These release notes support V4.7.0 of the ptx®/ATM software intended for use with NUMA-Q® systems. Read this document before you install and run this release of the ptx/ATM software.
ptx/ATM V4.7.0 contains the following new features :
ptx/ATM 4.7.0 supports the new ATM FORERUNNER card, which is more advanced than the previous PCA-200e card. The ATM FORERUNNER card is not supported on previous versions of ptx/ATM.
The new ATM FORERUNNER card has a more efficient host-to-card interface, larger memory to more connections, very sophisticated hardware to handle robust data transmission, and better QOS support.
ATTENTION The new ATM FORERUNNER card is fully compatible with the previous PCA-200e unless the new card is inserted on the second bus of older quads. If the new card is so located, ptx/ATM will not recognize it. This restriction is due to hardware incompatibility between the two cards.
The only operational difference on the new card is that the completion of an insert operation (atmadmin adapter -insert) does not return any message indicating success. The PCA-200e card returns the text Download success when an insert operation is completed on this card. No message is returned for the ATM FORERUNNER card because no firmware is explicitly downloaded on it. However, you must still perform an insert operation on the new card.
To determine whether a specific card is a PCA-200e or an ATM FORERUNNER card, use a command similar to the following:
atmadmin adapter -fwrev atmraw0
Among other details, the output will show a string which is either PCA-200e for the older card or HE155 for the new ATM FORERUNNER card.
The ATM_NFS_PATCH kernel parameter has been added to ptx/ATM. It provides a workaround to a performance problem when using NFS over a LANE interface, with MTU less than or equal to 4544. This workaround is not needed when using NFS over CLIP interfaces or when using LANE interfaces with MTU greater than 4544. The values for this kernel parameter are 1 (enables workaround) and 0 (disables workaround). The default is 0.
CLIP and LANE interfaces over ATM now support MIB II. This enables the collection of MIB II statistics for LANE and CLIP devices.
Several problems have been fixed in ptx/ATM V4.7.0. Refer to "Fixed Problems in ptx/ATM V4.7.0" at the end of this document for more information.
The following software products are prerequisites for ptx/ATM V4.7.0:
The only network-protocol product that can be used with ptx/ATM V4.7.0 is ptx/TCP/IP V4.7.0 or later.
ptx/ATM V4.7.0 is compatible with the following ATM protocols:
UNI (User-Network Interface) 3.1 and the associated ILMI (Interim Local Management Interface)
LANE (LAN Emulation) 1.0
There are some known interoperability issues when using LANE Services hosted on Cisco Systems® edge devices and Bay Networks® ATM switches. See the section entitled "Interoperability Problems."
For all features of ptx/ATM V4.7.0 to work correctly, ATM adapter devices must be named atmrawX, where X is a number from 0 to 15. The X part of the name must be equal to the device number, as given in the DEVNUM column of output from /etc/dumpconf.
The "unit" parameter specified while configuring or showing CLIP and LANE interfaces is also equal to the DEVNUM device number.
Because of conflicts in the device naming database, the name and device number can sometimes get out of sync and must be corrected by the System Administrator. For example, consider the following output:
# /etc/dumpconf -d
NAME CFGTYPE DEVNUM UNIT FLAGS OnBUS OnDEVICE … atmraw2 atmraw 0 0x00000002 L pci quad0 atmraw1 atmraw 1 0x00000006 L pci quad0 pe0 pe 0 0x00000001 L pci quad0
The device named atmraw1 has a DEVNUM of 1, but the device named atmraw2 has a DEVNUM of 0. This must be corrected as follows:
# /etc/devctl -n atmraw2 atmraw0
devctl: Assigned atmraw2 --> atmraw0
# /etc/dumpconf -d
NAME CFGTYPE DEVNUM UNIT FLAGS OnBUS OnDEVICE … atmraw0 atmraw 0 0x00000002 L pci quad0 atmraw1 atmraw 1 0x00000006 L pci quad0 pe0 pe 0 0x00000001 L pci quad0
You can now add the adapters atmraw0 and atmraw1 to the configuration tables, and configure CLIP or LANE interfaces on units 0 and 1, respectively.
The ptx/TCP/IP product includes a daemon called rarpd, which implements the Reverse ARP protocol. It does not work over ATM interfaces, neither CLIP nor LANE.
