A Sun Microsystems, Inc. Business
2550 Garcia Avenue
Mountain View, CA 94043 USA
415 960-1300fax 415 969-9131
Part No.: 805-0809-10
Revision A, May 1997
Copyright 1997 Sun Microsystems,Inc. 2550 Garcia Avenue,Mountain View, California 94043-1100U.S.A.
All rights reserved.This product or document is protected by copyright and distributed under licenses restricting its use, copying, distribution,
and decompilation. No part of this productor document may be reproduced in any form by any means without prior written authorization of
Sun and its licensors, if any.
Portions of this productmay be derived from the UNIX®system and fromthe Berkeley 4.3 BSD system, licensed from the University of
California. UNIX is a registeredtrademark in the United States and in other countries and is exclusively licensed by X/Open Company Ltd.
Third-partysoftware, including font technology in this product, is protected by copyright and licensed from Sun’s suppliers.
RESTRICTEDRIGHTSLEGEND: Use, duplication, or disclosure by the government issubjectto restrictions as set forth in subparagraph (c)(1)(ii)
of the Rights in Technical Data and Computer Softwareclause at DFARS 252.227-7013 and FAR52.227-19.
Sun, Sun Microsystems,the Sun logo, Solaris, SunOS, SunFDDI/P,and SunNet Manager are trademarks or registeredtrademarks of Sun
Microsystems,Inc. in the United States and in other countries. All SPARCtrademarks are used under license and are trademarks or registered
trademarks of SPARC International, Inc. in the United States and in other countries. Productsbearing SPARCtrademarks are based upon an
architecturedeveloped by Sun Microsystems, Inc. Netware®is a registeredtrademark of Novell, Inc. in the United States and other countries.
The OPEN LOOK®and Sun™ Graphical User Interfaces weredeveloped by Sun Microsystems, Inc. for its users and licensees. Sun
acknowledges thepioneeringefforts of Xerox Corporation in researchingand developing the concept of visual or graphical user interfaces for the
computer industry.Sun holds a nonexclusive license from Xerox to the Xerox Graphical User Interface, which license also covers Sun’s licensees
who implement OPEN LOOK GUIs and otherwise comply with Sun’s written license agreements.
X WindowSystem is a trademark of X Consortium, Inc.
THIS PUBLICATION IS PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING,
BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR
NON-INFRINGEMENT.
Copyright 1997 Sun Microsystems,Inc., 2550 Garcia Avenue,Mountain View, Californie 94043-1100U.S.A.
Tous droitsréservés. Ce produit ou document est protégé par un copyright et distribué avec des licences qui en restreignentl’utilisation, la copie
et la décompilation. Aucune partie de ce produitou de sa documentation associée nepeut être reproduite sous aucune forme, par quelque moyen
que ce soit, sans l’autorisation préalable et écrite de Sun et de ses bailleurs de licence, s’ilyena.
Des parties de ce produitpourront être derivées du système UNIX®et du système Berkeley 4.3 BSD licencié par l’Université de Californie. UNIX
est unemarqueenregistrée aux Etats-Unis et dans d’autres pays, et licenciée exclusivement par X/Open CompanyLtd.Lelogiciel détenu par des
tiers, et qui comprendla technologie relative aux polices de caractères, est protégé par un copyright et licencié par des fournisseurs de Sun.
Sun, Sun Microsystems,le logo Sun, Solaris, SunOS, SunFDDI/P,et SunNet Manager sont des marques déposées ou enregistrées de Sun
Microsystems,Inc. aux Etats-Unis et dans d’autres pays. Toutesles marques SPARC,utilisées sous licence, sont des marques déposées ou
enregistréesde SPARCInternational, Inc. aux Etats-Unis et dans d’autres pays. Les produits portant les marques SPARCsont basés sur une
architecturedéveloppée par Sun Microsystems, Inc. Netware®est une marqueenregistrée de Novell, Inc. aux Etats-Unis et dans d’autres pays.
Les utilisateurs d’interfaces graphiques OPEN LOOK®et Sun™ ont été développés de Sun Microsystems,Inc. pour ses utilisateurs et licenciés.
Sun reconnaîtles efforts de pionniers de Xerox Corporation pour la rechercheet le développement du concept des interfaces d’utilisation visuelle
ou graphique pour l’industrie de l’informatique. Sun détient une licence non exclusive de Xeroxsur l’interface d’utilisation graphique, cette
licence couvrant aussi les licenciés de Sun qui mettent en place les utilisateurs d’interfaces graphiques OPEN LOOK et qui en outre se
conforment aux licences écrites de Sun.
Le système X Windowest un produit du X Consortium, Inc.
CETTE PUBLICATION EST FOURNIE "EN L’ETAT" SANS GARANTIE D’AUCUNE SORTE, NI EXPRESSE NI IMPLICITE, Y COMPRIS, ET
SANS QUE CETTE LISTE NE SOIT LIMITATIVE, DES GARANTIES CONCERNANT LA VALEUR MARCHANDE, L’APTITUDE DES
PRODUITS A REPONDRE A UNE UTILISATIONPARTICULIERE OU LE FAITQU’ILS NE SOIENT PAS CONTREFAISANTS DE PRODUITS
DE TIERS.
Please
Recycle
Regulatory Compliance Statements
Your Sun product is marked to indicate its compliance class:
•Federal Communications Commission (FCC) — USA
•Department of Communications (DOC) — Canada
•Voluntary Control Council for Interference (VCCI) — Japan
Please read the appropriate section that corresponds to the marking on your Sun product before attempting to install the product.
FCC Class ANotice
This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions:
1. This device may not cause harmful interference.
2. This device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation.
Note: This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class A digital device, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules.
These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference when the equipment is operated in a commercial
environment. This equipment generates, uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the
instruction manual, may cause harmful interferenceto radiocommunications. Operationof thisequipment in a residential area is likelyto cause
harmful interference in which case the user will be required to correct the interference at his own expense.
Shielded Cables: Connections between the workstation and peripherals must be made using shielded cables in order to maintain compliance
with FCC radio frequency emission limits. Networking connections can be made using unshielded twisted-pair (UTP) cables.
Modifications: Any modifications made to this device that are not approved by Sun Microsystems, Inc. may void the authority granted to the
user by the FCC to operate this equipment.
FCC Class BNotice
This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions:
1. This device may not cause harmful interference.
2. This device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation.
Note: This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules.
These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installation. This equipment generates,
uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions, may cause harmful interference
to radio communications. However, there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation. If this equipment does cause
harmful interference to radio or television reception, which can be determined by turning the equipment off and on, the user is encouraged to
try to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures:
•Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna.
•Increase the separation between the equipment and receiver.
•Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is connected.
•Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/television technician for help.
Shielded Cables: Connections between the workstation and peripherals must be made using shielded cables in order to maintain compliance
with FCC radio frequency emission limits. Networking connections can be made using unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cables.
Modifications: Any modifications made to this device that are not approved by Sun Microsystems, Inc. may void the authority granted to the
user by the FCC to operate this equipment.
DOC Class ANotice-Avis DOC, ClasseA
This Class A digital apparatus meets all of requirements the Canadian Interference-Causing Equipment Regulations.
Cet appareil numérique de la classe A respecte toutes les exigences du Règlement sur le matériel brouilleur du Canada.
DOC Class BNotice-Avis DOC, ClasseB
This Class B digital apparatus meets all of requirements the Canadian Interference-Causing Equipment Regulations.
Cet appareil numérique de la classe B respecte toutes les exigences du Règlement sur le matériel brouilleur du Canada.
Declaration of Conformity
Compliance ID: PCI-S10-100
Product Name:SunFDDI/P SAS Adapter
This equipment complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following
two conditions: 1) This equipment may not cause harmful interference and 2) This equipment
must accept any interference that may cause undesired operation.
In addition this equipment complies with the following requirements of the EMC Directive
89/336/EEC and Low Voltage Directive 73/23/EEC;
EMC:EN55022 / CISPR22 (1991)Class B
EN50082-1IEC801-2 (1991)4 kV (Direct), 8 kV (Air)
IEC801-3 (1984)3 V/m
IEC801-4 (1988)1.0 kV Power Lines, 0.5 kV Signal Lines
EN61000-3-2/IEC1000-3-2(1994)Pass (Class D)
Supplementary Information:
This product was tested and complies with all the requirements for the CE Mark.
_________/ S /_____________________/ S /_________________
Dennis P. SymanskiDATEStephen McGoldrickDATE
Manager, Product ComplianceQuality Assurance Manager
Sun Microsystems Computer CompanySun Microsystems Limited
2550 Garcia Avenue, M/S UMPK15-102Springfield, Linlithgow
Mt. View, CA 94043, USAWest Lothian, EH49 7LR
Tel: 415-786-3255Scotland, United Kingdom
Fax: 415-786-3723Tel: 0506 670000
Fax: 0506 760011
Declaration of Conformity
Compliance ID: PCI-D10-100
Product Name: SunFDDI/P DAS Adapter
This equipment complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following
two conditions: 1) This equipment may not cause harmful interference and 2) This equipment
must accept any interference that may cause undesired operation.
In addition this equipment complies with the following requirements of the EMC Directive
89/336/EEC and Low Voltage Directive 73/23/EEC;
EMC:EN55022 / CISPR22 (1991)Class B
EN50082-1IEC801-2 (1991)4 kV (Direct), 8 kV (Air)
IEC801-3 (1984)3 V/m
IEC801-4 (1988)1.0 kV Power Lines, 0.5 kV Signal Lines
EN61000-3-2/IEC1000-3-2(1994)Pass (Class D)
Supplementary Information:
This product was tested and complies with all the requirements for the CE Mark.
_________/ S /_____________________/ S /_________________
Dennis P. SymanskiDATEStephen McGoldrickDATE
Manager, Product ComplianceQuality Assurance Manager
Sun Microsystems Computer CompanySun Microsystems Limited
2550 Garcia Avenue, M/S UMPK15-102Springfield, Linlithgow
Mt. View, CA 94043, USAWest Lothian, EH49 7LR
Tel: 415-786-3255Scotland, United Kingdom
Fax: 415-786-3723Tel: 0506 670000
The SunFDDI/P™ 1.0 Adapter User’s Guide describes how to turn your
system into an FDDI station attached to an FDDI network. It is intended for
experienced network administrators who are familiar with the Solaris 2.5.1
Hardware: 4/97 operating environment. The SunFDDI/P 1.0 Adapter is
supported on Sun-4u PCI-based system architectures.
How this Book is Organized
The SunFDDI/P™ 1.0 Adapter User’s Guide is divided into two parts:
If you are unfamiliar with FDDI network terminology, or if you are
implementing an FDDI network for the first time, read Part 2 first.
• Part 1 — “Installing and Configuring SunFDDI/P,” describes how to turn your
machine into a SunFDDI/P station. It tells you how to install and configure
the SunFDDI/P device driver, and how to tune your FDDI station to get the
best performance. It also includes troubleshooting advice to help you detect
and resolve problems with your FDDI network.
• Part 2 — “Planning and Implementing SunFDDI Networks,” includes a brief
overview of the FDDI protocols, and describes common FDDI network
topologies. It tells you how to use the SunFDDI/P network utilities, how to
use a SunNet Manager™ console to manage your SunFDDI/P stations, how
to develop applications over SunFDDI/P, and how to boot a diskless station
across an FDDI connection.
xix
The connector type has been changed for SunFDDI/P to an SC-type connector.
If you are connecting the SunFDDI/P card to a network that has a MIC
connector, an SC-MIC converter cable is required.
