DECNIS V3.1 DECNIS® V3.1 Release Notes for OpenVMS® VAX 25-September-1995 Digital Equipment Corporation Maynard, Massachusetts __________ While Digital believes the information included in this publication is correct as of the date of publication, it is subject to change with- out notice. Possession, use, or copying of the software described in this docu- mentation is authorized only pursuant to a valid written license from Digital or an authorized sublicensor. Digital Equipment Corporation makes no representations that the use of its products in the manner described in this publication will not infringe on existing or future patent rights, nor do the descriptions contained in this publication imply the granting of licenses to make, use, or sell equipment or software in accordance with the description. __________ © Digital Equipment Corporation 1994. All Rights Reserved. __________ The postpaid Reader's Comments form at the end of this document re- quests your critical evaluation to assist in preparing future docu- mentation. The following are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation: Bookreader DECwindows VAX DDCMP Digital VAXcluster DEC DNA VAXELN DECbrouter OpenVMS VMS DECmcc Packetnet VT DECnet PATHWORKS DECNIS POLYCENTER DECrouter ULTRIX DIGITAL AppleTalk is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Cor- poration. MS-DOS is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. NetWare is a registered trademark of Novell, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other coun- tries, licensed exclusively through X/Open Company, Ltd. Vitalink is a registered trademark of Vitalink Communications Corpo- ration. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective holders. The Digital implementation of OSPF is an adaptation of the OSPF im- plementation developed by the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland. Copyright ~ 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, University of Maryland. Permission to use, copy and modify the software and its documentation is granted provided that this copyright notice and these terms shall appear in all copies of the software and its supporting documentation. The origin of this software may not be misrepresented, either by ex- plicit claim or by omission. The Software is provided "AS IS" and without any express or implied warranties, including but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. This document was prepared using VAX DOCUMENT, Version 2.1. CONTENTS 1 Functionality Added for This Release..................... 1 2 Functionality Restrictions for This Release.............. 2 2.1 Dumping Disabled by Default........................... 2 2.1.1 Enabling Dumping Temporarily....................... 2 2.1.2 Enabling Dumping Permanently....................... 2 2.2 DECNIS default path split is 2........................ 2 2.3 Prioritisation on F621/W631........................... 3 2.4 Failover on W631...................................... 3 2.5 W631 PVC Rate attributes.............................. 3 2.6 IP Packet filtering on W614/8......................... 3 2.7 PIM restictions on F621............................... 3 2.8 Static route propagation for OSPF..................... 4 2.9 SMDS datalink restrictions............................ 4 2.10 Serial Line Restrictions............................. 4 2.11 Setting values for T1 over LAPB X.25 links........... 4 2.12 Disabling X.25 security.............................. 5 2.13 FDDI links sticking in the "Off-Ready" state......... 5 2.14 Disabling MOP Load Requester & IP Load Requester..... 5 2.15 MOP cannot initiate loopback packets on DDCMP links.. 5 2.16 NetWare® IPX Routing: Events......................... 5 2.17 AppleTalk® Routing: Events........................... 6 2.18 CSMA-CD Events....................................... 6 2.19 Event Filtering...................................... 6 2.20 Disabled Netware IPX from Routing Circuits in the DECNIS configurator.................................. 6 3 General Information...................................... 6 3.1 ACTUAL SPEED Characteristic........................... 6 3.2 MAC Addresses......................................... 