[Info-vax] DNFS1ACP using 100% of CPU

[johnwallace4 at yahoo.co.uk]

On Wednesday, 16 October 2013 15:30:58 UTC+1, Stephen Hoffman  wrote:
> On 2013-10-16 11:44:18 +0000, Sum1 said:
> 
> 
> 
> > On 2013-10-16 11:27:51 +0000, Volker Halle said:
> 
> > 
> 
> >> What is your Switch port set to ? If it's a non-managed Switch, 
> 
> >> consider setting your EWA Interface to AUTO as well. Autonegotiation on 
> 
> >> OpenVMS works fine since at least V7.3-2 !
> 
> >> 
> 
> >> Also check for LAN Driver Messages with MC LANCP SHOW DEV/INTERN EWA
> 
> >> 
> 
> >> Volker.
> 
> > 
> 
> > It is unmanaged.  All I read is about never setting AUTO as either VMS 
> 
> > and/or the card were bad at it :(
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Bad at negotiation?   So are some switches.  Some unmanaged switches 
> 
> and some managed switches can and do misnegotiate, even including the 
> 
> vaunted Cisco switches.
> 
> 
> 
> With a managed switch, you can usually see the other end of the 
> 
> connection; what the results of the autonegotiation were.  With an 
> 
> unmanaged switch, you have no insight into the settings.
> 
> 
> 
> Compounding the problems, typical Alpha-vintage ancient hardware 
> 
> variously also includes occasionally-flaky network hardware and 
> 
> firmware.
> 
> 
> 
> Gigabit-capable hardware generally negotiates better than previous 
> 
> generations, and newer network controller firmware and newer host 
> 
> software and firmware generally does better than older firmware, too.
> 
> 
> 
> Yes, the (now former) maintainer of the VMS network stacks recommended 
> 
> fixed settings for Alpha NICs, and auto-negotiate settings for Itanium 
> 
> NICs.  But if your particular switch doesn't work with those settings, 
> 
> you're left with bad choices.
> 
> 
> 
> >                00001080  Device type <DC21143, DE500BA>
> 
> 
> 
> DE500-BA is ancient, and I've hit autonegotiate problems 
> 
> <http://labs.hoffmanlabs.com/node/1805> with that series.  Most 
> 
> recently, I locked the switch ports to deal with that NIC, where I 
> 
> couldn't replace the whole box.
> 
> 
> 
> Try changing the NIC settings, or maybe scrounging either a newer NIC 
> 
> or a managed switch.
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> Pure Personal Opinion | HoffmanLabs LLC

"With an unmanaged switch, you have no insight into the settings."

At home I've got Netgear GS108E (and before that, GS105E), which isn't very 
managed but is affordable and has per-port LEDs so if you can see the switch 
you can see which of 10M/100M/1G it's picked on any given port. And there's a 
bit of manageability too (e.g. VLANs, QoS, mirror port) if you are willing to 
use a Windows-based rather than SNMP-based or web-based management tool. It 
even allegedly does spanning tree, just in case of unplanned loops in
connectivity.

Yes I know Netgear isn't a good name in some quarters, and I sympathise. But 
this one works for me.