background image

Planning 

47

Internetwork Packet Exchange

103-000176-001

August 29, 2001

Novell Confidential

Manual

99a

38

July 17, 2001

The request from the mobile client takes the shortest route to the server. The 
response from the server is first forwarded to the Home Router, because the 
destination address is the internal network configured for the server on which 
the Home Router resides. The router then patches the response with the mobile 
client's actual address and forwards the packet to the mobile client. In this 
topology, the response takes an inferior path to the mobile client because of 
the extra hops taken.

In general, you should install the Home Router in the middle of the network 
so that most clients are only a few hops away, as shown in 

Figure 8

. The Home 

Router should be located somewhere on the path between the file server and 
the mobile clients.

Figure 8

Better Home Router Positioning

Home

Router

Server 2

Router

Mobile Client

LAN 1

LAN 2

LAN 3

Access

Point

Server 1

Summary of Contents for NETWARE 6

Page 1: ...August 29 2001 Novell Confidential Internetwork Packet Exchange NetWare 6 INTERNETWORK PACKET EXCHANGE w w w n o v e l l c o m Novell ...

Page 2: ...d No part of this publication may be reproduced photocopied stored on a retrieval system or transmitted without the express written consent of the publisher U S Patent No 5 157 663 5 349 642 5 455 932 5 553 139 5 553 143 5 572 528 5 594 863 5 608 903 5 633 931 5 652 859 5 671 414 5 677 851 5 692 129 5 701 459 5 717 912 5 758 069 5 758 344 5 781 724 5 781 724 5 781 733 5 784 560 5 787 439 5 818 936...

Page 3: ...ore Protocol and NCP are trademarks of Novell Inc NetWare Loadable Module and NLM are trademarks of Novell Inc NetWare Mobile IPX is a trademark of Novell Inc NetWare MultiProtocol Router is a trademark of Novell Inc Novell is a registered trademark of Novell Inc in the United States and other countries Novell Client is a trademark of Novell Inc Novell Directory Services and NDS are registered tra...

Page 4: ...Internetwork Packet Exchange 103 000176 001 August 29 2001 Novell Confidential Manual 99a38 July 17 2001 ...

Page 5: ...s 24 Call Types 25 Permanent Calls 25 On Demand Calls 25 Routed On Demand Calls 26 Routing Types 27 Static Routes and Services 28 Watchdog Packet Spoofing 30 Header Compression 31 Compression Slots 32 Compression Packet Types 33 IPX Route Aggregation 34 Introducing Aggregated Routes into NLSP 35 Consistent Use of Routers that Support Route Aggregation 36 Interaction with SAP 36 Metrics Used with A...

Page 6: ...e 76 Configuring RIP and SAP 77 How to Configure RIP 78 How to Configure SAP 80 Accepting and Advertising Services from a Network Not Listed in the Routing Information Table 82 Proxying a NetWare File Server 84 How to Proxy a NetWare File Server 84 How to Check the Proxy Configuration 85 Configuring the IPX Address Mapping Gateway 86 Configuring IPX Route Aggregation 88 Controlling the Propagation...

Page 7: ...ate System IDs 118 Determining Where NLSP Is Running in Your Network 119 Finding NLSP Routers with Insufficient Memory 119 Finding the Designated Router on a LAN 120 Monitoring Error Counters 121 Viewing the MacIPX Gateway Configuration 122 Viewing MacIPX Gateway Statistics 122 5 Troubleshooting 125 Troubleshooting Tools 125 IPXCON 125 System Console Commands 126 Configuration Tips 127 Troubleshoo...

Page 8: ...d 141 No Communication Occurs between Two Networks 142 Services Are Inaccessible in the Area 143 Number of Routes and Services on a System Shows Local Connectivity Only 144 Services or Routes are Fluctuating Excessively 145 Heavy Network Layer Traffic Occurs on a Point to Point Link 146 Applications Perform Poorly 147 CALLMGR Shows an IPX Circuit but IPXCON Does Not 149 Many Systems Are Entering a...

Page 9: ...addition to planning information this guide provides troubleshooting tips techniques and tools as well as the symptoms of and solutions to commonly occurring problems for the IPX components of Novell Internet Access Server 4 1 Documentation Conventions In this documentation a greater than symbol is used to separate actions within a step and items in a cross reference path Also a trademark symbol T...

Page 10: ...10 Internetwork Packet Exchange Internetwork Packet Exchange 103 000176 001 August 29 2001 Novell Confidential Manual 99a38 July 17 2001 ...

Page 11: ...n Protocol RIP Service Advertising Protocol SAP and NetWare Link Services ProtocolTM NLSPTM protocols provide the means by which routers gather routing and service information and share it with other routers on an internetwork Although the NetWare Core ProtocolTM NCPTM software does not play a direct role in routing it does provide session control and packet level error checking between NetWare wo...

Page 12: ... is established Thus IPX packets are addressed and sent to their destinations but there is no guarantee or verification of successful delivery Any packet acknowledgment or connection control is provided by protocols above IPX such as SPX Datagram means that each packet is treated as an individual entity having no logical or sequential relation to any other packet As shown in Figure 1 IPX operates ...

Page 13: ...s the header of a higher level protocol such as SPX The minimum IPX packet size excluding the MAC header is 30 bytes IPX header only Historically the maximum size of routed IPX packets has been 576 bytes IPX header and data Until recently all routed IPX packets were between 30 and 576 bytes However the IPX protocol has always allowed packet sizes up to 65 535 bytes NOTE Media constraints typically...

Page 14: ...ber of routers a packet has traversed on the way to its destination IMPORTANT On a traditional RIP based IPX router IPX packets whose Transport Control field reaches a value of 16 are discarded With NLSP an IPX packet can travel up to 127 hops to reach its destination You make this possible by setting the Hop Count Limit parameter from the Novell Internet Access Server Configuration utility NIASCF...

Page 15: ... SAP Get Nearest Server and RIP Get Local Target or Route Request broadcast requests at initialization time Because the workstation does not yet know which network it belongs to it sets both the Source Network and Destination Network fields to 0 for these requests When a router receives one of these requests it sends a reply directly to the sending workstation filling in the Source Network and Des...

Page 16: ...ched If a sending node sets this field to zero the local network to which the source is connected is unknown For routers the rules that apply to the Destination Network field also apply to the Source Network field except that routers can propagate packets that were received with this field set to zero Source Node Physical address of the source node Broadcast addresses are not allowed Source Socket...

Page 17: ... destination network node or socket The network number is used only for Network layer operations namely routing The node number is used for local or same segment packet transmission The socket number directs a packet to a process operating within a node For more information about each address component refer to Network Number on page 17 Node Number on page 19 Socket Number on page 20 Network Numbe...

Page 18: ...utes request between NetWare routers If a router receives a packet whose destination network number is FFFFFFFF it sends all the routes it knows about to the requesting router 0xFFFFFFFE Represents the default route This is an advertised destination to which IPX packets with unknown destination networks are forwarded With NetWare routing software a router that receives an IPX packet with an unknow...

Page 19: ...er interface Consider a NetWare 2 server with connections to two networks The server advertises its services through the primary interface attached to one of the networks If that interface fails workstations attached to the server through the second network might not be able to log in to the server Node Number The node number is the 6 byte hexadecimal address that identifies a device on an IPX net...

Page 20: ... addressed to that socket are passed to the process Socket numbers provide a quick method of routing packets within a node Table 2 lists some socket numbers and processes used in the NetWare environment Table 2 NetWare Socket Numbers and Processes Socket numbers between 0x4000 and 0x7FFF are dynamic sockets these are used by workstations to communicate with file servers and other network devices S...