7 3.3 W618 and W614 Connector Cable......................... 7 3.4 MOP node name......................................... 7 3.5 NSP defaults may affect performance of Routing Convergence........................................... 7 4 Interoperability Information............................. 8 4.1 Bridging over PPP against Cisco....................... 8 4.2 Bridging over PPP to RouteAbout products.............. 8 4.3 Designated Router election against DECbrouter 90...... 9 4.4 Network "probe" of Vitalink® Bridges.................. 9 4.5 DECmcc - SNMP ARP entry table deletion................ 9 4.6 DECmcc - restrictions with objects defined as type FddiTime.............................................. 9 4.7 Asynchronous DDCMP from DECnet/OSI for OpenVMS for VAX - need fix kit........................................ 10 iii 5 Configuration Information................................ 10 5.1 Changing Phase IV address............................. 10 5.2 Using the Local Naming Option in the Load-host Configurator.......................................... 10 5.3 DECNIS system time when loaded using BOOTP............ 11 5.4 Configurator W618/W614 restriction.................... 11 5.5 Configurator AppleTalk restiction..................... 11 5.6 OpenVMS Alpha DECdns Nicknames........................ 11 6 NCL Problems............................................. 11 6.1 NCL Syntax used in the DECNIS script compiler......... 12 6.2 Event Block, Pass and Ignore directives............... 12 6.3 Reachable Addresses................................... 12 6.4 On-line HELP for NCL: HDLC LINK Entity................ 12 6.5 DELETE AND DISABLE Commands........................... 12 6.6 Displaying Ports...................................... 13 6.7 Counter discrepancies on disabled circuits............ 13 6.8 Using the 50-Way Loopback Connector................... 13 6.9 Loopback With Assistance.............................. 13 6.10 NCL Abbreviation of 'Protocol' Keyword............... 13 6.11 CONNECT Command...................................... 13 7 Documentation Information................................ 14 7.1 Configuring OSPF over X25-DA Circuits................. 14 7.2 LOOP MOP Command...................................... 15 7.3 Missing Information in DECNIS 500 Manual.............. 15 8 Configurator NCL format Management from DECnet-VAX Extensions Systems....................................... 16 8.1 Towerset Syntax on DECnet-VAX Extensions.............. 16 iv DECNIS® V3.1 Release Notes for OpenVMS® VAX This document contains information not included elsewhere in the DEC Network Integration Server (DECNIS®) documentation. This information includes information about using the DECNIS, software changes and/or documentation changes. This document is intended for use with Version V3.1 of the DECNIS. PLEASE READ THESE NOTES BEFORE INSTALLING OR USING THE SOFTWARE. 1 Functionality Added for This Release The following software functions are included in this release: MPC-II only 1. ATM Controller W631 2. Telnet 3. BGP4 4. PIM MPC-I and MPC-II 1. Packet Filtering 2. OpenVMS Alpha support 3. Bridging on W618/W614 4. Compression 5. CMIP over TCP 6. Remote loading over PPP 7. NCL checker Please note that to make use of the software supported on MPC-II hard- ware a different system image is required. The required image can be found in the same directory as the MPC-I system image and is named "NIS031b.sys". To use the "b"-image, save the MPC-I image and rename "NIS031b.sys" to have the old MPC-I image name. The configurator will then use the "b"-image when combining system images and script files. New MPC-II hardware can be ordered as part number "DNSAN-BH". It is possible to connect a PC to the MPC-II DECNIS Console using the CONSOLE program provided in the DECROU kit. The DECNIS can be attached to the PC using a length of Digital's MMP Office Cable ( Digital Part Number E0-BC16E-10 ) with a nine pin Fe- male PC Adapater ( Digital Part Number E0-H8571-J ) plugged into Se- rial Port 1 and a 25 Female Pin Adapter ( Digital Part Number E0-H8575- A) plugged into the DECNIS. 