Part 1 — “Installing and Configuring SunFDDI/P”
Chapter 1, “SunFDDI/P Overview,” describes the SunFDDI/P 1.0
implementation of the FDDI protocols and includes a list of the specifications
to which it conforms.
Chapter 2, “Hardware Installation,” tells you where to find detailed
instructions on how to install your SunFDDI/P PCI card in your machine and
describes how to connect the FDDI cable.
Chapter 3, “Installing SunFDDI/P Software,” describes how to install the
SunFDDI/P device driver and utilities on machines running a Solaris™ 2.5.1
Hardware: 97 environment. It includes a description of the post-installation
scripts that configure your machine as an FDDI station.
Chapter 4, “Improving Network Performance,” describes the configurable
network parameters and provides general advice on how to obtain the best
performance from your network.
Chapter 5, “Troubleshooting and Diagnostics,” tells you how to detect and
resolve problems with your FDDI network.
Part 2 — “Planning and Implementing SunFDDINetworks”
Chapter 6, “FDDI Network Architecture,” provides an overview of the FDDI
network model and describes how FDDI networks operate.
Chapter 7, “FDDI Network Topologies,” describes various pure FDDI
network topologies and discusses their relative strengths and weaknesses. It
also describes how to implement routing between mixed FDDI and Ethernet
networks.
Chapter 8, “Using the SunFDDI Network Utilities,” describes the network
utilities delivered with SunFDDI/P and tells you how to use them to recover
network statistics.
xxSunFDDI/P 1.0 Adapter User’sGuide—May 1997
UNIX Commands
Chapter 9, “Managing FDDI Stations Using SunNet Manager,” describes
how to install the SunNet Manager agents for SunFDDI/P and how to set up
the SunNet Manager console to manage them.
Chapter 10, “Developing Applications that Run over SunFDDI/P,” describes
how to create applications that run over SunFDDI/P, using the DLPI interface
for a Solaris 2.x environment.
Chapter 11, “Setting Up Servers and Diskless Clients,” describes how to set
up a server so that you can boot and run diskless clients over an FDDI
network.
Appendix A, “Frequently Asked Questions About SunFDDI,” contains a list
of common questions and their responses.
This document may not include specific software commands or procedures.
Instead, it may name software tasks and refer you to operating system
documentation or the handbook that was shipped with your new hardware.
The type of information that you might need to use references for includes:
• Shutting down the system
• Booting the system
• Configuring devices
• Other basic software procedures
See one or more of the following:
• Solaris 2.x Handbook for SMCC Peripherals contains Solaris™ 2.x software
commands.
• Online AnswerBook™ for the complete set of documentation supporting
the Solaris 2.x software environment.
• Other software documentation that you received with your system.
Prefacexxi
Typographic Conventions
The following table describes the typographic changes used in this book.
Typeface or
SymbolMeaningExample
Shell Prompts
AaBbCc123The names of commands,
files, and directories;
on-screen computer output
AaBbCc123What you type, contrasted
with on-screen computer
output
AaBbCc123Command-line placeholder:
replace with a real name or
value
AaBbCc123Book titles, new words or
terms, or words to be
emphasized
Edit your .login file.
Use ls -a to list all files.
machine_name% You have mail.
machine_name% su
Password:
To delete a file, type rm filename.
Read Chapter 6 in the User’s Guide.
These are called class options.
You must be root to do this.
The following table shows the default system prompt and superuser prompt
for the C shell, Bourne shell, and Korn shell.
ShellPrompt
C shellmachine_name%
C shell superusermachine_name#
Bourne shell and Korn shell$
Bourne shell and Korn shell
superuser
xxiiSunFDDI/P 1.0 Adapter User’sGuide—May 1997
#
Related Documents
For a more detailed description of FDDI technology and the relevant FDDI
protocols, see these documents:
TitleAuthor/PublisherPart Number
Handbook of Computer-Communications Standards, Volume 2,William Stallings, Macmillan
Publishing Company: 1987NA
FDDI Technology and ApplicationsEdited by Sonu Mirchandani and
Raman Khanna, John Wiley &
Sons: 1993NA
FDDI A High Speed NetworkAmit Shah and G. Ramakrisnan,
SunDocsSMis a distribution program for Sun Microsystems technical
documentation. Easy, convenient ordering and quick delivery is available from
SunExpress™. You can find a full listing of available documentation on the
World Wide Web: http://www.sun.com/sunexpress/
CountryTelephoneFax
United States1-800-873-78691-800-944-0661
United Kingdom0-800-89-88-880-800-89-88-87
France0800-90-61-570800-90-61-58
Belgium02-720-09-0902-725-88-50
Luxembourg32-2-720-09-0932-2-725-88-50
Germany01-30-81-61-9101-30-81-61-92
The Netherlands06-022-34-4506-022-34-46
Sweden020-79-57-26020-79-57-27
Switzerland0800-55-19-260800-55-19-27
Japan0120-33-90960120-33-9097
Prefacexxiii
Getting Help
For technical assistance in the United States, call 1-800-872-4786.
To get the latest patches and patch revisions, contact your local Sun Service
provider. For additional information, access Sun on the World Wide Web:
http://www.sun.com and select Sales & Service ➤ On-line support ➤
SunSolve Online™ ➤ Patches.
Sun Welcomes Your Comments
Please use the Reader Comment Card that accompanies this document. We are
interested in improving our documentation and welcome your comments and
suggestions.
If a card is not available, you can email or fax your comments to us. Please
include the part number of your document in the subject line of your email or
fax message.
• Email:smcc-docs@sun.com
• Fax:SMCC Document Feedback
1-415-786-6443
xxivSunFDDI/P 1.0 Adapter User’sGuide—May 1997
Part1 — InstallingandConfiguring
SunFDDI/P
FeatureSummary
SunFDDI/POverview
Feature Summarypage 1
FDDI Conformancepage 2
This chapter describes the Sun FDDI (Fiber Distributed Data Interface)
implementation of the FDDI protocols, including a list of the ANSI/FDDI
standards to which it conforms. See Chapter 6, “FDDI Network Architecture”
for more information on FDDI architecture.
The SunFDDI/P 1.0 product is a combination of hardware and software that
turns your system into an FDDI station. There are two hardware options:
1
• SunFDDI/P SAS — single attached station on fiber
• SunFDDI/P DAS — dual attached station on fiber
SunFDDI/P is a high-speed networking product that provides significantly
greater bandwidth (up to 10 times) compared to 10-megabit Ethernet networks.
It is designed for Sun-4u PCI-based system architectures running Solaris 2.5.1
Hardware: 97.
SunFDDI/P provides the following capabilities:
• Implements FDDI single-attached station (SunFDDI/P) and FDDI
dual-attached station (SunFDDI/P Dual)
1
1
• Provides connection to multimode fiber (SunFDDI/P and SunFDDI/P Dual)
networks
• Supports data transfer rates of up to 100 Mbps
• Provides power-up self test and system diagnostic tests
• Provides high reliability and availability through distributed, automatic
recovery (DAS adapter only)
• Supports up to four SunFDDI/P PCI cards installed in one PCI bus and up
to eight SunFDDI/P PCI cards installed in one machine
• Conforms to the 32-bit Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI)
specification for short form adapter cards
• Supports 33 MHz operating frequency and 5.0 volt I/O signaling
• Provides SunNet Manager™ agents for the effective management of FDDI
stations and networks from a centralized SunNet Manager console; (requires
SunNet Manager 2.2 or later in addition to SunFDDI/P)
• Complies with the ANSI X3T9.5 standard for single-attached LAN fiber
rings and with revision 7.3 of the ANSI/FDDI SMT specification
FDDI Conformance
SunFDDI/P conforms to the following standards and specifications:
• ANSI/FDDI Media Access Control (MAC) X.3.139-1987
• ANSI/FDDI physical sublayer (PHY) X3.148-1988
• ANSI/FDDI physical medium dependent (PMD) X3.166-1990
• ANSI/FDDI Station Management (SMT) X3.299 R7.3 (formally R7.2.99)
• PCI Spec. Rev 2.1 (Part Number 802-2387-02)
2SunFDDI/P 1.0 Adapter User’sGuide—May 1997
HardwareInstallation
Device Instances and Device Namespage 4
Installing SunFDDI/P Adapter Cardspage 5
Connecting Fiber Optic Cablespage 5
Link Status Indicator (Diagnostic LED)page 9
This chapter tells you where to find step-by-step procedures for installing PCI
cards. It describes the convention used to assign device names to SunFDDI/P
adapter cards, and tells you how to connect fiber optic cables.
Caution – For your personal safety and to protect your machine, please
!
observe the following precautions when you install an PCI card in a SPARC™
workstation or server:
Before opening your machine, always ensure that the power switch is off
(O position). When the power is off, the green light on the front of the machine
is unlit and the fan in the power supply is not running. Always take care to
protect your equipment from the effects of static electricity.
2
A lithium battery is molded into the NVRAM—TOD chip on the main logic board.
This battery is not a customer-replaceable part. Do not attempt to disassemble
it or recharge it.
3
2
Device Instances and Device Names
You can install a SunFDDI/P PCI card in any available master PCI slot.
SunFDDI/P supports up to four SunFDDI/P PCI cards installed in one PCI,
and up to eight SunFDDI/P PCI cards installed in one machine.
SunFDDI/P 1.0 PCI cards are assigned device names of the form pf<inst>,
where the instance number <inst> is determined by the number and relative
positions of the cards installed. When you install a SunFDDI/P card in your
machine for the first time, it has instance number 0 and a device name pf0.If
multiple cards are installed, the device name pf0 is associated with the card in
the lowest numbered slot, the device name pf1 is associated with the card in
the next highest numbered slot, and so on.
Refer to the hardware installation manual that came with your system for
instructions on how to identify the PCI slots in your machine.
Note – For machines running Solaris 2.5.1: If a SunFDDI/P PCI card is moved
from its initial slot to a different one, the operating system will find the device
in the new slot and assume that it is a new instance of the device. As a result,
the operating system will assign the next instance number to it and two
devices will appear to be installed in the machine.
Installation Items
Before proceeding with the installation, make sure you have the following
items. Contact your sales representative if any of these items are missing.
Caution – The SunFDDI/P PCI card is sensitive to static electricity. Always use
!
the wrist strap supplied with SunFDDI/P when handling the card and ensure
that the wrist strap is properly grounded. Handle the SunFDDI/P PCI card by
the edges, and avoid touching any of the components.
Refer to the hardware installation manual that came with your system for
detailed instructions on how to install an adapter card in your machine.
There are no user-configurable jumpers or switches on the SunFDDI/P PCI
card. Altering any of the components on the card may affect its operation
adversely and will render any product warranty void.
Connecting Fiber Optic Cables
Note – If you are connecting the SunFDDI/P card to a network that has a MIC
connector, a converter cable is required. Earlier versions of SunFDDI used MIC
connectors.
2
Sun provides converter cables that enable existing MIC-based networks to
connect to the SunFDDI/P adapter without making cabling changes. Networks
that have already been designed for SC connections do not need the converter
cable. Less than one decibel of signal integrity is lost when using the adapter.
Borderline applications may need to reconfigure the network directly for SC
connection if the signal loss materially affects the error rate.
Fiber optic cable is fragile and should not be subjected to mechanical stress or
impact. Always observe the following precautions when handling fiber optic
cable and connectors:
• Fiber optic cable connectors consist of a ceramic or steel ferrule through
which the optical fiber passes. Do not touch the tip of the ferrule, as marring
or depositing oil or dirt on its delicate surface will destroy its ability to
transmit light.
• Use the protective caps provided on the fiber optic cable connectors and
optic data links whenever the cable is not connected.