Page 21: ...rkstation must first find a router on its own segment that can forward packets to the segment on which the destination workstation resides To find this router the sending workstation broadcasts a RIP packet requesting the fastest route to the destination segment The router on the sending segment with the shortest path to the destination segment responds to the request In its response the router in...

Page 22: ...Packet Type field Note that if the packet type is 20 0x14 NetBIOS the packet is handled as follows a The router examines the Transport Control field of the IPX header If this value is 8 or greater the router discards the packet Propagation of a NetBIOS packet is limited to eight networks b The router compares each network number entry in the packet to the network number of the segment on which the...

Page 23: ... own node address in the Source Address field of the MAC header 3 The router increments the Transport Control field of the IPX header and forwards the packet to the destination node segment IMPORTANT If the Transport Control field equals the maximum allowed hop count before the field is incremented the router discards the packet For RIP routers the hop count limit is 16 for NLSP routers this limit...

Page 24: ...up Manual Established between the local router and the call destination by a user from the Call Manager utility CALLMGR Data initiated Established when the local router needs to send data to the remote router represented by the WAN call destination This connection method is characteristic of on demand calls which are described in the following section After a WAN connection is established the rout...

Page 25: ...R If a permanent call fails IPXRTR tries to reestablish the connection IPX routing and service information crosses permanent calls as required by the operative routing service protocol which can be RIP SAP or NLSP If you do not want routing and service traffic to cross a permanent call link the routing software enables you to configure static routes and services on each router This is typically ho...

Page 26: ...ices made known by the routing protocol become unavailable If no data crosses the link after some period of time a Data Link layer timer triggers the termination of an on demand call However the routing protocol running over a routed on demand call resets this timer each time it transmits a packet This keeps the link continuously active To solve this problem the routing software uses a similar tim...

Page 27: ...an IPX network number Unnumbered RIP Uses RIP and SAP to exchange routing and service information over the connection but requires no IPX network number Numbered RIP Also uses RIP and SAP to exchange routing and service information over the connection but does require an IPX network number On Demand Uses no active routing or service advertising protocol but rather a set of static routes and servic...

Page 28: ...dynamically by SAP A static service comprises a WAN call destination the service name and type the service address network node and socket and the service metrics hops and ticks to reach the destination advertising the service With the routing software you can configure static routes and services for both permanent and on demand calls When used with permanent calls static routes and services are u...

Page 29: ...n office router MAIN_OFFICE_RTR must keep track of only a few networks and services from each branch office This is significantly better than being flooded with potentially thousands of extra routes and services that are of no use to the main office network BRANCH_01_RTR 10000000 000000000001 0451 File Service SAP Service Type 4 NetWare Workstation Network 10000001 Main Office Accounting Server Na...

Page 30: ...t for some period of time the default is 5 minutes the server sends a watchdog query packet to the workstation If the workstation does not reply with a watchdog response packet after 5 minutes the server sends additional queries at specified intervals until 15 minutes have elapsed If the workstation still has not replied the server terminates the connection With several workstations operating over...

Page 31: ...s over low speed serial lines except for NCP packets using the Packet Burst protocol An IPX packet header is 30 bytes and is typically followed by an upper layer protocol header such as an SPX header Header compression reduces the size of this combined packet header to just a few bytes Header compression is negotiated by the IPXWAN protocol when a call is established over any WAN connection type H...

Page 32: ...compression slots are allocated for the number of different style packets crossing the connection the values in the following IPXCON counters become large Initialization Packets Sent Initialization Packets Received Uncompressed Packets Sent Uncompressed Packets Received The compression algorithm is running efficiently if the number of compressed packets sent is significantly higher than the values...

Page 33: ...hanged on a connection in the Uncompressed Packets Sent and Uncompressed Packets Received counters Compressed packet A compressed IPX or NCP packet Compressed packets do not contain the standard packet header Instead they contain the number of a compression slot on the receiving router This slot contains the information necessary for the compression algorithm to decompress the packet header before...