1 To run the console program select the CONSOLE option from the DECROU menu. To quit running the CONSOLE program press CTRL-F10. 2 Functionality Restrictions for This Release The following section describes known restrictions with this software release. 2.1 Dumping Disabled by Default The DECNIS will by default prevent dumping on all connections. This allows the DECNIS to restart quickly after failure; typically, the DEC- NIS takes about two minutes to restart if it does not dump, as com- pared to 30 minutes if it does dump. Note that pressing the dump but- ton and issuing the dump coommand from the console both override this setting. The user can also enter the following command to get a dump: NCL> DUMP DEVICE UNIT MP* 2.1.1 Enabling Dumping Temporarily You may want the DECNIS to dump the next time it fails, but to revert to not dumping thereafter. To do this, issue the following command in- teractively: NCL> SET HARDWARE DUMP CONTROL dump-type where dump-type is one of the following: FULL DUMP SYSTEM PROCESSOR DUMP 2.1.2 Enabling Dumping Permanently To enable dumping permanently, enter the SET HARDWARE DUMP CONTROL com- mand described in Section 2.1.1 in the user SET NCL script. 2.2 DECNIS default path split is 2 For this release the configurator program will assign a default path split of 2, without questioning the user. This can lead to poor per- formance in certain configurations. When one of the paths is partic- ularly slow packets can arrive out of sequence causing performance is- sues. Other customers want path splitting and therefore the default will not be changed. It is possible to change the default in the "extra_set" NCL files: set routing maximum path splits 1 2 2.3 Prioritisation on F621/W631 In this software version packet prioritisation is not supported on the FDDI Controller 621 or the ATM Controller 631, even though, the man- agement does not prevent the user configuring it. 2.4 Failover on W631 In this software version ATM Controller 631 circuits can not be used for fail-over, since there is no support for Multiplexed Interface/ATM modules in the supervisor entity. 2.5 W631 PVC Rate attributes In this software version the minimum value for the Peak Rate and Min- imum Guaranteed Rate of the ATM Connection Manager Line PVC entity is 1. Since the sum of the Minimum Guaranteed Rate attributes of all PVCs can not exceed 100 (100%), the maximum number of configured PVCs (and therefore the number of Routing Circuits) per ATM option is 100. 2.6 IP Packet filtering on W614/8 In this software version the interface filters attribute on the pri- ority interface sub-entity behaves differently on WAN Controller 614 and 618 cards. On these cards the filter resources are shared by all of their lines. The interface filters attribute on every interface lo- cated on a single card reflects the TOTAL number of interface filters on the card as a whole. Hence if there are two interfaces on a WAN Con- troller 614 or 618 card and an interface filter is created under one of them - both interfaces will have their interface filters attribute set to 1. 2.7 PIM restictions on F621 In this software version PIM group addresses must be manually setup on FDDI Controller 621 circuits. It has been noted that some PIM ap- plications radomly assign their PIM addresses. This means that, when using such an application, the group addresses will need to be spoofed and manually entered into the DECNIS. 3 2.8 Static route propagation for OSPF For this release the configurator program will not generate STATIC route propogation if you choose OSPF and EGP as your router protocols. If ISIS is selected as the router protocol, the configurator asks about propogation to other selected router protocols e.g. EGP and also cre- ates STATIC route propogation in the main NCL as default. If however you choose OSPF and EGP as your router protocols you need to generate STATIC route propogation by hand in the extra files, (as well as the OSPF propogation). 