HardwareInstallation5
2
• Fiber optic cable has a limited turn radius. Do not bend it in a way that
could damage the fiber or cause signal loss.
▼To Connect the Fiber Optic Cable
1. Unpack the cable, remove the plastic protective caps or plugs from each
end, and remove the plug from the transceiver unit on the card.
2. Orient the fiber optic cable to the connector on the SunFDDI/P card.
Most fiber optic cables have raised keys on one side of the connectors (see
Figure 2-2). There are also keyway notches on the inside of the connector on
the card; orient the fiber optic cable so that the keys on the cable connectors
line up with the keyway notches on the card. Also make sure to connect the
cable to the proper port, either Port A or Port B (see Figure 2.2).
Warning – Not all cables have raised keys to help you orient the connection.
A “click,” tells you that the cable is properly mated with the card connector.
6SunFDDI/P 1.0 Adapter User’sGuide—May 1997
Port B
Keys
MIC-to-MIC Coupler
A separate MIC (Media Interface Connector) coupler is shipped with the
SunFDDI/P 1.0 Adapter product to support MIC-to-MIC network connections.
Two different versions of the coupler are available:
• One with raised keys to help you properly orient the connection
• One without raised keys, which has specific connecting instructions
Note – Make sure you properly connect the coupler. An improper connection
will “twist” or “cross” the ring.
Cleaning the Fiber Optic Cable
Fiber optic cable connectors can be cleaned if they become contaminated with
dirt, dust or oil, which can cause signal noise on the network.
2
HardwareInstallation7
2
▼To Clean the Fiber Optic Cable
1. Gently wipe the end of the ferrule with an alcohol-moistened cotton
swab.
Figure 2-2Cleaning the End of a Fiber Optic Cable
2. Blow clean, dry compressed air around the end of the connector and
around the ferrule to dislodge loose dust and grit.
3. Clean the adapter by running a pipe cleaner moistened in alcohol running
though it.
Repeat with a dry pipe cleaner.
4. Dry the adapter with clean, dry compressed air.
8SunFDDI/P 1.0 Adapter User’sGuide—May 1997
Link Status Indicator (Diagnostic LED)
A link status indicator is mounted on the SunFDDI/P PCI card. The color of
the LED indicates the current status of the connection to the FDDI network as
follows:
• No LED lit: Either the driver is loaded and the interface is not configured or
the driver has not been loaded.
• Amber: Interface configured, no valid line state to an active FDDI network
exists.
• Green: Connection established to an active FDDI network.
• Blinking green: In a dual-ring environment, this is an invalid connection.
In a dual-homing environment, this is normal. The connection is in Standby
mode.
• Red: Adapter fails FDDI path test.
Refer to Chapter 5, “Troubleshooting and Diagnostics,” for more information
on diagnosing problems with your FDDI network.
2
HardwareInstallation9
2
10SunFDDI/P 1.0 AdapterUser’s Guide—May 1997
InstallingSunFDDI/PSoftware
Installation Requirementspage 12
Declaring IP Addresses for SunFDDI/Ppage 12
Installing and Configuring SunFDDI/Ppage 13
Installing SunNet Manager Agents for SunFDDI/Ppage 20
Removing SunFDDI/Ppage 22
This chapter assumes that you have already installed the SunFDDI/P adapter
card in your machine and that you are loading the software from a local
CD-ROM drive.
This chapter tells you how to install the SunFDDI/P device drivers, utilities,
and SunNet Manager agents in a Solaris 2.5.1 Hardware: 4/97 environment. It
includes instructions on how to check your installation and how to remove the
SunFDDI/P software, if necessary.
3
11
3
Installation Requirements
• Hardware and Software Platforms
SunFDDI/P is designed for Sun-4u PCI-based system architectures (32
Mbytes RAM minimum) running a Solaris 2.5.1 Hardware: 4/97
environment.
• Disk Space
A machine with 1600 KBytes of disk space is required to install SunFDDI/P.
• Host names and IP Addresses
A unique host name and IP address must be assigned to each SunFDDI/P
device installed in your machine. If you are installing more than one
interface in a single machine, each interface must be connected to a different
subnet of a network.
Declaring IP Addresses forSunFDDI/P
You must assign a unique IP address to each SunFDDI/P interface. If you have
more than one networking interface installed on your machine—either
multiple SunFDDI/P interfaces or some other LAN interface (for example, an
Ethernet interface)—each interface must be connected to a different subnet.
Before installing the SunFDDI/P software, update the files on your NIS/NIS+
server to assign IP addresses and host names for the SunFDDI/P interfaces
that you are going to configure. If you are not using a name service, update the
/etc/hosts file on each machine in the network to add the IP addresses and
host names of the stations attached to the FDDI ring.
The installation script updates the /etc/hosts file on the local machine and
enters the IP addresses and host names assigned to the SunFDDI/P interfaces
in which it is installed.
12SunFDDI/P 1.0 AdapterUser’s Guide—May 1997
Installing and Configuring SunFDDI/P
Use pkgadd(1M) to install unbundled software. See the Solaris 2.5 Software and
AnswerBook Packages Administration Guide for detailed information on installing
software products using pkgadd.
For detailed instructions on how to load software from a CD-ROM drive
mounted on a remote directory, see the Solaris 2.5 Software and AnswerBookPackages Administration Guide.
▼To Load and Mount the CD-ROM
1. Log in as root or become superuser.
2. Place the CD-ROM in its caddy and load the caddy into the CD-ROM
drive.
3. Mount the CD-ROM on a local directory.
• If the Volume Manager (vold) is running on your machine, then the
CD-ROM is mounted automatically under /cdrom/sunfddip_1_0.
3
• If the Volume Manager (vold)isnot running on your machine, create a
directory called /cdrom/sunfddip_1_0 and mount the CD-ROM
manually:
3. Enter the number that corresponds to the package you want to install and
press Return. Respond to any prompts that are displayed.
Two packages are associated with SunFDDI/P. They contain the device
drivers and utilities used to manage your SunFDDI/P station.
The following packages are available:
1 SUNWpfrSunFDDI/P (Driver)
(sparc) 1.0
2 SUNWpftSunFDDI/P (Man Pages/Utilities)
(sparc) 1.0
Select package(s) you wish to process (or “all” to process all
packages). (default: all) [?,??,q]:
▼To Install the Device Driver (SUNWpfr)
The SUNWpfr package contains the SunFDDI/P device driver and the SunNet
Manager agent daemon and start-up scripts. By default, the base directory
<basedir> for this package is /. You can change the default base directory for
this package when you start pkgadd(1M) with the —R option. This package
must be installed on every machine that runs SunFDDI/P.
An installation script is executed automatically when you install the
SunFDDI/P device driver (SUNWpfr). This script checks that the hardware is
installed and displays the number of SunFDDI/P interfaces that it finds. If
there is no hardware installed, the script halts the installation process without
installing the software.
1. Indicate whether you are installing the driver for a diskless client.
• Type y if you want to install the driver in the /export/root/<client> file
system for a diskless client
• Type n if you are installing the driver for the machine on which you are
running the script. You must use pkgadd with the —R option to change the
base directory when you install the driver for a diskless client.
14SunFDDI/P 1.0 AdapterUser’s Guide—May 1997
3
Is this install for a diskless client [n] [y,n,?]
(See Chapter 11, “Setting Up Servers and Diskless Clients” for more
information on booting diskless clients across an FDDI network.)
The number of SunFDDI/P interfaces found is displayed and you are asked
how many interfaces you want to configure.
2. Enter a number from 1 to 16 or press Return for the default.
How many FDDI (pf) interfaces do you want to configure?
3. Type the host name for which you want the interface associated.
What host name do you want to use for interface 1: hysop-pf
4. Type the IP address that corresponds to the host name or press Return for
the default IP address.
If an IP address is already associated with the host name (either in the
NIS/NIS+ database or in the /etc/hosts file) the script offers it as a
default IP address. You must assign a unique IP address to each SunFDDI/P
interface. If you have multiple IP interfaces installed on one machine, each
interface must be attached to a different FDDI subnetwork.
What ip address do you wish to use for hysop-pf [<ip_address>]:
5. Repeat Steps 3 and 4 until you have assigned a host name and IP address
for each SunFDDI/P PCI card installed in your machine.
6. Indicate whether you want the SunNet Manager agents for SunFDDI/P to
start when you reboot the machine.
• Type y to start the SunNet Manager agents for SunFDDI/P.
Installing SunFDDI/P Software15
3
• Type n, or press Return, if you are not using SunNet Manager to manage
your network; if you are running SunNet Manager agents on another
machine; or if you want to start the SunNet Manager agents manually.
Do you want to start the SunNet Manager daemons for SunFDDI
at boot time? [n] [y,n,?,q] y
7. Type y to use the installation scripts with superuser permission.
This package contains scripts which will be executed with superuser
permission during the process of installing the package.
Do you want to continue with the installation [y,n,?] y
The script displays a list of the files that it installs, loads the driver, and
configures the IP interfaces automatically.
If the installation is successful, your SunFDDI/P interfaces are now active. The
link status indicator (diagnostic LED) will be:
• Amber—if the interface is configured and no valid line state to an active
FDDI network exists
• Green—if the interface is configured and connected to an active network
▼To Install the Utilities, man Pages, and SNM Agents (SUNWpft)
The SUNWpft package contains the SunFDDI/P utilities and man pages. By
default, the base directory <basedir> for this package is /opt. You can change
the default base directory when you start pkgadd(1M)with the —R option. This
package can be installed on a server and shared between multiple machines, if
required.
An installation script is executed automatically when you install the
SunFDDI/P utilities and man pages (SUNWpft):
16SunFDDI/P 1.0 AdapterUser’s Guide—May 1997
1. Type y to accept the installation of files with setuid/setgid permission.
If you are installing the SUNWpft package for the first time, this step will
not occur.
Do you want to install these setuid/setgid files [y,n,?,q] y
2. Type y to accept the installation scripts with superuser permission.
This package contains scripts which will be executed with superuser
permission during the process of installing the package.
Do you want to continue with the installation [y,n,?] y
▼To Finish the Installation
1. Type q to stop pkgadd when the list of available packages is displayed
again.
3
The following packages are available:
1 SUNWpfrSunFDDI/P (Driver)
(sparc) 1.0
2 SUNWpftSunFDDI/P (Man Pages/Utilities)
(sparc) 1.0
Select package(s) you wish to process (or “all” to process all
packages). (default: all) [?,??,q]:
2. Eject the CD-ROM from the CD-ROM drive.
• If Volume Manager (vold) is running on your machine, the CD-ROM is
unmounted automatically when it is ejected:
# eject cdrom
Installing SunFDDI/P Software17
3
▼To Check the Installation
SunFDDIInterface
pf<inst> ---->
• If Volume Manager (vold) is not running on your machine, unmount the
CD-ROM before you eject and remove the directory that you created:
3. Use ping(1M) to verify that you can send and receive data across the
FDDI connection.
If your SunFDDI/P station is attached to an active FDDI network, try to
access a remote station.
% /usr/sbin/ping hemlock-pf
hemlock-pf is alive
18SunFDDI/P 1.0 AdapterUser’s Guide—May 1997
Your SunFDDI/P station should now be active, and you should be able to send
and receive data across an FDDI connection.
For optimum performance from your FDDI network, you may need to tune the
configurable network parameters. See Chapter 4, “Improving Network
Performance,” for detailed instructions.
If you have problems configuring or using your SunFDDI/P station, see
Chapter 5, “Troubleshooting and Diagnostics,” for help.
