failSafe OpenVMS

[Malaspina]

I just worked on a new system and because redundancy is a key for our solution I thought I would take the new step offered with TCP/IP Services 5.4.
It is a Cluster of 2 DS25 with 7 ethernets on each machine. I want to "monitor" TWO IP addresses on two separate VLAN (trunked on two catalyst).
First question:
- Can I declare a failSafe interface going to another ethernet without declaring a second ip address? Basically what I want to do is:
Machine One
IE0 172.22.22.1/27
IE1 (FailSafe) 172.22.22.1/27
IE3 172.22.22.41/27
IE4 (FailSafe) 172.22.22.41/27
Machine Two
IE0 172.22.22.2/27
IE1 (FailSafe) 172.22.22.2/27
IE3 172.22.22.42/27
IE4 (FailSafe) 172.22.22.42/27

When I do this and enable failSafe. Then I keep loosing my IP addresses. Sometime I see and sometime not. VERY UNSTABLE!!!

Second Question:
The documentation state that use of ifconfig is much more adequate for configuring so what exactly I want to do is.

ifconfig ie0 172.22.22.1
ifconfig ie1 alias 172.22.22.1

BUT HOW DO I create the IE0 and IE1 without using TCPIP$CONFIG?

Do I have to $TCPIP SET INTERFACE IE0 and $TCPIP SET INTERFACE IE1 before

Many questions I have to ask on this subject. Could some people out there give me many answers!

I am a new comer to this forum so forgive me if something is not very clear!
I would be glad to discuss this!

Francois

[Andy Bustamante]

You can set up this configuration, however, there is caution in the documenation abou "phantom failure." failSAFE IP uses the the counters on each NIC as one "clue" to determine whether an interface is active or failed. On a quiet subnet, an interface can fail and the second interface won't get enough traffic to stay alive.

The interfaces will be automatically available. You should confirm the speed/duplex configuration is properly configured on your host system with

$ MCR LANCP SHOW DEVICE/CHAR

The switch should match speed and duplex configuration, auto negotiate doesn't seem to work very well.

See http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/journal/v2/articles/tcpip.html for more information about TCPIP failSAFE configuration.

What network adaptor are you using. LAN Failover (System Manager Manual Vol 2 Chapter 10) goes into detail. I believe the failover is quicker with LAN failover than with failSAFE. In a situation with active/standbye I'd prefer to use LAN Failover. Check the list of supported NICs. A recent ECO adds the DE-500.

I'm using both failSAFE and LAN failover with different sites and have found both to be extremely reliable.

[Uwe Zessin]

I've done a small implementation at a customer's site and the receive counter monitoring made us aware of hardware problem, which otherwise might have gone unnoticed for some time.