Other DYNIX/ptx products have components that are known to misuse ptx/ATM devices. All of the components listed in the following subsections have the no-longer-valid behavior of opening all devices found in the /dev/net directory. Under normal circumstances this does not cause any problems, but it can inhibit certain ATM operations, such as deleting a CLIP or LANE interface or resetting an ATM adapter. If this happens, the ATM operation can only be completed by killing the daemon that has the ATM devices open.
The ptx/NFS product includes a statistics-gathering daemon called rpc.statd, which may be configured at the administrator's option. The following example shows how to kill this daemon. See the ptx/NFS Administration Guide to restart it, if desired, after the ATM operation is completed.
# ps -ef | grep statd
root 5575 1 0 14:52:41 ? 0:00 /etc/rpc.statd
root 18312 11024 1 17:21:44 ttyiQ/iAQp 0:00 grep statd
# kill -9 5575
The ptx/TCP/IP product includes a daemon called mib2agt (a comms subagent) that gathers statistics on TCP/IP interfaces for access via ptx/Agent. The following shows how to kill this daemon. Refer to the ptx/TCP/IP Administration Guide to restart it, if desired, after the ATM operation is completed.
# ps -ef | grep mib2
root 8923 1 0 22:12:11 ? 0:00 /etc/mib2agt
root 3821 3617 0 18:04:03 ttyAE/AAEi 0:00 grep mib2
# kill -9 8923
The ptx/TCP/IP product includes a daemon called rarpd, which implements the Reverse ARP protocol. It may be configured at the Administrator's option. The following example shows how to kill this daemon. See the ptx/TCP/IP Administration Guide to restart it, if desired, after the ATM operation is completed.
/etc/rarpd can be started in two ways:
By specifying a particular interface (using -d flag)
By specifying the -a flag, which will have rarpd listen on all interfaces currently up
In either case, /etc/rarpd will invoke a separate daemon for each interface it has been configured to use. The following shows how the daemon can be detected and killed. Each individual instance will need to be killed separately.
# ps -ef | grep rarpd
root 9580 8233 5 09:52:25 syscon 0:00 grep rarpd
root 9576 1 0 09:52:21 ? 0:00 /etc/rarpd -a
root 9578 1 0 09:52:21 ? 0:00 /etc/rarpd -a
root 9579 1 0 09:52:21 ? 0:00 /etc/rarpd -a
# kill -9 9576
# kill -9 9578
# kill -9 9579
The following sections describe known problems when interoperating with ATM products from other vendors.
When using ptx/ATM LANE with LANE Services running on several Cisco SystemsTM devices, particularly the Cisco 5500 and Cisco 7513, two known problems can occur. These problems are logged in Cisco's bug-tracking database as BugID CSCdj38583 and as case ID T30652. The solution is to install revision 12.0 (or higher) of Cisco software. If this cannot be done, the kernel parameter ATM_CISCO_PATCH (see ptx/ATM Administration Guide, Appendix A, "Tunable Kernel Parameters") should be changed from 0 to 1.
You may be using ptx/ATM LANE with LANE Services running on Bay Networks Centillion 50 ATM switch with MCP Version 3.2(2.7) Advanced Image. If so, ILMI does not properly negotiate the UNI version. Also, the LANE configuration-reply message violates the LANE 1.0 specification. Change the kernel parameter ATM_BAY_PATCH from 0 to 1 (see the ptx/ATM Administration Guide, Appendix A, "Tunable Kernel Parameters").
To install ptx/ATM V4.7.0, refer to the DYNIX/ptx V4.6.0 and Layered Products Software Installation Release Notes.
ptx/ATM V4.7.0 is fully upward compatible with ptx/ATM V2.0.x, V4.5.x, and V4.6.x. There are no issues for migration from these versions.
Starting with ptx/ATM V4.6.0, ptx/ATM supports selective netprefix setting on some adapters in the host. For this reason, when upgrading from ptx/ATM V2.0.x or V4.5.x to ptx/ATM V4.7.0, the following may apply:
If under ptx/ATM V2.0.x or V4.5.0 the adapters were configured with network prefix, then you should check the /var/atm/etc/.nosnmpd file to make sure all the adapter names that were configured with network prefix appear in this file. They should normally be present in this file but if they are not, then they need to be added by editing the file.
