[Info-vax] DNFS1ACP using 100% of CPU

[Sum1]

On 2013-10-16 16:05:51 +0000, johnwallace4 at yahoo.co.uk said:

> 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.

Well, I set it to AUTO at the SRM and…..it worked!!

Thanks, bad experiences int he past had me hard cosing it - glad to see 
the switches have become more capable :)