swanson@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu (Amy Swanson) (12/15/89)
Is there a way to tell which version of ethernet (Ethernet v.1 or v.2) your PI or Power Series machines are running? We are currently experiencing severe network problems orginating from our SGIs which we suspect are due to an incompatibility of the SGIs with the SQE (heartbeat) enabled/disabled on the ethernet transceivers. Thanks, Amy Amy Swanson SGI/Alliant Systems Administrator NCSA - National Center for Supercomputing Applications University of Illinois @ Urbana-Champaign amys@ncsa.uiuc.edu
stephen@mincom.OZ (Stephen Kirby) (12/18/89)
In article <8912142230.AA06853@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu>, swanson@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu (Amy Swanson) writes: > > Is there a way to tell which version of ethernet (Ethernet v.1 or v.2) your > PI or Power Series machines are running? We are currently experiencing severe > network problems orginating from our SGIs which we suspect are due to an > incompatibility of the SGIs with the SQE (heartbeat) enabled/disabled on the > ethernet transceivers. > > Amy Swanson > amys@ncsa.uiuc.edu We have a IRIS 140 and our ethernet would slow then stop to the 140, if we ran on the integrated ethernet controller. We swapped to a VME controller and the ethernet has not failed. This problem only occurred on our 4 CPU 140. the PI's give no trouble. This problem occurred in IRIX 3.2 I have not tested it under IRIX 3.2.1. Stephen Kirby MINCOM
vjs@rhyolite.wpd.sgi.com (Vernon Schryver) (12/19/89)
In article <8912142230.AA06853@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu>, swanson@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu (Amy Swanson) writes: > > Is there a way to tell which version of ethernet (Ethernet v.1 or v.2) your >PI or Power Series machines are running? We are currently experiencing severe > network problems orginating from our SGIs which we suspect are due to an > incompatibility of the SGIs with the SQE (heartbeat) enabled/disabled on the > ethernet transceivers. > > Amy Swanson > amys@ncsa.uiuc.edu As I recall, none of our drivers care whether heartbeat or SQE is present or absent. At one time, in what seems like ancient times, I committed an error which made unexpectedly present (or was it absent?) SQE increment the transmit error count by one for each packet transmitted on the VME board. I think this error was correct by 3.2, if not before. I figured it out at the Connectathon before last. Please note that SQE/heartbeat generally does not matter. Whether it is present or absent, you will get the same number of collisions, runt packets, bad CRC's, and so forth. Recall that SQE occurs in the dead time between packets. I have heard that putting an 802.3 transceiver (and so with SQE) upstream of some multi-port mux's can make some machines unhappy. Some (or many?) mux's send the SQE to all connected machines, not just the one which just transmitted, and some computers do not like "collision detect" (which is what SQE is) coming out of the blue. I do not think IRIS's care. In article <294@mincom.OZ>, stephen@mincom.OZ (Stephen Kirby) writes: > We have a IRIS 140 and our ethernet would slow then stop to the 140, if > we ran on the integrated ethernet controller. We swapped to a VME > controller and the ethernet has not failed. This problem only occurred > on our 4 CPU 140. the PI's give no trouble. This problem occurred in > IRIX 3.2 I have not tested it under IRIX 3.2.1. > Stephen Kirby > MINCOM The current built-in ethernet hardware on the PI and the IRIS-4D 1xx is similar, based on AMD 7990's. One difference between v.1 and v.2 is in the quiesent voltage. An ethernet that is not overly healthy can make a mismatch between v.1 and v.2/802.3 between host and transciever trash packets and so forth. I think we are may still be shipping the VME board jumpered for v.1, while the PI and MP systems are now set for v.2/802.3. (sigh) Almost all of the field problems I have heard of to date have been caused by dirty ethernets. If you see "late collision" messages or non-zero error counts from `netstat -i`, your ethernet is more or less broken. The higher layer protocols are amazingly resistent to lost or damaged ethernet packets. You can loose a large fraction, and never notice anything but many complaints from the ethernet driver(s), and reduced performance. A good ethernet will have 0 (!) "Ierrs" and "Oerrs" and no more than .15 as many "Coll" as "Opkts" reported by `netstat -i`. Vernon Schryver Silicon Graphics vjs@sgi.com
henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (12/20/89)
In article <46547@sgi.sgi.com> vjs@rhyolite.wpd.sgi.com (Vernon Schryver) writes: >... I think we are >may still be shipping the VME board jumpered for v.1... An interesting combo, since you ship them with Cabletron transceivers which are v.2! Would it be too much to ask for details on the jumpering so it can be checked? (Hardware documentation? From SGI? Perish the thought.) -- 1755 EST, Dec 14, 1972: human | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology exploration of space terminates| uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu