RE: [Linux-decnet-user] Can only connect to three out of fourofourVMS nodes

[Ben A. <be...@bg...>]

On Mon, 2003-02-24 at 15:55, Colin Butcher wrote:
> Very quickly since I'm away later today and all tomorrow: DON'T TOUCH IT
> YET!

Heh, no worries.  I'm very conservative making recommendations to my sys
admin, and this stuff will be scheduled for after hours regardless of
whether a reboot is required or not.  It will probably need to wait for
the next scheduled maintenance requiring a reboot because the requested
change is very low priority.  We'll be reviewing carefully your advice
and asking any questions we still have before doing anything.

> You can have both interfaces with Phase IV addressing enabled, but they MUST
> NOT be connected to the same ethernet segment or bridged between segments.
> Routed would be OK, but bridged isn't. Swapping over Phase IV / V addressing
> per interface might work - it might just screw up everything else
> completely. It depends how the network's been configured, what the rest of
> the network looks like, etc. etc.

Ah.  Well, I understand that the first interface simply is not used at
all.  I don't know why the second was chosen instead.  That just seems
to be the way things are.  It seems the safe way to go is to set the
first interface phaseiv addressing to false because we don't know what
future use it might be put to, and I'd hate for someone to forget and
have it cause problems later.

> Changing the MAC address that an adapter runs with is generally a 'reboot'
> issue, but you might be able to take an adapter offline and bring it back -
> it depends what other protocols are in use on that adapter. Reconfigure with
> NET$CONFIGURE (or manual hacking of the NCL scripts IF you know exactly what
> you're doing) and reboot is safest.

I suspect my sys admin will feel most comfortable doing a NET$CONFIGURE
and reboot.

> I think that we're getting into network diagram territory and understanding
> how your VMS systems are set up. That's probably heading into rather more
> than a few comments by e-mail.

Well, it's fairly simple now, isn't it, since the system in question is
only connected to one network on one physical interface?

> Some other info from comp.os.vms (from me) might help too:
...
> This 'Phase IV changes the MAC address' behaviour is behind what's meant by
> Phase IV compatible addressing in Phase V - and it's why NET$CONFIGURE won't
> let you (by default) enable Phase IV Compatible addressing on more than one
> NIC.

OK, I think I see now.

So, back to my question now.  Given that the first interface is not in
use and that the second interface should have phaseiv addressing turned
on to support phaseiv-only nodes (currently only my workstation) should
I issue the two NCL commands I pasted in my earlier note, or does
running NET$CONFIGURE handle that detail for me?

Thanks,
Ben
-- 
      Ben Armstrong                -.       Medianet Development Group,
      BAr...@dy...         `-.    Dymaxion Research Limited
      <URL: http://www.dymaxion.ca/>    `-  Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada