[comp.os.vms] Life With A DECSA-FA. Subtitle = Problems With Networks And Gateways.

CLAYTON@XRT.UPENN.EDU ("Clayton, Paul D.") (09/29/87)

Information From TSO Financial - The Saga Continues...
Chapter 28 - September 21, 1987

Todd Warnock has asked the following about SNA Gateways and I have had 
enough horrors with mine that I felt another chapter should be dedicated
to mine.

	I'm interested in what type of problems (if any) people are having with
	DEC's SNA Gateway, what type of configuration(s) you are using, and what
	you are using the gateway for (have you written home-grown procedures 
	for file transfer ?)

The initial delivery of the product from DEC was covered in a past article so
will not be discussed here. 

We will start where it left off, that being the installation of the SNA Gateway
management software done by a group in DEC Boston known as 'ACS'. Our visitor 
from on high showed up after much weeping and nashing of teeth. The problem(s)
really started just PRIOR to her showing up. The rule as we found out, is that
the DECSA-FA box must be able to load the primary, secondary and tertiary 
loaders using DECnet BEFORE ACS sends anyone. Now our DECSA would load the
first two with a blink and whirl of lights on the seven segment display that
I talked of previously. When the third was to be as easily loaded, it was with
a rude display of 'L 40' in the display lights and concurrent 'Device time-out'
errors being printed to ALL consoles on the network (which consumed half a box
of paper when added altogether) that we found it would not load. Calls to our
local DEC Networking group where placed immediately as DEC had just installed,
verified and handed us the test results of the latest network expansion project.

DEC assured us it was not their network addition and that the test results 
proved all was well. When shown the DECSA, they shook their heads and walked
away mumbling. 

Now it has to be understood that TSO is a 7 day by 24 hour shop and that any
work on the network can ONLY be done after hours. The first available for minor
network tests is after 23:00 or Sunday. This horror starting on Monday left
23:00 as our only option. We assembled seven (7) DEC CE's from various groups
and various offices and tried different things. 

The problem boiled down to two Vitalink Bridges being blown away, one hardware 
the other software, due to a lightning storm. They were both on the same leg of 
the network. The blow out was unique in that the bridge remained in an 
operating state and worked as normal. The problem was that they were pumping out
a considerable number of MOP, 802 and Broadcast packets, which showed up
under Ethernim. These were replaced and the SNA Gateway was tried once again.

Success was ours, and it was repeatable. This got us thinking about network 
congestion and the impact to the Gateway. It was at this point that the local
DEC people HIGHLY recommended that a LANBridge 100 be placed in front of the 
Gateway so that the poor PDP 11/23 in the DECSA would not be swamped in 
decoding all the Ethernet packets. This soluion LACKS class. We are still 
puzzling about congestion and the Bridges problem with lightning. Since the
initial problem we have lost another to lightning.

Once the loaders got in, the ACS group came down and configured the software
and gave classes on how things work. The time was well spent and the lady 
knew what to do. Then we really had problems. The IBM system end was up and
down all the time and caused scheduling problems. 

At one point, the IBM system crashed and they said our SNA link did it to them
and that we were being disconnected till 23:00 that night for tests. Calls were
placed to ACS for support as this was only days after they installed the 
system. The response from the lady who did the installation was that all was
okay, but she had to check with her boss. Her boss said she only worked 9:00 to
5:00 and we were on our own. Nice attitude. Wish I had boss and job like that.

There was many conversations between the lady and our staff till 5:00 PM to 
get the steps that she would have done from home and we tried at 23:00. It 
turned out to be a problem on the IBM side. 

My problem here is the attitude of DEC to being a 9-5 shop. The REAL world is
not that way. This attitude, I have since found out, also extends into the 
realm of Field Service when performing MAJOR FCO updates but that is another 
story.

Overall, the problems with the Gateway have been limited to the congestion
on the network causing the Gateway to not load completely. Who knows what
tomorrow will bring.

As to what we do with our Gateway, it is for transfering several large files
between a data entry system on one IBM and company, to our VAX for printing
and updating, and forwarding some on to another IBM within a third company. I
love playing middle man to Little Blue.

Hope this helps shed some light on Gateways. :-)

Paul D. Clayton - Manager Of Systems
TSO Financial - Horsham, Pa. USA
Address - CLAYTON%XRT@CIS.UPENN.EDU