2.9 SMDS datalink restrictions In this software version the SMDS Addressing scheme is limited to that specified in Bellcore specification TR-TSV-000772. Refer to the man- agement guide for details. SMDS datalink is seen as a LAN by routing. The following LAN services are NOT supported: o Native IPX. IPX IP Tunnels are supported. o Bridging. o MOP load/dump/loop, BOOTP o DECNet Phase IV routing o LLC2 o AppleTalk The following LAN services are supported: o ISO routing (DECnet Phase V, I-ISIS) o IP (RIP,OSPF,IPX Tunnel) 2.10 Serial Line Restrictions For this release, do not reconfigure the serial data-link on a run- ning system. If you need to change the data-link type (for example from HDLC to PPP), then you must change the configuration files and reboot the system. 2.11 Setting values for T1 over LAPB X.25 links For operation of X.25 over LAPB links the values for the timer "T1" should not be set below the default values specified in the network profile, on either the DECNIS system (DTE) or the network system (DCE). Digital recommends that this value is not set below 2 second, values below 1 second may result in datalink disconnections if the DECNIS Man- agement processor is heavily overloaded. 4 2.12 Disabling X.25 security. When running the DECNIS configurator if the X.25 security option is disabled it should not subsequently be re-enabled. Doing so will cause information on outgoing security to be lost. 2.13 FDDI links sticking in the "Off-Ready" state If the following sequence of commands is supplied to the FDDI station LINK entity the link may remain in the "Off-Ready" state. NCL> disable node x fddi station f621-{n} link 1 NCL> disable node x fddi station f621-{n} phy port 1 NCL> disable node x fddi station f621-{n} phy port 2 NCL> enable node x fddi station f621-{n} link 1 NCL> enable node x fddi station f621-{n} phy port 1 NCL> enable node x fddi station f621-{n} phy port 2 NCL> disable node x fddi station f621-{n} link 1 NCL> enable node x fddi station f621-{n} link 1 (where x is the node name, and f621-{n} is the F621 FDDI card name) Should this happen issue the following commands to return the link to the "On-Ring Run" state. NCL> disable node x fddi station f621-{n} link 1 NCL> disable node x fddi station f621-{n} phy port 1 NCL> disable node x fddi station f621-{n} phy port 2 NCL> enable node x fddi station f621-{n} phy port 1 NCL> enable node x fddi station f621-{n} phy port 2 NCL> enable node x fddi station f621-{n} link 1 2.14 Disabling MOP Load Requester & IP Load Requester If MOP Load Requester or IP Load Requester is disabled for a partic- ular interface then this will also disable the receipt of boot or load requests over that interface even if the target load host is on an- other, enabled interface. 2.15 MOP cannot initiate loopback packets on DDCMP links Although MOP circuits can be set up for DDCMP links, the MOP LOOP di- rective will always fail with a datalink error. MOP LOOP directives (Phase IV via NCP or Phase V via NCL with DECnet/OSI) from the remote station will be responded to correctly. 2.16 NetWare® IPX Routing: Events The following event is not logged by the NetWare® IPX routing soft- ware: o State Change 5 2.17 AppleTalk® Routing: Events The following event is not logged by the AppleTalk® routing software: o State Change 2.18 CSMA-CD Events These are not generated for either station transmit or receive errors. 2.19 Event Filtering The following conditions apply to event filters for this release. 1. A node name must be included in the specific filter argument of Pass, Block or Ignore directives and in the Event argument of the TestEvent directive. However, the name is not checked or acted upon by the DECNIS. For example, in the following command, the node xyzzy is not checked or used by the DECNIS: NCL> PASS NODE decnis EVENT DISPATCHER OUTBOUND STREAM - stream-name SPECIFIC FILTER ( NODE xyzzy ROUTING CIRCUIT - csmacd-0, CIRCUIT CHANGE) 2. The "All Events" event group is not supported in the filtering com- mands. For example, the following will be rejected with an invalid argument value error: NCL> PASS NODE decnis EVENT DISPATCHER OUTBOUND STREAM - stream-name SPECIFIC FILTER (NODE xyzzy ROUTING CIRCUIT - csmacd-0, ALL) 2.20 Disabled Netware IPX from Routing Circuits in the DECNIS configurator In this release, once a Netware IPX routing circuit has been entered (in the lines and DTE section) it can not be disabled. Disabled IPX circuits will prevent a clean NCL script compilation and should be re- moved by deleting and re-adding the line. 3 General Information This section provides information about using DECNIS and the V3.1 soft- ware in your network. 3.1 ACTUAL SPEED Characteristic The value of the ACTUAL SPEED characteristic is only an estimate and at high speeds the value may be inaccurate. For example: a line run- ning at 2Mbps may report as running at 2.5Mbps. 6 3.2 MAC Addresses When transmitting frames on an 802.3 LAN (Ethernet), the DECNIS may use different source addresses for different protocols: o OSI, DECnet Phase IV or IP traffic: SA = Logical Address o All other frames: SA = Physical Address of NIC. where Logical Address is the Phase IV style Ethernet address of the system if Phase IV address is enabled on the particular routing cir- cuit; otherwise it is the Physical Address of the Network Interface Card. 3.3 W618 and W614 Connector Cable This cable must not be unplugged (at either end) when power is applied to the Network Interface Card. 3.4 MOP node name If you manually configure the file name for the load file in the MOP CLIENT profile it is important to use the correct syntax:- System Image = {:.Node::mom$system:nis023.sys} The leading colon is required for successful operation 3.5 NSP defaults may affect performance of Routing Convergence If you operate a large network you may experience problems in the per- formance of Routing Convergence, and possible loss of transport con- nections during topology changes in the network. This is due to in- appropriate NSP defaults when running Phase V routing. The following defaults are recommended: o Delay Factor = 5 o Delay Weight = 3 o Retransmit Factor = 10 The ROM version number can be found by using the following NCL com- mand. Any pre-1993 DECNIS will probably require upgrading if dumps are required and this problem is found. NCL> SHOW NODE node-name DEVICE UNIT MP8M-1 FIRMWARE IDENTIFIER Show Node DEC:.node-name Device Unit MP8M-1 at 1993-12-10-11:49:12.60000 + 00:00 I 28147497.67107 Status Firmware Identifier "0 2-3.6 V7-07 5.1" ~~~~~ 7 Setting the DECNIS to only dump the management processor will in most circumstances provide a workaround. However upgraded ROMs will be nec- essary where dumps are required for all other cards in the system. The NCL command to limit the size of the dump file is: NCL> SET NODE node-name HARD DUMP CONTROL SYSTEM PROCESSOR DUMP To return to a full system dump issue the following command: NCL> SET NODE node-name HARD DUMP CONTROL FULL DUMP 4 Interoperability Information This section provides information about other products that interact with the DECNIS V3.1 software. 4.1 Bridging over PPP against Cisco In DECNIS the PPP code builds a LCP configuration request and sends the sdu_size option if the max_sdu_size is not the PPP default of 1500. DECBrouter90 V10.x software does not support PPP LCP and therfore re- jects the configuration request. If the DECNIS receives a conf_rej for the sdu_size option it sets the requested size to 1500 so that it won't ask for it in the next con- figure request but, it doesn't do this if 1500 is not between min_sdu_ size and max_sdu_size. As bridging requires an sdu_size of 1524 (to get the encapsulated eth- ernet packet in it) or 4500 (to get the encapsulated FDDI packet in it) it will never be able to manage with an sdu_size of 1500. This restriction currently prevents the Cisco and DECNIS bridging over PPP. 4.2 Bridging over PPP to RouteAbout products In DECNIS the PPP code is willing to negotiate the bridge MAC types that it sends over a PPP link. The list it offers is controlled by the bridge port attribute MAC TYPES. Unfortunately there is no way to tell the line card which types are available and the line card will just transmit the packets out in the format that they arrived. 8 If, for example, the configuration was DECNIS with FDDI connected to one of the RouteAbout products then any packets originating on the FDDI would be lost and would not reach the ethernet on the RouteAbout prod- uct. 4.3 Designated Router election against DECbrouter 90 When the DECbrouter 90 (or Cisco routers) are configured to conduct DNA Phase IV to V conversion, the DECbrouter 90 (or Cisco routers) must have equal settings for both DNA IV & V router priorities. Failure to do so may result in a designated router not being elected if the DEC- NIS router priority is between the two values set in the DECbrouter 90. 