Page 34: ... summarized form Route aggregation compactly describes many IPX network numbers simultaneously by using an address and mask pair For example all addresses from C9000000 to C9FFFFFF can be represented using the address C9000000 and the mask FF000000 FigureFigure 5 on page 34 shows a typical topology for using route aggregation a backbone network with several RIP areas attached In FigureFigure 5 on ...

Page 35: ...s to the interface Aggregated routes are learned from RIP An address summary can be configured for a link but unless at least one address matches the address summary as learned through RIP the summary is not reported For example if a router is configured with address summaries 572 and 5729 on a link running RIP and learns from that link that the destination 57285489 is reachable and that no other ...

Page 36: ...SAP is accepted provided a packet can be forwarded to the corresponding network number A packet can be forwarded when there is a default route and address summary or when there is an explicit advertisement of that network number This feature is disabled by default It can be enabled by entering the following command after IPXRTR NLM has been loaded SET REQUIRED NETWORK FOR SERVICES ON Metrics Used ...

Page 37: ...many network numbers to a single number outside the local network This capability greatly reduces the number of networks that must be advertised throughout the global internetwork The security of the local intranet is enhanced because local networks are not advertised throughout the global internetwork In Figure 6 on page 38 any packets generated from the client on the customer network for the bac...

Page 38: ...ation the IAMG is designed to allow the gateways to run in parallel In this automatic mode of operation some packets might be lost during the learn cycle When the gateway that created the mapping receives the forwarded data packets from the backbone an update reporting the mapping is returned to the gateway that initially received the packet Because more packets probably will follow the gateway le...

Page 39: ...with IEEE token ring addresses It is also possible for IEEE Ethernet node addresses to conflict with IEEE token ring addresses even though the IEEE assigned addresses are different You can avoid conflicts by taking the following precautions Use command line switches to load the LAN drivers on the conflicting segments with the opposite canonical order for the MAC addresses Use a different LAN card ...

Page 40: ...40 Internetwork Packet Exchange Internetwork Packet Exchange 103 000176 001 August 29 2001 Novell Confidential Manual 99a38 July 17 2001 ...

Page 41: ...rwarding on a NetWare file server This is useful when you have more than one NetWare system connecting two or more LANs and you want to free one of the systems from the task of forwarding that is routing IPX packets between the LANs To turn off IPX packet forwarding refer to Turning Off IPX Packet Forwarding on page 51 If you have WAN connections whether to configure any of the following Static ro...

Page 42: ...re is the Novell link state routing protocol for IPX internetworks Routing Information Protocol RIP and Service Advertising Protocol SAP are the traditional NetWare routing and service advertising protocols To configure NLSP on your router refer to Configuring NLSP on page 72 To configure RIP and SAP on your router refer to Configuring RIP and SAP on page 77 Whether to configure file server proxyi...

Page 43: ...ide the local network To use the IPX Address Mapping Gateway refer to Configuring the IPX Address Mapping Gateway on page 86 Whether to use IPX Route Aggregation IPX Route Aggregation allows your router to compactly report many IPX networks to a connecting backbone network IPX Route Aggregation is most useful when several RIP networks are attached to an NLSP backbone network Information in the bac...

Page 44: ...tes refer to Balancing Traffic Loads over Equal Cost Routes on page 92 Whether to configure SPX connection parameters Some NetWare applications have specific requirements for Sequenced Packet ExchangeTM SPXTM connection timeouts retry counts and so on If any of these applications are used on your network you might need to configure certain SPX parameters to enable these applications to run properl...

Page 45: ...fficient Use of Your Mobile Client Planning ahead and knowing the appropriate ways to use NetWare Mobile IPX will help you to use your mobile client efficiently We recommend that you do the following Disable background products such as E mail that poll the network Use only data from the network Keep your executable files on the mobile client Complete operations such as saving files before removing...