▼Unloading Drivers
The driver for the SunFDDI/P 1.0 adapter can be unloaded while the system is
running by using the modunload(1M) command. If the SunNet Manager
daemons are running on your system, you must kill that process before you
unload the SunFDDI/P driver.
♦ If SunNet Manager is configured and running on your system:
% ps -ef | grep pf_snmd
% kill -9 <process IDs from above command>
% modinfo | grep smt
% modunload -i <module ID for smt driver>
3
♦ To unload the SunFDDI/P driver:
% modinfo | grep pf
% modunload -i <module ID for pf driver>
Installing SunFDDI/P Software19
3
Installing SunNet Manager Agents for SunFDDI/P
Use pf_install_agents to install the SunNet Manager agents for
SunFDDI/P. This script copies the FDDI schema files to the directory in which
the standard agents are installed and updates the configuration files for
SunNet Manager. Run pf_install_agents on each SunNet Manager
Console, and on each SunFDDI/P station you want to manage using SunNet
Manager.
▼To Use pf_install_agents
1. Log in as root or become superuser.
2. Start pf_install_agents by typing:
# /opt/SUNWconn/bin/pf_install_agents
3. Type the host names of the console machine(s) that you want to receive
SMT Request Frame (SRF) trap reports from the local station.
You can send SRF trap reports to more than one console. Each console must
have the schemas for SunFDDI/P installed, for example:
Enter hostnames (if any) to send SRF Trap reports to:
(enter blank to terminate)
enter hostname:opus
enter hostname:rigel
enter hostname:
4. Specify the destination directory for the SunFDDI/P schemas.
SunNet Manager looks for the schemas in the directory
<basedir>/SUNWconn/snm/agents. The variable <basedir> is set to /opt by
default. If you installed the SunNet Manager agents and libraries on the
FDDI station, or if you used getagents to recover the agents from the
console, then this directory exists.
Enter the base directory under which you installed the SunNet Manager
agents as the destination directory for the SunFDDI/P schemas.
What is the name of the root directory under which the SunNet
Manager is installed? [/opt]: [?]
5. Specify the current location of the SunFDDI/P schemas.
This is the base directory under which you installed the SunFDDI/P
software package (SUNWpf) using pkgadd(1M).
What is the name of the root directory under which the pf FDDI
software is installed? [/opt]: [?]
3
The script copies the SunFDDI/P schemas to the destination directory and
modifies the local configuration files for SunNet Manager.
6. Start the SunNet Manager agents for SunFDDI/P by typing:
# /usr/sbin/pf_snmd
Note – If you typed n in response to the question “Do you want to start the
SunNet Manager daemons for SunFDDI at boot time?” when you installed the
SunFDDI/P software, you must start the SunNet manager agents for
SunFDDI/P manually each time you reboot your machine. Alternatively, you
can install the start-up script into the /etc/rc2.d directory.
# cd /opt/SUNWconn/SUNWpf/utilities
# cp pf_fddidaemon /etc/rc2.d/S98pf_fddidaemon
Installing SunFDDI/P Software21
3
Removing SunFDDI/P
▼To Remove SunFDDI/P
If you remove the SunFDDI/P hardware interfaces from your machine, you
also need to remove the SunFDDI/P software to prevent the device driver
from starting each time you reboot the machine.
Use pkgrm(1M) to remove unbundled software from machines running a
Solaris 2.x environment. Refer to Installing Solaris Software for detailed
information on removing software packages using pkgrm.
1. Log in as root or become superuser.
2. Use pkgrm to remove SunFDDI/P.
The post-remove script removes the modifications made to the system files
and updates the package information on your machine.
3. Modify the /etc/hosts file to remove the IP addresses and host names
for the SunFDDI/P interfaces that were inserted by the post-installation
script.
4. Reboot the machine to ensure correct system operation.
22SunFDDI/P 1.0 AdapterUser’s Guide—May 1997
ImprovingNetworkPerformance
High Performance FDDI Networkspage 24
Ring Latency Improvementpage 24
Data Throughput Improvementpage 25
Performance Across Bridgespage 25
Target Token Rotation Time (TTRT)page 26
Improving Performancepage 27
This chapter tells you how to optimize your FDDI network and assumes that
you are familiar with FDDI network architecture and related terminology. See
Chapter 6, “FDDI Network Architecture” for a detailed description of the FDDI
protocols, and Chapter 7, “FDDI Network Topologies” for a detailed
description of the FDDI network architecture.
Caution – The procedures for improving network performance are discussed
!
in this chapter; however, these should be undertaken only by experienced
system administrators. Tuning your network incorrectly can affect network
performance adversely.
4
23
4
High Performance FDDI Networks
FDDI networks increase the potential to carry more information, rather than
create faster connections. If the applications running over the network do not
use the available bandwidth efficiently, you will not see much improvement in
the performance of your network by using FDDI.
You can obtain optimum performance by balancing the complementary
objectives of maximum throughput and minimum access delay:
• Throughput is a measure of the ring use. Network efficiency is defined as
the ratio of actual throughput to theoretical maximum bandwidth (100
Mbps).
• Access Delay is the time a station waits before it can transmit on the
network. This is largely dependent on how fast the permission token rotates
around the ring.
For some applications (for example, bulk data transfers), throughput is critical;
other applications (for example, voice or video applications) are more sensitive
to access delay.
Ring Latency Improvement
The ring latency is the physical delay inherent in the FDDI network. It is
dependent on the number of stations in the ring and the overall length of the
ring. The speed of the microprocessor in the FDDI station also has a significant
effect on ring latency.
The FDDI specifications define a network that supports up to one thousand
physical connections with a total ring length of 200 km (100 km per ring in a
dual-ring topology). There are two physical connections for each dual-attached
station; therefore, in theory, up to five hundred dual-attached stations could be
connected in a single ring. In reality, optimum performance is obtained by
limiting the number of connections to less than one hundred stations in an
unsegmented ring.
Performance improvements are possible by changing the topology of the
network, trading off the total number of stations in comparison to the overall
length of the ring, and selecting faster machines to act as FDDI stations.
However, these modifications are rarely practical in an established network.
24SunFDDI/P 1.0 AdapterUser’s Guide—May 1997
Data Throughput Improvement
The most significant improvements in throughput are achieved by maximizing
the rate at which data is transferred to and from the FDDI network. If you are
running TCP/IP or UDP/IP applications, you can improve throughput by
modifying the parameters that control the rate at which these protocols
transfer data to and from the SunFDDI/P device driver—that is, between user
space and kernel space.
Send and Receive Buffers
The send and receive buffers control the maximum rate at which data is
transferred between user space and kernel space by applications that use
sockets. The size of these buffers defines the amount of data that can be
transferred at one time.
To optimize performance, consistent values must be assigned for the send and
receive buffers. The default value (4 Kbytes) assigned to these parameters is
optimized for transmission across Ethernet connections. For applications
running over FDDI, the send and receive buffers should be set to 32 Kbytes.
4
Performance Across Bridges
The maximum transmission unit (MTU) for each physical layer in the network
defines the maximum size (in octets) of the transmitted packets. A larger MTU
means that more data can be transmitted in a single packet; a larger MTU
usually means higher throughput.
For SunFDDI/P, the MTU is set to 4352 by default1, and for an Ethernet
interface, the MTU is 1500. This difference can cause performance problems in
mixed FDDI/Ethernet networks.
Packets are transmitted between the two networks across a bridge, which
handles the translation between the two protocols. When data is transmitted
across the bridge from the FDDI network, the larger FDDI packets need to be
1. This value makes allowance for the frame header and has been demonstrated to be the optimum value of
MTU for pure FDDI networks (see RFC 1390)
ImprovingNetwork Performance25
4
fragmented so that they do not exceed the MTU of the Ethernet network. Some
low-cost bridges that do not support fragmentation will reject the 4352-byte
packets.
Fragmenting and reassembling the packets introduces a considerable overhead
that affects performance. It also increases the risk of out-of-sequence or
dropped packets. Therefore, if there is heavy network traffic across the bridge,
it may be more efficient to force the MTU in the FDDI network to be 1500 to
match the MTU on the Ethernet side of the bridge. This argument can also be
applied to a mixed FDDI/NetWare® network. In this case, the MTU in the
NetWare LAN is 4178 octets.
Target Token Rotation Time(TTRT)
Caution – Modifying the target token rotation time (TTRT) can affect network
!
performance adversely. In the worst case, it can reduce network throughput to
zero. In general, the TTRT should not be set to less than
8000 microseconds (ms).
The target token rotation time (TTRT) is the key FDDI parameter used for
network performance tuning. In general, increasing the TTRT increases
throughput and increases access delay.
For SunFDDI/P, the TTRT must be between 4000 and 165000 microseconds,
and is set to 8000 ms by default. The optimum value for the TTRT is dependent
on the application and the type of traffic on the network:
• If the network load is very irregular (bursty traffic), the TTRT should be set
as high as possible to avoid lengthy queueing at any one station.
• If the network is used for the bulk transfer of large data files, the TTRT
should be set relatively high to obtain maximum throughput, without
allowing any one station to monopolize the network resources.
• If the network is used for voice, video, or real-time control applications, the
TTRT should be set low to decrease access delay.
The TTRT is established during the claim process. Each station on the ring bids
a value (T_req) for the operating value of the TTRT (T_opr) and the station
with the lowest bid wins the claim. Setting the value of T_req on a single
station does not guarantee that this bid will win the claim process.
26SunFDDI/P 1.0 AdapterUser’s Guide—May 1997
ImprovingPerformance
Changing the High and Low Water Marks
▼To Tune the High Water Mark
4
The following section describes how to modify the user-configurable network
parameters. To obtain optimum network performance, you may need to tune
these parameters, depending on your network configuration and the type of
network traffic.
The maximum rate at which data is transferred between user space and kernel
space by applications that use STREAMS is controlled by the high water marks.
These parameters define the maximum amount of data that can be queued for
transmission to the TCP or UDP STREAMS modules. There are independent
send and receive high water marks for TCP and UDP applications.
When the number of bytes queued exceeds the high water mark, transmission
is halted temporarily the backlog can be cleared. The low water mark specifies
the level to which the queue must drop before transmission is restarted.
Assign consistent values for the transmit and receive high water marks. The
default value (8192) assigned to these parameters is optimized for transmitting
across Ethernet connections. For applications running over FDDI, the high
water marks should be set to 32 Kbytes. Use ndd(1M) to change the TCP and
UDP high water marks:
1. Log in as root or become superuser.
2. Use ndd —get (the default) to check the current value of the TCP high
water marks (tcp_xmit_hiwat and tcp_recv_hiwat).
By default, the low water mark is set to 2 Kbytes. Provided the high water
mark is also tuned, increasing the low water mark can improve the
performance slightly. The low water mark must never be set higher than the
high water mark. Use ndd(1M) to change the TCP and UDP low water marks:
1. Log in as root or become superuser.
28SunFDDI/P 1.0 AdapterUser’s Guide—May 1997
2. Use ndd —set to modify the current value of the TCP and UDP low water
marks (tcp_xmit_lowat and udp_xmit_lowat).
For optimum performance over FDDI connections, set the TCP and UDP
low water marks to 24 Kbytes.
Each time you reboot your machine, the high and low water marks are reset to
their default values. If you want to configure your system so that the high
water marks are modified automatically each time you reboot the machine,
you must put these commands in a start-up script.
An example script is locate on the SunFDDI/P CD-ROM. Once installed on
your machine, this script sets the TCP and UDP high and low water marks
each time you reboot. The TCP and UDP high water marks are set to 32 Kbytes;
the TCP and UDP low water marks are set to 24 Kbytes. You can modify the
example script to enter your own values, if required.