4.4 Network "probe" of Vitalink® Bridges In order to use Vitalink® network "probe" features over VCP links the following ethernet types should be selected for forwarding. DVS -> Display Vitalink Systems Type 80-80 CON -> Connect Type 06-00 (XNS_IDP) 4.5 DECmcc - SNMP ARP entry table deletion It is not possible to to delete ARP cache entries using the address translation table of MIB II if using the DECmcc management agent. This is because DECmcc does not allow a zero length string to be entered. The workaround is to set the ipNetToMediaType object in the ipNetTo- MediaTable to 'invalid' for the entry which you wish to deleted. 4.6 DECmcc - restrictions with objects defined as type FddiTime DECmcc incorrectly handles the type Unsigned32 are encoded incorrectly in ASN.1 as the SNMP application type 'TimeTicks' rather than plain integer (0..2147483647). The consequence being that it is not be possible to set from DECmcc the following variables in the FDDI MIB (RFC1285). o snmpFddiMACTReq o snmpFddiPORTMACLoopTime o snmpFddiPORTTBMax The following will not be setable from DECmcc in the BRIDGE MIB (RFC1286): o dot1dStpBridgeMaxAge o dot1dStpBridgeHelloTime 9 o dot1dStpBridgeForwardDelay Note that if any other management station is used these variables will behave as expected. 4.7 Asynchronous DDCMP from DECnet/OSI for OpenVMS for VAX - need fix kit Asynchronous DDCMP in DECnet/OSI for OpenVMS for VAX requires the pres- ence of PAD characters before all frames. The DDCMP architecture in- dicates these are OPTIONAL and the WAN controller 614/8 does not sup- ply them. There is a FIX kit for DECnet/OSI for OpenVMS for VAX which corrects this problem. 5 Configuration Information This section provides information associated with installation and con- figuration of the DECNIS V3.1 software.. 5.1 Changing Phase IV address If the PhaseIV address of a DECNIS is changed in the host configura- tor then without special action in the decnis configurator an invalid NCL script is generated. To work around the problem o Invoke the decnis configurator and select Routing o Reenter the PhaseIV prefix o Generate NCL The NCL script now correctly contains the new PhaseIV address. 5.2 Using the Local Naming Option in the Load-host Configurator When the Load-host configurator asks you to enter the DNS Node Name for the router and you have set up DECnet to use Local NameSpace (LNS) and you enter a node name of the form LOCAL:.node, then no update ac- tually occurs at that point. The following message will appear at the bottom of the screen: The name refers to a DNS Local name space. No DNS updates have occurred. DNS name : LOCAL:.node This is not an error. This message is informing you that nothing has yet happened. The local name file does not get updated by the Load- host Configurator. The information that you have enetered is remem- bered and the local name file gets updated by the Router Configura- tor. This is because the Router Configurator holds the setup infor- mation on tower sets (which is needed for the local name file update). 10 5.3 DECNIS system time when loaded using BOOTP If a DECNIS is configured and loaded using BOOTP (on PC or OSF® sys- tems), the clock on the DECNIS will not be set. Once the system has loaded the system time needs to be set after initial load using the following command. NCL> UPDATE NODE {node-name} DTSS TIME yyyy-mmm-dd-hh:mm:ss +a:b Where "yyyy-mmm-dd-hh:mm:ss" is the current time and "a:b" is the dif- ferential time in Hours and Minutes 5.4 Configurator W618/W614 restriction In this software version substituting a W614 for a W618 in the con- figurator doesn't work correctly. If you wish to do this please re- start the configuration from scratch. 5.5 Configurator AppleTalk restiction In this software version, when a Line or DTE is being created and Ap- pletalk option are specified. If later the options are removed, to get back to the defaults, the configurator still produces scripts with the old values in. The only work-around is to start the configuration again, from scratch. 