Page 46: ...e client travels more hops than necessary before arriving at the destination as shown in Figure 7 Figure 7 Inferior Home Router Placement Home Router Mobile Client Server Mobile client request to server Server response to mobile client through Home Router Request Response Router Redirected server response to mobile client Router LAN 1 LAN 2 LAN 3 Access Point ...

Page 47: ... then patches the response with the mobile client s actual address and forwards the packet to the mobile client In this topology the response takes an inferior path to the mobile client because of the extra hops taken In general you should install the Home Router in the middle of the network so that most clients are only a few hops away as shown in Figure 8 The Home Router should be located somewh...

Page 48: ...ient Figure 9 Best Home Router Positioning HINT We recommend having a Home Router in each operating area For example in a large corporation you should have a Home Router in marketing finance manufacturing and so on This enables mobile client users to connect to a preferred Home Router If the server and mobile clients are located on one side of a WAN link and the Home Router is on the other side of...

Page 49: ...ORTANT When a mobile client is transferred between the two sites over the WAN and not restarted the client still uses the original Home Router for communications crossing the WAN if necessary until the mobile client is restarted Router Mobile Client 2 Access Point Server 2 Router Home Router 1 WAN Link Server 1 Home Router 2 Server 3 Access Point Mobile Client 1 Router ...

Page 50: ...50 Internetwork Packet Exchange Internetwork Packet Exchange 103 000176 001 August 29 2001 Novell Confidential Manual 99a38 July 17 2001 ...

Page 51: ...ces available for file and print services A server with IPX packet forwarding disabled still operates as a file server but broadcasts only its own services and internal network number not those associated with its network interfaces A server operating in this way is sometimes called a multihomed server Although a multihomed server does not reply to routing requests from NetWare workstations it sti...

Page 52: ...services refer to your NetWare documentation How to Turn Off IPX Packet Forwarding Before you begin you must have at least two NetWare servers or one NetWare server and a dedicated router on the same IPX network To turn off IPX packet forwarding complete the following steps 1 Load NIASCFG then select the following parameter path Select Configure NIAS Protocols and Routing Protocols IPX 2 The Packe...

Page 53: ...e other end On demand calls are well suited for connections that use expensive telecommunications carriers and for slow links over which it is undesirable to send routing and service traffic For more information about permanent and on demand calls refer to Call Types on page 25 You can configure static routes and services with the following utilities NIASCFG With NIASCFG you must configure all rou...

Page 54: ... the networks or hosts that you want to access Then set up a WAN call destination on each router to the router at the other end of the connection WARNING When setting up a call destination be sure you set the Remote System ID parameter to the server name of the system initiating the inbound call The local system checks each inbound call against the remote system ID Configuring Static Routes To con...

Page 55: ...ls and Routing Bindings a WAN interface WAN Call Destinations 2 Select a WAN call destination from the list or press Ins to choose from a list of available call destinations 3 Select Static Services A new screen displays any configured static services 4 Press Ins then enter the following information Service Name Name of the service to be accessed through the on demand call This name which is typic...

Page 56: ...p 5 Press Esc and save your changes 6 Press Esc to return to the Internetworking Configuration menu 7 If you want these changes to take effect immediately select Reinitialize System If you want to configure other parameters do so now then reinitialize the system when you are finished Configuring Static Routes and Services with STATICON STATICON provides a fast and error free way to configure stati...

Page 57: ...l router through IPX SNMP requests Menu Option Description Dynamically Configure Static Routing Tables Opens an on demand call to the remote router and allows you to edit the local and remote configurations using dynamically obtained selection lists Configure Services from Gatekeepers Opens an on demand call to obtain a list of services available from a gatekeeper and allows you to select the serv...

Page 58: ... and Services on page 62 Checking Write Access on the Remote Router For STATICON to configure a remote router s routing and service tables it must support IPX SNMP and the IPX MIB variables and have SNMP write access to the router If the remote router is running Novell Internet Access Server 4 1 specifying a Control Community from NIASCFG enables write access To check write access complete the fol...

Page 59: ...nconfigured static route to the internal network on the other side of the WAN link This automatic static route ensures a route across the link in case normal RIP filtering might prevent such a route It must not be deleted 3 Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to select the WAN call destination associated with the remote router 4 If the Status field associated with the call reads Not Connected pres...

Page 60: ...emote router s table The list shows only the routes and services that are not already present in the local router s table 9b Mark the routes or services you want to add to the local routing table Use the following keys to mark your selections F5 Marks the current entry Tab Marks all entries that have the same network number as the currently highlighted entry F6 Lets you use wildcard characters and...

Page 61: ...le Use the following keys to mark your selections F5 Marks the current entry Tab Marks all entries that have the same network number as the currently highlighted entry F6 Lets you use wildcard characters and to select entries If you use F6 the Select Wild Card Marking Option screen appears You can select Match Service Names or Match Network Numbers After you make a selection the Enter Pattern for ...

Page 62: ...e configuration The following message appears after the configuration is saved to disk Writing static routing tables for this call to permanent storage completed successfully in router router_name Press ENTER to continue 13 Press Enter then press Esc until you return to the Select Configuration Method menu 14 Exit STATICON Automatically Configuring Static Routes and Services Configuring static rou...

Page 63: ...l minutes if you are working over a large network or slow link The following message appears when the exchange is complete Autoconfiguration of Routing Tables between local and remote Routers completed successfully Press ENTER to continue 9 Press Enter STATICON allows you to choose whether to save the static configuration to disk now or try the configuration first If you want to save the configura...

Page 64: ...in its bindery Novell s equivalent of a telephone book Using STATICON you can obtain a list of services available from a gatekeeper and select the required services for advertisement by your local router For more information about gatekeepers and binderies refer to Static Routes and Services on page 28 To configure services for a gatekeeper complete the following steps 1 Load STATICON 2 Select Con...

Page 65: ...n Option For This Call screen then select Write Static Routing Tables to Permanent Storage If you have collected gatekeeper information for multiple WAN calls press Esc to return to the STATICON main menu then select Write Static Routing Tables to Permanent Storage 14 If necessary press Esc to return to the Select Configuration Method menu Exit STATICON Configuring Watchdog Spoofing When several w...

Page 66: ... 2 Select On Demand Spoofing press Enter then select Disabled 3 Press Esc and save your change 4 Press Esc to return to the Internetworking Configuration menu 5 If you want this change to take effect immediately select Reinitialize System If you want to configure other parameters do so now then reinitialize the system when you are finished How to Configure Watchdog Spoofing for Call Destinations B...

Page 67: ...or each WAN call destination Unlike the standard on demand call which relies on statically configured routes and services at each end of a point to point connection a routed on demand call runs a routing protocol while the link is active When the link goes down the routes and services made known by the routing protocol become unavailable Typically a Data Link layer timer triggers the termination o...

Page 68: ...he following steps 1 Load NIASCFG then select the following parameter path Select Configure NIAS Protocols and Routing Bindings 2 Select an on demand call If you are modifying an on demand call that has already been configured select one from the list If you are configuring a new on demand call press Ins and choose a call from the list of available calls The WAN Call Destination Entry screen is di...

Page 69: ... Press Esc and save your changes 7 Press Esc to return to the Internetworking Configuration menu 8 If you want these changes to take effect immediately select Reinitialize System If you want to configure other parameters do so now then reinitialize the system when you are finished Configuring IPX and NCP Header Compression Header compression increases the throughput of IPX and NCP packets over low...

Page 70: ...s at each end of the connection must have header compression enabled and must allocate the same number of header compression slots If the number of compression slots is different on each router IPXWAN selects the lesser of the two This topic contains the following sections How to Configure IPX and NCP Header Compression on an Interface on page 70 How to Configure IPX and NCP Header Compression per...