4
Tuning the Socket Options
For applications that use Sockets, the application developer can make more
efficient use of the increased bandwidth provided by an FDDI connection by
increasing the size of the send and receive buffers used by a specific
application. This manipulation is restricted to applications and do not affect
the other socket connections.
Solaris 2.5.1 environments support program calls to getsockopt(3N) and
setsockopt(3N). The options SO_SNDBUF and SO_RCVBUF are used to set
the size of the TCP send and receive buffers for a specified Socket. See the man
page for more detailed information.
To optimize performance, assign consistent values for the transmit and receive
buffers. The default value (4 Kbytes) assigned to these parameters is optimized
for transmitting across Ethernet connections. For applications running over
FDDI, the send and receive buffers should be set to 32 Kbytes.
ImprovingNetwork Performance29
4
MTU Path Discovery
Machines running a Solaris 2.x environment support MTU path discovery,
which allows the optimum MTU to be negotiated. Under most circumstances,
this ensures efficient use of the network resources. However, to enable MTU
path discovery to work, the “don’t fragment” bit in the packet is set, which
causes a problem with some bridges and routers that do not support this
feature. In this case, packets are not transmitted across the bridge, and the
generated error messages as a result can be misleading.
Refer to “To Disable MTU Path Discovery” for instructions on how to
accommodate bridges and routers that do not support this feature.
▼To Tune the Maximum Transfer Unit (MTU)
The maximum transfer unit (MTU) has been optimized for pure FDDI
networks for FDDI/P. Follow these steps to change the value of the MTU on a
station running SunFDDI/P:
1. Log in as root or become superuser.
2. Edit the /etc/system file to add the following line:
set pf:pf_mtu=<packet_size>
The variable <packet_size> is set to the desired value for MTU entered in
octets. The default value for MTU is 4352 octets. It must be in the range 512
to 4500 octets.
3. Reboot the machine to apply the changes to the system.
Note – Additionally, the ifconfig(1M) command can be used to change the
MTU.
30SunFDDI/P 1.0 AdapterUser’s Guide—May 1997
▼To Disable MTU Path Discovery
Many bridges do not support MTU path discovery.
♦ To disable this feature in order to transmit packets across a bridge, type:
# ndd —set /dev/ip ip_path_mtu_discovery 0
MTU path discovery is re-enabled each time the machine is rebooted.
▼To Tune the Target Token Rotation Time (TTRT)
The target token rotation time (TTRT) for the network is the lowest value of
T_req bid during the claim process. Follow these steps to change the value of
T_req bid:
1. Log in as root or become superuser.
2. Edit the /etc/system file to add the following line:
4
set pf:pf_treq=8000
3. Reboot the machine to apply the changes to the system.
ImprovingNetwork Performance31
4
32SunFDDI/P 1.0 AdapterUser’s Guide—May 1997
TroubleshootingandDiagnostics
Troubleshooting Checklistpage 34
Solving Common Problemspage 39
Running the Hardware Self-Test Programpage 44
Loading the Device Driver Manuallypage 45
This chapter describes how to detect and resolve common problems with your
FDDI network. It includes instructions on how to load and configure the
SunFDDI/P device driver manually, if required. Note that SunFDDI/P
supports almost all of the standard SunOS™ network diagnostic utilities,
including snoop(1M), netstat(1M), ping(1M), and etherfind(8C).
For a Solaris 2.5.1 Hardware: 4/97 environment, the default base directory
<basedir> is:
/opt/SUNWconn/bin
5
33
5
Troubleshooting Checklist
Use the following checklist to verify the major components of your
SunFDDI/P station, and to check that it is installed, configured, and attached
to the network correctly.
▼To Check the Connection to the Station
♦ Check that the cable connector is seated firmly into the plug on the
▼To Check the Connections Between Stations
♦ Check that the cables are connected correctly between ports of different
SunFDDI/P adapter card.
You should feel the connector “click” into place.
types.
The keys provided with most FDDI cables will help you to avoid “crossing”
or “twisting” the ring. See “Connecting Fiber Optic Cables” on page 5 for a
detailed description.
• For single attached stations (SAS), cables should be connected by either
S↔M (to a concentrator) or S↔S (back-to-back).
• For dual attached stations (DAS), cables should be connected by either
A↔BB↔A (dual-ring) or A↔MM↔B (dual-homing).
▼To Check the Link Status Indicator
♦ Check the status of the SunFDDI/P interface by looking at the Link Status
Indicator (diagnostic LED) mounted on the backplate of the SunFDDI/P
PCI card.
• If the LED is green, the SunFDDI/P driver is loaded, the pf interface is
configured, and the station is attached to an active FDDI network. This is
the operating state.
34SunFDDI/P 1.0 AdapterUser’s Guide—May 1997
5
• If the LED is amber, the SunFDDI/P driver is loaded, the pf interface is
configured, but no valid line state to an active FDDI network exists.
a. Check the physical connections between the station and the ring, or
the station and the concentrator.
b. Check the status of the neighboring station.
If this station is down, it will bring down the link between the stations.
• If the LED is red, the adapter failed the FDDI path test.
• If no LED is lit, either the SunFDDI/P driver is loaded and the interface is
not configured, or the driver has not been loaded.
•
a. Configure the pf interface with the ifconfig(1M) command of the
form:
# ifconfig plumb pf<inst> <hostname> netmask <mask> up
• If the LED is red, the SunFDDI/P driver is not loaded, or is loaded
incorrectly.
a. Check that the software is installed.
b. Remove the existing version, if necessary, and reload the software.
Checking the MAC Address
By default, the first SunFDDI/P interface installed in the machine adopts the
host-resident Media Access Control ( MAC) address stored on the
motherboard. Each subsequent SunFDDI/P interface takes the card-resident
MAC address stored in its IDPROM.
Troubleshooting and Diagnostics35
5
▼To Check the SunFDDI/P Driver
SunFDDIinterface
pf<inst> ---->
▼To Check the IP Addresses
♦ Use netstat(1M) to check that the SunFDDI/P (pf) driver is installed
correctly, and to check for an excessive number of errors and collisions:
A sudden increase in the number of errors could indicate a noisy connection
caused by a dirty cable.
You must assign a unique IP address to each SunFDDI/P interface. If you have
more than one IP interface installed in your machine—either multiple
SunFDDI/P interfaces, or some other LAN interface (for example, an Ethernet
interface)—each interface must be attached to a different subnetwork.
♦ Use ifconfig(1M) to check the IP addresses assigned to the two
SunFDDI/P interfaces:
# ifconfig -a
pf0: flags=843(UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST) mtu 4352
inet 123:123:201:71 netmask ffffff00 broadcast
123:123:201:255
pf1: flags=843(UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST) mtu 4352
If the interfaces have the same subnetwork number, as shown in this example,
you must change the IP address assigned to one of the interfaces.
Ensure that the IP addresses and host names for each SunFDDI/P interface are
entered in the NIS map, or in /etc/hosts on the local machine if you are not
using NIS/NIS+.
36SunFDDI/P 1.0 AdapterUser’s Guide—May 1997
▼To Check the IP Routing
1. Check the IP routing table using the netstat(1M) command:
% netstat —nr
2. Check that the FDDI subnetwork is featured in the routing table.
If the routing table is empty, check that the routing daemon (in.routed)is
running on your machine.
▼To Check the Protocol Statistics
♦ Use netstat(1M) to check the per-protocol (IP, TCP, UDP, etc.) statistics
for errors:
# netstat -s
UDP
udpInDatagrams = 1423udpInErrors = 0
udpOutDatagrams = 540
5
TCP tcpRtoAlgorithm = 4tcpRtoMin = 200
tcpRtoMax = 60000tcpMaxConn = -1
tcpActiveOpens = 38tcpPassiveOpens = 1
tcpAttemptFails = 0tcpEstabResets = 33
tcpCurrEstab = 2tcpOutSegs = 427
tcpOutDataSegs = 264tcpOutDataBytes = 15917
tcpRetransSegs = 38tcpRetransBytes = 0
tcpOutAck = 143tcpOutAckDelayed = 56
tcpOutUrg = 1tcpOutWinUpdate = 0
tcpOutWinProbe = 0tcpOutControl = 111
tcpOutRsts = 36tcpOutFastRetrans = 0
tcpInSegs = 606
tcpInAckSegs = 292tcpInAckBytes = 15949
tcpInDupAck = 62tcpInAckUnsent = 0
tcpInInorderSegs = 311tcpInInorderBytes = 99169
tcpInUnorderSegs = 0tcpInUnorderBytes = 0
.
.
.
Troubleshooting and Diagnostics37
5
♦ Use netstat(1M) to check the driver statistics:
# netstat -k
pfo
ipacket = x, ierror = y, opackets = z
.
.
.
▼To Check the SMT Traffic
If the target station is not running SunFDDI/P, it does not necessarily support
the same set of SMT frames. If the target station receives an SMT request for an
unsupported service, it issues a Request Denied Frame (RDF).
♦ Use pf_smtmon(1M) to examine the SMT frames:
# <basedir>/pf_smtmon
[-i pf<inst>] [—x] [—h] [<frameclass>]
38SunFDDI/P 1.0 AdapterUser’s Guide—May 1997
Solving Common Problems
Use the information in Table 5-1 and Table 5-2 to diagnose and resolve some of
the common problems that can occur when installing, configuring, or running
SunFDDI/P.
Table 5-1Problems Installing SunFDDI/P
ProblemAction
The SunFDDI/P software package (SUNWpfr) cannot
be found.
The SunFDDI/P man pages/utilities package
(SUNWpft) cannot be found.
The configuration script cannot configure the IP
address. “What ip address do you want to use for xyz
The configuration script cannot find the hardware
devices installed in the machine.
The configuration script cannot load the SunFDDI/P
driver. The procedure fails with the message, “noavailable major numbers.”
The configuration script cannot load the device
driver.
The configuration script cannot configure the device
driver. The procedure fails with the message,
“Duplicate MAC address.”
Check that you have inserted the CD-ROM in the CD-ROM
drive and that the CD-ROM is mounted on a local directory. If
the Volume Manager (vold) is running on your machine, the
SunFDDI/P software is located in the following directory:
/cdrom/sun_fddip_1_0/Product. If the Volume Manager
(vold) is not running on your machine, you must create a
directory and mount the CD-ROM as described on page 13.
Check that you have entered the valid IP address. The script
will keep prompting you until you enter a valid address.
Check that the SunFDDI/P PCI card is installed correctly and
is seated firmly in the PCI slot. Use the prtconf command to
see if the pf card exists.
The number of major numbers—that is, the maximum number
of device drivers that can be installed—is limited to 127. This
number is quickly exhausted by the large number of drivers
installed in a typical system. Remove an existing driver before
loading SunFDDI/P.
Check whether the driver is already installed on the system.
If you removed a previous version of the package using
pkgrm(1M), you must reboot the system before attempting
another add_drv.
Two or more interfaces have been assigned the same MAC
address. The most likely conflict lies between the first
SunFDDI/P 1.0 interface (pf0) and one or more SunFDDI/P
interfaces (pf1, etc) installed in the same machine.
5
Troubleshooting and Diagnostics39
5
Table 5-2Problems Running SunFDDI/P
ProblemAction
The link status indicator (diagnostic LED) remains
red.
The link status indicator (diagnostic LED) remains
amber.
The link status indicator (diagnostic LED) remains
amber, even after the local station is connected to the
network and the driver is configured and loaded.
The SunFDDI/P interface (pf) is not displayed by
netstat.
Check that the SunFDDI/P software is installed correctly and
that the driver is loaded and configured.
Check that the SunFDDI/P PCI card is connected to the
network.
