snms4@vaxb.acs.unt.edu (03/12/91)
We're having a bear of a problem routing Novell with a Cisco
router.
We have a Cisco AGS+ running 8.1(21). I've been unsuccessful
at getting Novell IPX to route between E0 and E6 (or any
other interfaces, for that matter). Both have been set to
novell-encapsulaion ARPA, both have been given the right
Novell (XNS) network numbers, and I've even tried XNS access
lists, Novell helper lists and helper addressees to no avail.
Here's the problem. Normally the Novell network on E0 get's
it's RIP and SAP updates from a Netware 286 external
brid..uh.. router that routes between our campus wide (older)
IBM-PC Network backbone and their local Ethernet. This works
fine but slow.
When we have both the Cisco and the Novell router routing, we
get weird problems on both sides of the Cisco with SNA
Gateway problems, NACS problems, none of which we can
conclusively pin down to the Cisco. They happen without the
Cisco, but not as frequently.
When the Novell network on E0 is using the Cisco exclusively
to get to the rest of campus, an slist from a workstation on
the E0 side shows servers going up and down like a mad dog.
If I run a looping batch file to keep doing SLIST, I get 39
servers, 34, 30, 24, 28, 32, 38, 39, and so forth.
Both sides are doing ARPA encapsulation a la Ethernet II with
8137 typefield. Doing a sho servers at the AGS+ appears
consistent with no dissappearing servser, but servers on the
E0 side fade in and out to E6, and servers on the E6 side
fade in and out to E0.
The problem appears also in the output from debug
novell-sap. It's littered with the likes of "such and such"
DOWN when it really isn't.
(I've got a file with the debugging output and configuration
stuff in it if anyone's interested.)
That, in a nutshell (or rather a NETshell?) is the problem.
I've Cisco tech support on the phone for about a week with no
visible means of success. I've recently FTP'd a 4-5 meg
Sniffer capture of each Ethernet to Cisco in hopes that
they'll be able to figure something out from that.
1: Does anything come to mind?
2: I notice both our E0 and E6 interfaces have the same
MAC-level address. Is this normal?
3: Who else is doing Novell routing with Ciscos on Ethernets
with ARPA encapsulation?
4: Any other ideas that I can try?
r.s.v.p.
Please reply to me directly and I'll post to the net.
-Kevin Mullet
University of North Texas
snms4@vaxb.acs.unt.edu
unt-net@unt.edu
snms4@untvax.bitnet