VAX/VMS Decnet problem

[Chris Musial]

We've had a vaxstation 3100 boot node running VMS 7.1 up and running for several years. A couple of weeks ago one of the drives gave out so I replaced it. It took a number of attempts to get the scsi jumpers configured correctly, but now the system is up and running with the drive. However sometime during this process, Decnet IV seems to have quit working. Here's what I see:

o Whenever I try to issue any commands from NCP the involve the volatile database, I get the error messages
$NCP-W-OPEFAI, Operation Failure

%SYSTEM-W-NOSUCHDEV, no such device available

This happens for anything like Show Executor Char, show known circ, etc. If I issue commands involving the non-volatile database, like Defines, List Known Circ, etc., it works OK. (List Known Circ shows SVA-0 with a state On)

o tcp/ip is up and working, so I know the network connection is OK. I can telnet or ftp into the Vax

o If I issue the command Show Net, it shows the Decnet product with the correct node name and address. However if I try a Set Host 0 or Set Host , I get the error
%RMS-F-DEV, error in device name or inappropriate device type for operation

I tried re-running netconfig but still get the same error

Does anyone have any idea what may be causing this, what I could try to fix this, or where I could look for any assistance?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

PS. I also did a set watch/class=all file, issued a few of the NCP commands that cause a problem (and one that doesn't) and captured the output. I've attached the file to this message.

Thanks,

Chris Musial

[Andy Bustamante]

DECnet needs to be the first network protocol started. Working assumption is that you have other protcols being started first. If the non-volatile database is correct, you can try stopping all other protocols and restarting all network services beginning with DECnet. A reboot may be the easiest way to do this, after checking sys$startup:systartup_vms.com to make sure DECnet is the first network service started.

All this assumes a single network interface and a system that's doesn't require reboot very often.

Andy

[Dean McGorrill]

I didn't see much in the netcirc. I wonder,
since it worked before, and, tcpip works -
did they have logiccals for the network files defined elsewhere? ie NETCIRC.DAT,
NETLINE.DAT etc (maybe off on the drive that
failed)

[Jan van den Ende]

Well,

Andy seems to have a point.

A quick discriminator would be the MAC address used by TCPIP.
If that is of the form AA-..., then you have a real DECnet issue. (AA- etc is a transformation of your DECnet node address) If it is the same as the NIC address, then someting non-DECnet (TC, LAT,..) had the NIC first, and prevented DECnet from doing "its thing".

So - what is your network MAC address? and we will have to take entirely different roads depending on the answer.

Proost.

Have one on me.

jpe

[Jan van den Ende]

Chris,

Noted tou are new here only after posting previous, but:

WELCOME to the VMS forums!

Proost.

Have one on me.

jpe

[Chris Musial]

Thanks for all the help, everyone. Andy, your comment about Decnet needing to be the first network service started got me digging into the startup procedure. What I found - and I have ho idea how this happened - is that there was a new version of netservices.com in the directory that just contained a bunch of blank lines. So this command procedure was executed and didn't flag an error, but didn't start the network either. Decnet was apparently started to some extent because it showed up in Show Network. However the MAC ID was not AA-xx-..., so it wasn't complete. Once I removed this bogus command procedure and rebooted with the real one, decnet is up and running, and the satellite nodes boot vup fine.

Again, thanks for all the help - great forum!

Chris Musial