Check that the other end of the cable is connected and that the
neighboring station or concentrator is configured correctly.
Some concentrators have diagnostic LEDs that indicate if the
ring is operating correctly. Check that the ring is not crossed.
Check that the SunFDDI/P device driver is loaded, using
modinfo(1M) to display information about loaded kernel
modules. If the device driver is not loaded, see “Loading the
Device Driver Manually” on page 45 for detailed instructions.
The SunFDDI/P interface (pf) is not displayed by
ifconfig.
The local station can reach FDDI stations located on
the same subnetwork, but these stations cannot reach
the local station.
The local station cannot reach other FDDI stations
located on the same subnetwork.
Running pf_stat without the —m option (to display
information about the local station) shows the ring
alternating frequently between UP and DOWN.
Check that the SunFDDI/P device driver is loaded, using
modinfo(1M) to display information about loaded kernel
modules. If the device driver is not loaded, see “Loading the
Device Driver Manually” on page 45 for detailed instructions.
Check that the IP address and host name of the local station is
entered in the NIS map or NIS+ tables (or in /etc/hosts on
each remote station if you are not running NIS or NIS+).
Check that the link status indicator is green, indicating that the
SunFDDI/P interface is attached to an active network. Use
ifconfig(1M) to check that the SunFDDI/P interface (pf)is
up.
Check that the IP address and host name of the remote station
is entered in the NIS map or NIS+ tables (or in /etc/hosts
on the local station if you are not running NIS or NIS+).
Check that the link status indicator is green, indicating that the
SunFDDI/P interface is attached to an active network.
Check the connections to the concentrator. Some concentrators
have diagnostic LEDs that indicate if the ring is operating
correctly.
40SunFDDI/P 1.0 AdapterUser’s Guide—May 1997
Table 5-2Problems Running SunFDDI/P (Continued)
ProblemAction
Running pf_stat without the —m option (to display
information about the local station) shows that the
ring is ISOLATED.
The local station cannot reach FDDI stations located
on a remote FDDI network.
Check that the link status indicator is green, indicating that the
SunFDDI/P interface is attached to an active network. Check
the connections to neighboring stations or the concentrator.
Some concentrators have diagnostic LEDs that indicate if the
ring is operating correctly.
Check that the neighboring stations are configured correctly.
If everything else seems to be working, check the cable itself.
Fiber optic cable is fragile and should not be subjected to stress
or impact. If the turning curve around objects is too tight, the
light path is interrupted. Clean the connectors.
Check that the IP address and host name of the remote station
is entered in the NIS map or NIS+ tables (or in /etc/hosts
on each remote station if you are not running NIS or NIS+).
Check that the routing tables are using netstat —r. Check
for an pf interface that shows a route to a gateway with the UG
flags set. If you can reach the local gateway, then the problem
probably lies with the IP routing.
5
Try to confirm that the remote station is configured and
running, and if possible try to reach the local station from the
remote station. If you can, it indicates that the problem lies
with the local IP routing.
Try to reach the router nearest the remote station. If you can, it
indicates that the fault lies between the remote station and the
router. If you cannot, try to reach a router that is closer to the
local station. Continue in this way until you have isolated the
router that is dropping or misrouting packets.
If the dynamic routing protocol is not adding routes, try
adding a static route to the remote station. This method is not
recommended for large networks with a large number of
nodes.
Troubleshooting and Diagnostics41
5
Table 5-2Problems Running SunFDDI/P (Continued)
ProblemAction
The local station cannot reach FDDI stations located
on a remote Ethernet network.
Check that the IP address and host name of the remote station
is entered in the NIS map or NIS+ tables (or in /etc/hosts
on each remote station if you are not running NIS or NIS+).
If you are operating in a Solaris 2.x environment, which uses
MTU path discovery, check that packets are being transmitted
across the bridge between the networks. Many bridges do not
yet support MTU path discovery and do not fragment the
large packets sent by the FDDI stations. In this case you may
need to disable this feature on your station by typing:
# ndd —set /dev/ip ip_path_mtu_discovery 0
Check that the routing tables are using netstat —r. Check
for an pf interface that shows a route to a gateway with the UG
flags set. If you can reach the local gateway, then the problem
probably lies with the IP routing.
Try to confirm that the remote station is configured and
running, and if possible try to reach the local station from the
remote station. If you can, it indicates that the problem lies
with the local IP routing.
Try to reach the router nearest the remote station. If you can, it
indicates that the fault lies between the remote station and the
router. If you cannot, try to reach a router that is closer to the
local station. Continue in this way until you have isolated the
router that is dropping or misrouting packets.
If the dynamic routing protocol is not adding routes, try
adding a static route to the remote station. This method is not
recommended for large networks with a large number of
nodes.
Running pf_stat with the —m option (to display
information about the neighboring stations) shows
frequent error frames and lost frames.
42SunFDDI/P 1.0 AdapterUser’s Guide—May 1997
This could indicate a noisy network. For fiber connections,
noise is probably caused by dirt or grease on the optical
surface or by a damaged cable. Unshielded twisted-pair is
sensitive to electrical and electromagnetic interference. Note
that the receipt of error frames and lost frames does not
give any indication of where the problem is occurring on the
ring.
Table 5-2Problems Running SunFDDI/P (Continued)
ProblemAction
Running pf_smtmon shows the frequent occurrence
of request denied frames (RDF).
Table 5-3Problems Using the SNM Agents for SunFDDI/P
ProblemAction
Cannot select pf_fddi or pf_fddismt7_2 agent for
quick dump.
Cannot recover SMT statistics from the proxy agent.
The procedure fails with the error message, “Cannot
create RPC client: program is not
registered.”
The SMT entity on one of the remote stations does not support
the same set of SMT services. This should not occur on a
station running SunFDDI/P. You can use this facility to detect
problems communicating with a remote station using the
SunNet Manager proxy agent.
Check that the SNM agents for SunFDDI/P are enabled in the
properties window for the proxy station. See “Using the
SunFDDI/P Local Agent (pf_fddi)” on page 110 for detailed
instructions.
Check that you specified the host name or MAC address for
the target machine in the properties window for the target
station. See “Using the SunFDDI/P Local Agent (pf_fddi)” on
page 110 for detailed instructions.
5
Check that the SNM daemons are started on the proxy and the
target machines:
On a Solaris 2.x client, you can start the SunNet Manager
daemons for SunFDDI/P by typing:
# /usr/sbin/pf_snmd
Troubleshooting and Diagnostics43
/pf_snmd
5
Running the Hardware Self-Test Program
If you suspect that there may be a problem with the SunFDDI/P adapter card,
you can use the built-in hardware self-test to check the state of its primary
components and the connection to the network.
▼To Run the Hardware Self-Test
1. Log in as root or become superuser.
2. Halt the machine.
# sync;sync;halt
3. At the boot prompt, type:
ok test /pci/pf
Local MAC Address 0:80:d8:10:3:ed (Canonical)
Interrupt register read/write test .... PASS
CMT Processor read/write test ......... PASS
S Port register test .................. PASS
MAC register test ..................... PASS
DMA register test ..................... PASS
DMA bus master test ................... PASS
Performing FDDI path test ............. PASS
Connection Management (CMT) test ...... PASS
Local loopback packet test ............ PASS
Network loopback packet test .......... connection not active
/pci/pf selftest failed. Return code = -1
This example shows that the primary components on the board are working,
but that the board is not currently connected to the network.
44SunFDDI/P 1.0 AdapterUser’s Guide—May 1997
Loading the Device Driver Manually
Normally, the SunFDDI/P device driver is loaded and configured by the
post-installation script, which is launched automatically when the software is
installed. If you encounter problems when running this script, or if you want
to customize the installation, you may need to load the device driver manually.
▼To Configure and Load the Device Driver
1. Log in as root or become superuser.
2. Check that there are no partially installed drivers for SunFDDI/P.
a. Check for existing SunFDDI/P devices in the /dev directory.
# ls /dev | grep pf
pf
b. Use rem_drv(1M) to remove any installed SunFDDI/P devices and
remove the device directories.
5
# /usr/sbin/rem_drv pf
# /bin/rm —f /dev/pf
c. Check the /etc/name_to_major file for entries of the form pf<num>
and smt<num> and remove these if they exist.
3. Use add_drv(1M) to inform the system about the new drivers.
# /usr/sbin/add_drv pf
4. Check that the device drivers have been added to the system correctly.
a. Look in the /devices/pseudo directory for entries of the form:
ls -l /devices/pseudo | grep pf
crw------- 1 root sys 11,119 <date> clone@0:pf
Troubleshooting and Diagnostics45
5
b. Look in the /dev directory for links to these entries:
ls -l /dev | grep pf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root other <date> pf -> ../devices/pseudo/clone@0:pf
5. Create a file called /etc/hostname.pf<inst> for each SunFDDI/P IP
interface that you configure.
Each file must contain the host name assigned to the IP interface. These files
are used to configure the interfaces when the system is rebooted. If you
assign the primary host name to one of the FDDI interfaces, this host name
must be entered in the file /etc/nodename.
6. Use ifconfig(1M) to configure the SunFDDI/P IP interfaces (pf<inst>).
The host name assigned to the IP interface must be entered in the NIS map,
NIS+ tables, or in /etc/hosts on the local machine. Configure the
interface using an ifconfig command of the form:
# /usr/sbin/ifconfig pf<inst> plumb <hostname> netmask + up
Note that the modifier netmask + takes the netmask defined in the
/etc/netmasks file. If this entry is missing, you must specify the netmask
explicitly using dot notation.
Provided the installation and configuration was successful, your SunFDDI/P
station is now active and you can send and receive data transparently across an
FDDI connection.
This chapter provides a brief introduction to the Fiber Distributed Data
Interface (FDDI), and the network architecture described by the following
specifications:
6
• ANSI/FDDI Physical Media Dependent (PMD) X3.166-1990
• ANSI/FDDI Physical Layer (PHY) X3.148-1988
• ANSI/FDDI Medium Access Control (MAC) X.3.139-1987
• ANSI/FDDI Station Management (SMT) X3.299 R7.3 (formally R7.2.99)
49
6
FDDI Network Model
FDDI provides high-performance, multistation networking at data transfer
rates of up to 100 Mbps. It is based on a Token-Ring network architecture, and
provides communication over optical fiber or copper twisted-pair connections.
The ANSI/FDDI specifications define a network model that consists of the
following components:
• Physical Medium Dependent (PMD) Layer
• Physical (PHY) Layer
• Medium Access Control (MAC) Layer
• Station Management (SMT) Protocol
Figure 6-1 shows the organization of these components, and their relationship
with other network protocols that use them.
User space
OSITCP/IP
DLPI interface V2 / BSD ifnet
LLC/Subnetwork Access Protocol (SNAP)
Media Access Control (MAC) layer
Physical (PHY) Layer
(SMT)
Physical medium dependent (PMD) layer
Station Management
Figure 6-1FDDI Architectural Model
50SunFDDI/P 1.0 AdapterUser’s Guide—May 1997
Kernel space
Hardware
Physical Medium Dependent (PMD) Layer
This portion of the FDDI network model defines the physical medium used to
carry the encoded digital signal. It is also referred to as the media layer.
The PMD layer determines the characteristics of the transmitters, receivers,
connectors, and cables used to attach the FDDI station to the network.
SunFDDI/P supports only the Multimode fiber (MMF)—single and dualattached PMD option.
Multi-Mode Fiber (MMF)
A fiber optic FDDI connection supports data transmission rates of up to 100
Mbps and, because attenuation in the fiber is very low, larger distances
between FDDI stations are possible without the use of repeaters. In addition,
fiber does not emit electromagnetic radiation and is electrically nonconductive.
