[Info-vax] DNFS1ACP using 100% of CPU

[Robert A. Brooks]

On 10/16/2013 10:30 AM, Stephen Hoffman wrote:

> 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.

I just had an exchange with said former maintainer.  I asked him

RAB> I know you and I had several discussions about this, and I thought 
RAB> that your suggestion was not hardware specific -- I thought you 
RAB> recommended autonegotiation for both Alpha and IA64, assuming
RAB> modern VMS drivers, which I took to mean 7.3-2 and newer.

His responses are:

"Yes, you have it exactly right. One assumption is that the hardware in 
question isn’t 20 years old, like an old DE425, DE435, DE450, and early 
DE500s, but those devices are so old it is not a question of whether 
auto-negotiation was recommended, but whether the device actually 
supported it."

and . . .

"One more thing.  Some customers have wanted to use fixed settings to 
avoid rumored problems with auto-negotiation.  But, inevitably, someone 
uses fixed settings and then connects to a switch that is doing 
auto-negotiation and runs into problems.  So I would recommend that 
everyone use auto-negotiation, but if a customer was really concerned, 
even if for no good reason, then they can use fixed settings and the 
driver supports that equally well.

I suspect there have been a lot of support calls that could have been 
avoided by just always using auto-negotiation.

Maybe what I should have said was “Use auto-negotiation, but if you want 
to use fixed settings, just be aware that you are now own both sides of 
the network connection.”.