DTC itself and uses a routable protocol (TFTP) to download. This DTC requires a different application (DTC 16RX Manager) to configure and manage the dtc. Note that DTC's are no longer being sold by HP.

2. Install a small HPUX system at each remote site to download and manage the DTC.

Unfortunately, there is no simple solution.

Regards,
Tom

[Fred Martin_1]

Thanks, Masatake.

Tom, I do understand and wasn't thinking things through - modifying the config only modifies a data file on the HP9000 server, not the DTC itself.

So the initial boot sequence is not routable. That's a disappointment :)

The routers in question are Vanguards (models 6435 and 340enh). I've no experience with configuring them but have a vendor that does. I've passed this on to them.

Any Vanguard users out there could comment though, I'd welcome it.

If the routers can't handle this specific bridging, I do have an 'out' ... over the years we'd gotten rid of the terminals that were served by the DTCs and are down to a couple of serial dot matrix printers at each remote branch. They are business critical devices though.

I found network cards for these printers.

So, in fact, I could retire the DTCs entirely. They're beyond life cycle anyway.

Thanks,

Fred