Therefore, it neither causes, nor suffers from, problems due to signal
interference between adjacent equipment or cabling.
SunFDDI/P supports 62.5/125 micrometer, multimode fiber (MMF).
Multimode fiber cannot support such large distances between FDDI stations as
single-mode fiber (SMF), which is not supported by SunFDDI/P. However,
multimode fiber is cheaper, and uses lower cost terminations, connectors, and
light-sources.
6
Physical (PHY) Layer
The physical (PHY) layer handles the efficient encoding and decoding of
digital data. It is also referred to as the signal layer.
At the transmitting end, the PHY layer encodes the digital data into FDDI
symbols and passes them to the physical medium dependent (PMD) layer for
transmission. At the receiving end, the PHY layer decodes the FDDI symbols
and passes the digital data to the medium access control (MAC) layer. An
FDDI symbol is the basic transmission unit in an FDDI network.
The PHY layer also provides the network synchronization mechanism. It uses a
distributed clocking scheme under which each FDDI station has its own local
clock to synchronize the transmission of outgoing data. The PHY layer extracts
clocking information from incoming data as it is received.
FDDI Network Architecture51
6
Media Access Control (MAC) Layer
The Media Access Control layer specifies the access mechanism used to
transmit and receive data on the FDDI network. It packages digital data in
frames.
The MAC layer specifies three classes of digital data traffic:
• Synchronous (guaranteed) traffic
• Asynchronous (priority-based) traffic
• Restricted (dialogue-based) traffic
The MAC layer uses a timed token rotation protocol that regulates how much
digital data can be sent at one time. This protocol ensures that the network
bandwidth is used predictably and efficiently. It also gives the FDDI network
its distinctive “ring” topology.
The FDDI stations connected on the network use a token to control the right to
transmit data for a predefined time, determined by the local timed targetrotation timer (TTRT) on each station. When an FDDI station completes
transmission, it releases the token for use by downstream stations. In this way,
the token rotates continuously around the ring.
Each attachment to an FDDI network is identified by a unique MAC address.
The first SunFDDI/P card installed in a machine takes its identity from the
host-resident MAC address that is stored in nonvolatile memory on the
motherboard of the machine in which it is installed. Each subsequent
SunFDDI/P SBus card takes its identity from the card-resident MAC address
stored in its own IDPROM.
Use the pf_macid(1M) utility to display the card-resident MAC address. See
Chapter 8, “Using the SunFDDI Network Utilities” for detailed instructions.
Station Management (SMT) Layer
The Station Management layer provides services to manage, control, and
configure the FDDI network. It is also referred to as the network management
layer.
52SunFDDI/P 1.0 AdapterUser’s Guide—May 1997
6
At its lowest level, the SMT protocol handles connection management (CMT). This
includes station initialization, the insertion and removal of stations on the
network, and connection compatibility between stations. At a higher level, the
SMT protocol handles ring management (RMT). This includes the detection of
duplicate addresses and the isolation of fault conditions.
The SMT protocol also defines the FDDI management information base (MIB).
This is a set of managed objects and associated attributes that includes the
MAC entity (MAC), data path (PATH), attachment type (ATTACHMENT), and
port identifier (PORT).
Communication services are used to exchange objects and information between
peer SMT entities through special management frames that are carried at the
same time as normal network traffic. This frame-based management is used to:
• Examine and modify FDDI station configuration
• Schedule synchronous (guaranteed) and asynchronous (priority-based)
traffic
• Gather network statistics
• Generate status reports
SunFDDI/P includes SunNet Manager agents that access the SMT entity to
collect and return FDDI statistics to a SunNet Manager console. See Chapter 9,
“Managing FDDI Stations Using SunNet Manager” for detailed instructions on
how to manage FDDI networks using a SunNet Manager console.
Communication Between FDDI Layers
The MAC layer transfers data between peer entities in the form of frames that
are encoded as FDDI symbols by the PHY layer. The PMD layer transmits FDDI
symbols across the network as a bit stream of light pulses (for fiber
connections) or electrical signals (for twisted-pair connections).
The communication between layers in the FDDI architectural model is
summarized in Figure 6-2.
FDDI Network Architecture53
6
Media access control (MAC) layer
Frames
Physical (PHY) layer
(SMT)
Station management
Physical medium dependent (PMD) layer
Figure 6-2Communication Between FDDI Layers
Symbols
Bit stream
54SunFDDI/P 1.0 AdapterUser’s Guide—May 1997
FDDI Network Architecture
A typical FDDI network is based on a dual, counter-rotating ring, as illustrated
in Figure 6-3. Each FDDI station is connected in sequence to two rings
simultaneously—a primary ring and a secondary ring. Data flows in one
direction on the primary ring, and in the other direction on the secondary ring.
FDDI stationFDDI station
6
FDDI station
Secondary ring
FDDI station
Figure 6-3Basic FDDI Network Architecture
The secondary ring serves as a redundant path. It is used during station
initialization, and may be used as a backup to the primary ring in the event of
a station or cable failure. When a failure occurs, the dual-ring is “wrapped”
around to isolate the fault and to create a single, one-way ring. The
components of a typical FDDI network and the failure recovery mechanism are
described in more detail in the following sections.
FDDI Network Architecture55
Primary ring
6
FDDI Stations
An FDDI station is any device that can be attached to a fiber or copper twistedpair FDDI network through an FDDI interface. The FDDI protocols define two
types of FDDI stations:
• Single-attached station (SAS)
• Dual-attached station (DAS)
Single-Attached Station (SAS)
A single-attached station (SAS) is attached to the FDDI network through a
single connector called the S-port. The S-port has a primary input (Pin) and a
primary output (Pout). Data from an upstream station enters through Pin and
exits from Pout to a downstream station, as shown in Figure 6-4.
Single-attached stations are normally attached to single- and dual-attached
concentrators, as described in “FDDI Concentrators” on page 58.
Single-attached station
Data to downstream station
Figure 6-4Single-Attached Station (SAS)
56SunFDDI/P 1.0 AdapterUser’s Guide—May 1997
Pout
(SAS)
MAC
PHY
S-port
Pin
Data from upstream station
6
Dual-Attached Station (DAS)
A dual-attached station (DAS) is attached to the FDDI network through two
connectors called the A-port and the B-port, respectively. The A-port has a
primary input (Pin) and a secondary output (Sout); the B-port has a primary
output (Pout) and a secondary input (Sin).
The primary input/output is attached to the primary ring and the secondary
input/output is attached to the secondary ring. The flow of data during
normal operation is shown in Figure 6-5.
To complete the ring, you must ensure that the B-port of an upstream station is
always connected to the A-port of a downstream station. For this reason, most
FDDI DAS connectors are keyed to prevent connections between two ports of
the same type.
Data to downstream station
Data from downstream station
Figure 6-5Dual-Attached Station (DAS)
Pout
Dual-attached station
PHY B
B-port
Sin
(DAS)
MAC
Sout
PHY A
A-port
Pin
Data from upstream station
Data to upstream station
FDDI Network Architecture57
6
FDDI Concentrators
FDDI concentrators are multiplexers that attach multiple single-attached
stations to the FDDI ring. An FDDI concentrator is analogous to an Ethernet
hub.
The FDDI protocols define two types of concentrators:
• Single-attached concentrator (SAC)
• Dual-attached concentrator (DAC)
Single-Attached Concentrator (SAC)
A single-attached concentrator (SAC) is attached to the FDDI network through
a single connector, which is identical to the S-port on a single-attached station.
It has multiple M-ports, to which single-attached stations are connected, as
shown in Figure 6-6.
Single-attached station
(SAS)
S-port
M-portM-portM-port
Figure 6-6Single-Attached Concentrator (SAC)
Single-attached station
(SAS)
S-port
Single-attached
concentrator
(SAC)
S-port
Pout
Single-attached station
(SAS)
S-port
Pin
Data from upstream stationData to downstream station
58SunFDDI/P 1.0 AdapterUser’s Guide—May 1997
6
Dual-Attached Concentrator (DAC)
A dual-attached concentrator (DAC) is attached to the FDDI network through
two ports—the A-port and the B-port, which are identical to the ports on a
dual-attached station. It has multiple M-ports, to which single-attached
stations are connected, as shown in Figure 6-7.
Dual-attached concentrators and FDDI stations are often arranged in a very
flexible network topology called the ring of trees. This configuration is
discussed in more detail in Chapter 7, “FDDI Network Topologies.”
Single-attached station
(SAS)
S-port
M-portM-port
Data to downstream station
Data from upstream station
Pout
Single-attached station
A-port
(SAS)
S-port
Dual-attached
concentrator
(SAC)
Sin
Sout
Single-attached station
(SAS)
S-port
M-port
B-port
Pin
Data from upstream station
Data to downstream station
Figure 6-7Dual-Attached Concentrator (DAC)
FDDI Network Architecture59
6
FDDI Failure Recovery
Station Wrapping
One of the primary advantages of FDDI is its ability to recover reliably from
failures in stations and cables. The failure mechanism is implemented and
controlled by the Station Management (SMT) entity described in the section
“Station Management (SMT) Layer” on page 52.
A failure could be something as insignificant as someone switching off their
workstation; the ability of FDDI to recover from such an event increases the
reliability of the network significantly.
Figure 6-8 shows the effect of a single-station failure in an FDDI network that
comprises four dual-attached stations connected in a basic ring configuration.
When a failure occurs, the SMT entities on the stations on either side of the
fault reconfigure the network dynamically to isolate it. In this condition, the
primary and secondary rings are wrapped on to each other to form a single,
one-way ring.
Failed FDDI DAS
FDDI DAS
FDDI DAS
Figure 6-8Isolating a Single Station Failure
60SunFDDI/P 1.0 AdapterUser’s Guide—May 1997
FDDI DAS
Secondary ring
Primary ring
6
This failure recovery mechanism is only supported by dual-attached stations
and concentrators; a single-attached station connected directly to the ring
cannot wrap around the fault because it is only connected to one ring at a time.
The effect of a cable or link failure on a basic FDDI network is very similar to a
station failure, as shown in Figure 6-9. The SMT entities on the stations on
either side of the failed connection reconfigure the network dynamically so
that the primary ring is wrapped onto the secondary ring.
FDDI DAS
Failed cable
FDDI DAS
FDDI DAS
Secondary ring
Primary ring
FDDI DAS
Figure 6-9Isolating a Single Cable Failure
Wrapping occurs within the MAC layer. Figure 6-10 on page 62 illustrates how
the dual-attached station is reconfigured to wrap the primary ring onto the
secondary ring. Dual-attached concentrators wrap in a similar way. In this
case, all of the single-attached stations connected to the concentrator are also
wrapped onto the secondary ring.
FDDI Network Architecture61
6
PHY B
port B
Pout
Data to downstream station
Figure 6-10 Dual-Attached Station in Wrap Mode
Optical Bypass Switches
Dual-attached station
(DAS)
MAC
PHY A
port A
Sin
Data from upstream station
Primary and secondary rings
wrapped within the MAC l
Station wrapping provides effective network recovery in the event of a single
station or cable failure. However, two or more failures in the ring will isolate
portions of the network, as shown in Figure 6-11.
This limitation can be overcome to a certain extent by fitting optical bypassswitches to the dual-attached stations. As their name suggests, these switches
provide an optical connection that bypasses the station in the event of failure,
or if the station needs to be removed from the ring. Optical bypass switches
can only be used to overcome station faults; they have no affect in the event of
a cable fault.
The attenuation in an optical bypass switch is far greater than in a normal
FDDI connection; therefore, the number of optical bypass switches that can be
connected in series in a single ring is limited.