5.6 OpenVMS Alpha DECdns Nicknames In this release the DECNIS configurators on OpenVMS Alpha cannot trans- late the DECdns Nickname to a NSCTS. DECdns Nicknames should not be used for the event dispatcher and x25 clients. For example: test_ns:.test01 should be input as 0:.test01 local:.test01 should be input as 0:.test01 6 NCL Problems This section describes provides information about possible problems with NCL. 11 6.1 NCL Syntax used in the DECNIS script compiler. The NCL syntax used in the script compiler on VMS is that accepted by the DECnet-VAX Extensions NCL. Therefore the restrictions noted in this document for DECnet-VAX Extensions systems also apply to the syntax used in the "EXTRA" NCL configuration files, see Section 8. 6.2 Event Block, Pass and Ignore directives If Block, Pass or Ignore directives are specified in the "EXTRA" con- figuration files to control the DECNIS event dispatcher they must be added to the "_EXTRA_SET" file and NOT the "_EXTRA_ENABLE" file. 6.3 Reachable Addresses OpenVMS NCL currently will not allow you to specify an X.25 or OSI reach- able address that includes the system-id in the address prefix char- acteristic. For example the format: create x25 access reachable address john address prefix 49::00-01:aa-00-04-00-38-04 does not work, but the format: create x25 access reachable address john address prefix 49::00-01 does. DECnet-ULTRIX NCL allows you to include the system-id. In ei- ther case, if you enter the address prefix in HRPF (Hexadecimal Ref- erence Published Format) format, you can include the system-id. 6.4 On-line HELP for NCL: HDLC LINK Entity The PREFERRED CRC TYPE characteristic attribute of the HDLC LINK en- tity has the following three possible values: o 16 bit o 32 bit o EITHER The NCL HELP text incorrectly includes a hyphen in the first two val- ues. 6.5 DELETE AND DISABLE Commands The following directives are not supported: DELETE CSMA-CD DELETE CSMA-CD STATION DELETE MODEM CONNECT LINE 12 DISABLE CSMA-CD STATION The following directive returns an incorrect error message: DISABLE ROUTING The error message returned is "No such entity". This should be "Di- rective not supported". 6.6 Displaying Ports If your DECNIS system has both L601 and L602 NICs, the NCL command: NCL> SHOW NODE name DEVICE ALL displays all the L602/L601 port 0 information, followed by the L602 port 1 information. 6.7 Counter discrepancies on disabled circuits The multi-processor architecture of the DECNIS system may result in counters being lower than expected for disabled circuits. Lost or low counters will be corrected when the circuit is re-enabled, providing the circuit and its associated device and datalink entities are not re-configured. 6.8 Using the 50-Way Loopback Connector You cannot use the STOPLOOP command on a MODEM CONNECT LINE, if the W622 or W614 Network Interface Card associated with that line has a 50-way loopback connector installed. Issuing the STOPLOOP command in this circumstance will have no effect. 6.9 Loopback With Assistance MOP loopback with assistance is not supported. 6.10 NCL Abbreviation of 'Protocol' Keyword When issuing NCL commands to a ROUTING CIRCUIT NETWORK PROTOCOL en- tity, you must not abbreviate the keyword PROTOCOL. 6.11 CONNECT Command If a command of the following type fails, OpenVMS NCL incorrectly for- mats the error response: CONNECT EVENT DISPATCHER OUTBOUND STREAM stream-name 13 The reason codes displayed have the following meanings: o Reason = %X088000 or Reason = 32776 The sink node name has been specified, and the name is not present in Session Control's Known Towers database. 7 Documentation Information The following sections describe documentation changes. 7.1 Configuring OSPF over X25-DA Circuits To configure OSPF to run over an X25-DA circuit requires some addi- tional setup by the user which is not currently documented in the Man- agement Guide and is not performed by the Configurator. The follow- ing steps describe the actions necessary to configure an OSPF NBMA net- work over X25-DA circuits. 