For example, if the host has three adapters (atmraw0, atmraw1, and atmraw2) and all adapters were configured for network prefix, then the .nosnmpd file should have
atmraw0
atmraw1
atmraw2
The full path name is not needed and each adapter name should appear in a line by itself without any preceding/trailing information. Also, in the earlier versions, it was not possible to selectively set network prefix for some adapters. That is, if the network prefix is to be set, it has to be set on all adapters in the host.
If an adapter in the host is directly connected to another host's adapter, instead of through a switch, then enter that adapter's name in the /var/atm/etc/.nosnmpd file as explained. In this setup, only CLIP can be configured on the adapter.
The following documentation is available on the online documentation CD or at http://webdocs.sequent.com/:
ptx/ATM Administration Guide
244957 - Rearranging ATM adapters in a host caused problems for atm_snmpd
250358 - Incorrectly logged command line errors for atmadmin
250785 - LANE auto request feature for LE_CONFIGURE_REQUEST did not timeout
250810 - Incorrectly logged Attempting RESET_ADAPTER ioctl message at startup
251095 - ptx/ATM did not log bad MAC related error messages
251657 - Incorrectly logged Activated VC messages, which are normal occurrences
The -z option for the atmstat command is not supported. Therefore, when atmstat -z is executed, it does not zero out the statistics.
Workaround. None.
The three ATM configuration files (atmtab, cliptab, lanetab) reside in /var/atm/etc. The menu scripts that read these files to do automatic configuration of ATM components do not respect any comment character; therefore, you cannot place comments in these files.
Workaround. Do not attempt to place comments in the configuration files. The proper way to make changes to these files is to use the ptx/ADMIN menu system. Three .template files are provided to explain the fields in each record of the files.
A CLIP interface with more than a handful of Virtual Circuits (VCs) is uncommon, and by default, about 675 VCs can be displayed. The problem is that the default kernel parameter STRMSGSZ is too small to pass a structure large enough to contain all of the VC information.
Workaround. In a rare instance, you may have more than 675 VCs. If so, the kernel can be tuned (see Appendix A, "Tunable Kernel Parameters," in the ptx/ATM Administration Guide). Adjust the kernel parameter STRMSGSZ to its maximum of 65535. After reconfiguring and remaking the kernel, atmadmin clip show will display all 1023 VCs.
There are some cases in which an attempt to stop or deconfigure a running ELAN will fail with the error message device busy. This is caused by other products misuse of ptx/ATM devices.
Workaround. See "Other Products' Misuse of ATM Devices."
The ptx/ADMIN menus provided to configure ptx/ATM do not properly handle spaces in ELAN names.
Workaround. Do not create ELAN names with spaces in them. However, underscore characters are handled properly.
An ELAN must be configured on the ATM switch before the NUMA-Q host can use it. On a NUMA-Q host, if you do configure an ELAN that is not present on the switch, it will be accepted and entered in the table of ELANs. For example:
% /usr/etc/atmadmin lane show
LECS (current): 47.0079.00.000000.0000.0000.0000.00a03e000001.00 ELAN UNIT LAN Type LES ATM Address ==== ==== ======== =============== => ELAN004 0 Ethernet 39.0000.00.000000.0000.0030.4b00.0020d4304b04.02 ELAN000 0 Ethernet 39.0000.00.000000.0000.0030.4b00.0020d4304b00.02 => junkxyz 0 Ethernet 00.000000000000000000000000000000000000.00
No ELAN called "junkxyz" exists on the LES/LECS (ATM switch).
If you attempt to start the ELAN, no error message will be given.
Workaround. There is no functional failure. Do not enter an ELAN in the table unless it is configured on the switch.
If CLIP is not configured on an adapter during system bootup, the ptx/ATM startup script interprets this as an error and returns a non-zero value. In actuality, there is no error, just a misleading message. You can safely ignore this error message from the ptx/ATM startup script.
Workaround. None.
When the atmping command is run more than once on an adapter using the same virtual circuit (VC), the command fails. This happens because the first time the atmping command is run it does not release the VC after exiting.
Workaround. None.