62SunFDDI/P 1.0 AdapterUser’s Guide—May 1997
Failed FDDI DAS
6
FDDI DAS
FDDI DAS
Failed cable
Secondary ring
FDDI DAS
Figure 6-11 Dua-Ring Network Divided by Two Faults
FDDI DAS
Primary ring
The maximum number of active optical bypass switches that can be connected
in a series is four. This assumes that the maximum distance between stations in
the ring is no more than 400m; otherwise, the aggregate attenuation in the ring
exceeds the total optical power budget.
Figure 6-12 shows how connecting an optical bypass switch to a dual-attached
station is used to conserve the connection when the station is switched off, or
removed from the ring.
Active stationInactive station
Dual-attached
station
Dual-attached
station
BA
PoutPinPoutPin
Optical bypass
Figure 6-12 Optical Bypass Switch
FDDI Network Architecture63
SoutSin
Sin
BA
Optical bypass
Sout
6
Figure 6-13 shows the occurrence of two different fault conditions in an FDDI
network that includes optical bypass switches. The station fault is bypassed
effectively to conserve the majority of the network intact; however, the cable
fault still causes station wrapping.
FDDI DAS
Optical
bypass
Failed cable
FDDI DAS
Optical
bypass
Optical
bypass
Failed FDDI DAS
Figure 6-13 Optical Bypass Switches used in a Network
Optical
bypass
FDDI DAS
Secondary ring
Primary ring
64SunFDDI/P 1.0 AdapterUser’s Guide—May 1997
FDDI Ring Operation
UnrestrictedAsynchronousTransmission
6
Two types of traffic are allocated bandwidth on an FDDI ring:
• Asynchronous traffic (unrestricted and restricted)
The unrestricted asynchronous service allocates bandwidth dynamically
based on the timed token rotation protocol, and according to the priority
assigned to the traffic. It does not guarantee bandwidth; therefore,
unrestricted asynchronous traffic may be delayed on a heavily loaded
network.
The restricted asynchronous service allocates bandwidth for extended
transmission based on restricted token exchange between communicating
stations. During restricted transmission, the timed token rotation protocol is
suspended until the restricted token is released. The use of the restricted
asynchronous service is relatively rare.
The FDDI network is most commonly used for unrestricted asynchronous
traffic. This is the default mode for SunFDDI and is the only mode supported
in a Solaris 1.x environment. Access to the FDDI ring is controlled by a
permission token, or right to transmit. The permission token is a special frame
that is passed between stations. Unlike the tokens used in a Token Ring
network, the FDDI permission token contains no additional information.
The station holding the permission token completes transmission either when
it has no more packets to transmit, or when its right to hold the token expires.
It then releases the token, which is now available for use by the next station on
the ring. In this way, the permission token rotates around the ring, at a rate
determined by the overall target token rotation time (TTRT).
The TTRT is established when the ring is initialized, based on a bidding
procedure called the claim process. During the claim process, each station puts
in a request (T_req) for the TTRT. The lowest bid or, the fastest rotation time
wins the claim process and is stored in 2’s complement form as the operating
value of TTRT (T_opr). The maximum value of TTRT (T_max) allowed by the
MAC layer is implementation dependent, but is always in the ~165 ms range.
SunFDDI/P has T_max=167.874 ms.
FDDI Network Architecture65
6
The maximum time for which a station can hold the permission token, and
therefore the time for which a station can transmit on the ring, is determined
by these two station timers that work together to maintain the target token
rotation time (TTRT), irrespective of the load on the network:
• Token Rotation Timer (TRT)
The TRT measures the time between successive arrivals of the token or, the
time taken for the token to rotate once around the ring. The TRT is reset to
the operating value of TTRT (T_opr) each time the token is received. If the
TRT expires before the token arrives, the token is considered late and the
flag Late_Ct is set. Only synchronous (high priority) traffic can be
transmitted when Late_Ct is set.
• Token Hold Timer (THT)
The THT determines how long a station can hold a token or, how long a
station can transmit asynchronous traffic. It is loaded with the value
remaining in the token rotation timer (TRT) each time the token arrives.
Thus, the faster the token rotates, the more transmission time is allocated to
each station. If the token is delayed because the network is heavily loaded,
the amount of transmission time is reduced. If THT expires during
transmission, the current transmission is completed before the token is
released.
The interaction of these two timers causes token rotation to increase (reduced
transmission time per station) in a heavily loaded network, and to decrease
(increased transmission time per station) in a lightly loaded network.
FDDI Performance
Although the FDDI standards define a medium that supports data transfer
rates of up to 100 Mbps, this does not translate directly to an increase in overall
system performance. If fact, it frequently transfers the bottleneck elsewhere, so
that the FDDI connection is not used to full capacity.
An FDDI ring has the potential to carry more information rather than to be a
faster connection. If the applications running over the network do not use the
available bandwidth efficiently, you will not see much improvement in the
performance of your network above that of traditional Ethernet connections.
Among the factors that affect FDDI network performance are:
• Network topology
66SunFDDI/P 1.0 AdapterUser’s Guide—May 1997
6
• Network load
• Network efficiency
• Processor speed (on the FDDI stations)
• Bus architecture
There are a number of ways of improving the overall performance of the
network, some of which are discussed in Chapter 4, “Improving Network
Performance.” However, the majority of these suggestions should only be
undertaken by experienced system administrators. Any improvement made by
modifying the actions of the FDDI network is negligible compared to what is
gained by making more efficient use of the available bandwidth.
FDDI Network Architecture67
6
68SunFDDI/P 1.0 AdapterUser’s Guide—May 1997
FDDINetworkTopologies
Basic Dual-Ring Networkpage 70
Standalone Concentratorpage 72
Concentrators with Dual-Homingpage 74
Tree of Concentratorspage 75
Ring of Treespage 77
Mixed FDDI/Ethernet Networkspage 79
FDDI networks can be arranged in a variety of ways, depending on the
placement of stations (SAS and DAS) and the use of concentrators (SAC and
DAC). The optimum arrangement for a particular installation is dependent on
several factors, including:
7
• Cost
• Network size
• Required Bandwidth
• Type of network traffic
• Fault resistance and network reliability
This chapter describes some of the common FDDI network topologies and
discusses the primary advantages and disadvantages of each.
69
7
Basic Dual-Ring Network
The dual ring (or dual, counter-rotating ring) is one of the simplest FDDI
network topologies. It clearly illustrates the distinctive ring architecture most
commonly associated with the FDDI standards, as shown in Figure 7-1. Each
station is critical to the operation of the network; therefore, the basic dual-ring
topology is best adapted to small, stable networks that are not subject to
frequent reconfiguration.
In a dual-ring network, dual-attached stations are connected directly to the
primary and secondary rings. Data, and the token that controls the flow of
data, are transmitted in one direction on the primary ring. Data flows in the
other direction on the secondary ring, which is used during ring initialization
and as a backup in case of a ring failure.
FDDI DAS
FDDI DAS
FDDI DAS
Figure 7-1Basic Dual-Ring Network
Advantages
The primary advantages of the dual-ring network topology are its simplicity
and its ability to recover from simple station and line faults. The secondary
ring provides an effective backup in the event of a single failure in the ring.
70SunFDDI/P 1.0 AdapterUser’s Guide—May 1997
FDDI DAS
Secondary ring
Primary ring
When a ring fails, the primary ring is wrapped automatically on either side of
the fault so that the primary and secondary rings are combined to form a
single, one-way ring. This mechanism is described in more detail in “FDDI
Failure Recovery” on page 60. A dual-ring network does not require a
concentrator.
Disadvantages
Although the dual-ring topology is resistant to single failures in the ring, two
or more failures break the network into parts. Small fragments of the network
can still function, but they are isolated from the other stations. Figure 7-2
shows how two faults in a network, with five dual-attached stations, isolates
two parts of the network. Cable and connection costs can be high in large
installations because there are two cables between each station.
7
Failed FDDI DAS
FDDI DAS
FDDI DAS
Failed cable
Secondary ring
FDDI DAS
Figure 7-2Basic Dual-Ring Network with Two Faults
FDDI Network Topologies71
FDDI DAS
Primary ring
7
Standalone Concentrator
Figure 7-3 shows multiple single-attached stations connected to a single,
dual-attached concentrator through its M-ports. The concentrator can also be
connected to an external dual ring through its A- and B-ports.
A standalone concentrator provides a stable, low-cost alternative for small
work groups that do not require the fault recovery facility provided by the
dual-ring configuration.
FDDI SAS
S-port
M-portM-portM-port
FDDI SASFDDI SASFDDI SAS
S-portS-port
Figure 7-3Standalone Concentrator
The typical ring architecture of the FDDI network is less obvious in this
topology because it exists within the concentrator itself. For this reason, this
arrangement of stations is usually described as a tree, with the concentrator as
the root.
Advantages
S-port
M-port
Dual-Attached concentrator
To external ring
(optional)
A-portB-port
In the standalone concentrator configuration, individual stations have less
influence on the operation of the network, which is controlled by the
concentrator. Concentrators are inherently more stable than FDDI stations.
They do not have monitors, or disk drives, are subject to more predictable
72SunFDDI/P 1.0 AdapterUser’s Guide—May 1997
usage, and are less likely to be switched off. As a result, a standalone
concentrator provides a more reliable network than the basic dual-ring
configuration described on page 70.
Concentrators are equipped with built-in electrical bypass facilities that isolate
single-station faults. Unlike the station optical bypass facility described on
page 62, there is no limit to the number of stations that can be bypassed using
the electrical switches in concentrators.
The majority of stations attached to the concentrator are single-attached
stations; therefore, only one cable is required for each station.
More flexibility is allowed in the physical location and wiring configuration.
Since the stations do not have to be attached in any fixed order and all cables
return to a central concentrator, this configuration is useful at sites where FDDI
cable has already been installed.
The A- and B-ports on a concentrator can be used to connect it to an external
dual-ring configuration. This is a common configuration called the ring of trees,
which is discussed on page 77.
Disadvantages
7
The number of stations that can be attached to a single concentrator is limited
by the number of M-ports. This is typically in the 2 to 32 range.
The cost of a concentrator is significantly higher than that of a single-attached
or dual-attached station; however, there are some low cost concentrators
available that do not support all SMT management functions.
Although concentrators are more stable than FDDI stations, when the
concentrator goes down, the entire network goes down with it.
FDDI Network Topologies73
7
Concentrators with Dual-Homing
Figure 7-3 shows two dual-attached stations connected to two dual-attached
concentrators in a dual-homing configuration. In this case, each dual-attached
station is connected to both DACs. This topology is typically used for
connecting critical systems such as file and name servers.
FDDI DAS
B-port
M-portM-portM-portM-port
Dual-attached concentrator
A-port
A-port
Dual-attached concentrator
(primary)
B-portB-port
Figure 7-4Standalone Concentrator With Dual-Homing
FDDI DAS
B-port
(secondary)
A-port
A-port
Dual-homing provides two independent data paths for each dual-attached
station. Under normal conditions, the station communicates on its primary
path through the B-port. In the event of a cable or concentrator failure, the
station switches to the secondary path connected through the A-port.
Dual-homing is equivalent to the redundant single-attached station (RSAS)
configuration, which was supported by SunFDDI 2.0. In the RSAS
configuration, two single-attached interfaces are used to emulate a
dual-attached interface connected in a dual-homing configuration. RSAS is
not supported by SunFDDI/P 1.0.
74SunFDDI/P 1.0 AdapterUser’s Guide—May 1997
Loading...
+ hidden pages
You need points to download manuals.
1 point = 1 manual.
You can buy points or you can get point for every manual you upload.