1. Use the Configurator to create an X.25-DA routing circuit, spec- ifying any security options you require and the DTE information. Note that the router must be configured as a ISIS L2 router in or- der to create an X.25-DA circuit (although you can still disable IP information from being propagated by the ISIS routing protocol if necessary). 2. Also in the Configurator, create an IP Reachable Address for ev- ery OSPF Neighbor which is accessible over the X.25-DA Routing cir- cuit. You must specify 255.255.255.255 as the mask for the reach- able address (i.e. a host mask) and the address of the Neighbor's interface. 3. In the NIS_name_EXTRA_SET.NCL file you must setup a subnet address and mask for the X.25-DA Routing Circuit (this is not done by the Configurator). The subnet address is the subnet of the OSPF NBMA network, i.e. SET ROUTING CIRCUIT x25-da-1 - SUBNET ADDRESS [ADDRESS=92.1.1.0, MASK=55.255.255.0 ] 4. Now create and setup the OSPF entities (CONTROL PROTOCOL, LOGICAL CIRCUIT and ADJACENCY) in the NIS_name_EXTRA_.NCL files as described in section 8.8.7 in the DECNIS Management Guide. Specifically you must create a manual adjacency for every OSPF Neighbor on the X.25- DA network e.g. CREATE ROUTING CONTROL PROTOCOL ospf-area-0 LOGICAL CIRCUIT rx25-da-1 - ADJACENCY node OSPF NEIGHBOR ADDRESS 192.1.1.5, OSPF PRIORITY 1 14 Note you should have an adjacency for every IP Reachable Address you created in the Configurator). 7.2 LOOP MOP Command The DECNIS Problem Solving manual describes using the following com- mand to test HDLC, DDCMP and LAPB circuits: NCL> LOOP MOP CIRCUIT circuit-name In this release, this command is not supported for DDCMP and LAPB cir- cuits, see Section 2.15. 7.3 Missing Information in DECNIS 500 Manual The following information applies to the 7-segment display as described in the DECNIS 500 Installation and Service Manual. 7-Segment displays for DECNIS systems while loading/dumping: 0 No Load Circuits. The system cannot issue a load request since all the possible load circuits are either broken or have been disabled. 1 Load Request. The system is requesting a load from a specific load host. This would normally be the first display since the load is always tried from the last load host first. 2 Loading. The system has located a load host and is loading the image. This display remains until the load completes or is aborted. 3 Load Request Backoff. The system has backed off the load request to avoid congestion on any load hosts. The load request will be re-issued when the backoff timer expires (a few seconds). 4 Load Complete, flash update or decompression in progress. 5 Dump Request. The system is requesting a dump to a specific dump host. This would normally be the first display since the dump is always tried from the last load host first. 6 Dumping. The system has located a dump host and is dumping the sys- tem context. This display remains until the dump completes or is aborted. 7 15 Broadcast Load Request. The system is requesting a load on all cir- cuits (using the dump/load assistance multicast address on LAN cir- cuits). 8 not-used 9 Broadcast Dump Request. The system is looping around all the circuits sending a dump request on each in turn trying to locate a dump host (using the dump/load assistance multicast address on LAN circuits). 8 Configurator NCL format Management from DECnet-VAX Extensions Systems The DECNIS configurator has a script compiler which still works in DECnet-VAX Extensions mode. Even though DECnet-VAX Extension load hosts are no longer supported the NCL syntax used in the "extra" NCL files must still be that of a DECnet-VAX Extension system. This section describes the differneces between load host NCL syntax and "extra" NCL file syntax. 8.1 Towerset Syntax on DECnet-VAX Extensions The syntax used for towersets on DECnet-VAX Extensions systems is dif- ferent from that given in the DECNIS documentation. To take an example from Section 1.10 of the DECNIS Management manual: ([DNA_CMIP-MICE], [DNA_SESSIONCONTROLV3, NUMBER=19], [DNA_NSP], [DNA_OSINETWORK, NSAP-address]) becomes ([%X0113], [DNA$ProtID$SessCtlV3 NUMBER=19], [DNA$ProtID$NSP], [DNA$ProtID$RoutingV3 NSAP-address]) 16