[Info-vax] DECnet connection problem

[Kenneth Fairfield]

On Wednesday, October 5, 2011 9:37:36 AM UTC-7, Johnny Billquist wrote:
> On 2011-10-05 17.09, Kenneth Fairfield wrote:
[...]
> > For Phase V, you need to load the local database with
> > the v5.5 system's DECnet nodename and address (wrong
> > terminology, but I don't have a Phase V system at hand
> > to give precise answers).
> 
> No, that is not really needed. Phase IV node names are local for each 
> machine, and do not really have any relevance for functionality. It's 
> just a nodename to node number mapping local for each machine. It has no 
> other function.
> It's just convenient to have a somewhat unified view of nodenames across 
> the network.

As you no doubt know, but to add for clarity for other readers,
DECnet always worked off of local databases, unlike IP's DNS.
Even though DECnet V can use TCP/IP as a transport (which we
usually did), we still needed to enter node names in the local
database, granted that database is in a far different format in
Phase V than in Phase IV.

But you clearly need the Phase IV DECnet node name and address
entered in the Phase V systems database in order to reach it.

There's a utility to do this in Phase V, but as I said, it's
been a long time (about 8 years) since I've touched a Phase V
system so I don't recall the utility.  

There's a configuration in Phase V that let's you tell it 
how to resolve names.  I think there's the Phase V version
of DNS (not called that), "real" IP DNS, and "local".  Most
of the sites I saw didn't do the DECnet "DNS".  

ISTR that there's another configuration that tells Phase V
what protocol to use to reach another node, DECnet or TCP.
The order they're specified is the order they're attempted.
Best is to list DECnet first because it will fail quickly 
if the other system doesn't talk DECnet, whereas TCP has
longer timeouts and retries, etc.

   -Ken