Page 71: ...en you are finished How to Configure IPX and NCP Header Compression per Call Destination By default header compression is enabled for all WAN connections To configure header compression for a particular WAN call destination complete the following steps 1 Load NIASCFG then select the following parameter path Select Configure NIAS Protocols and Routing Bindings a WAN interface WAN Call Destinations ...

Page 72: ...ng traditionally employed by NetWare servers Unlike RIP and SAP which periodically broadcast routing and service information respectively NLSP transmits routing information only when a change occurs in a route or service somewhere in the network or every two hours whichever occurs first Because NLSP generates fewer routing updates than RIP and SAP it uses less network bandwidth to maintain its rou...

Page 73: ... have another numbering scheme in place with which you can reliably track and manage the NLSP routers on your network If you must change a router s system ID use another unique number such as the physical address of one of the router s network interface boards Using a default cost value based on media throughput NLSP chooses the best route by which to forward IPX packets Novell Internet Access Ser...

Page 74: ...ure NLSP on page 74 How to Change the LSP Size on page 76 How to Configure NLSP If you implement NLSP throughout a large IPX internetwork or even if you want to configure NLSP on just a few routers or servers refer to NLSP Migration for information about planning your implementation of NLSP To configure NLSP on the router complete the following steps 1 Load NIASCFG then select the following parame...

Page 75: ...change them only for a specific purpose Misconfiguring these parameters can increase routing traffic or cause loss of connectivity on your network MTU Override Overrides the Maximum Transmission Unit MTU of the network medium to which this interface is connected All outbound packets on this interface use the value you enter The default value is 0 which means use the MTU of the network medium For e...

Page 76: ...arger than the largest frame size supported by the network less 30 bytes for the IPX header For example an ARCnet LAN can transmit no more than 576 bytes at a time If you leave LSP Size at the default value of 1024 the LSP cannot be transmitted across the LAN because it is too large The result is that the network is prevented from converging Before you begin you should know the maximum frame size ...

Page 77: ...tune the operation of RIP and SAP on your router However the default values for these parameters are sufficient for most IPX networks and should be changed only on the advice of your technical support representative A misconfiguration can cause the router to lose routes and services or even generate more traffic than usual When configuring RIP on an interface you can set the RIP State parameter to...

Page 78: ... the following sections How to Configure RIP on page 78 How to Configure SAP on page 80 Accepting and Advertising Services from a Network Not Listed in the Routing Information Table on page 82 How to Configure RIP To configure RIP complete the following steps 1 Load NIASCFG then select the following parameter path Select Configure NIAS Protocols and Routing Protocols IPX 2 Select Routing Protocol ...

Page 79: ... Periodic Update Interval Aging Interval Multiplier Controls how long the router keeps route information received through this interface The product of this parameter and the RIP Periodic Update Interval specifies how long the router keeps route information from periodic RIP updates received through an interface Increasing the Aging Interval Multiplier slows the rate at which the router ages the r...

Page 80: ...e SAP complete the following steps 1 Load NIASCFG then select the following parameter path Select Configure NIAS Protocols and Routing Protocols IPX 2 Select Routing Protocol then select RIP SAP Only 3 Press Esc to return to the Internetworking Configuration menu then select the following path Select Bindings a network interface Expert Bind Options SAP Bind Options 4 Select SAP State If you want t...

Page 81: ...gnore Ignore Get Nearest Server requests received through this interface Accept Accept Get Nearest Server requests received through this interface Periodic Update Interval Measured in 30 second units determines the interval at which SAP packets are transmitted through this interface The default value is 2 60 seconds Each router on the network segment to which this router is attached must use the s...

Page 82: ...to the Internetworking Configuration menu 8 If you want these changes to take effect immediately select Reinitialize System If you want to configure other parameters do so now then reinitialize the system when you are finished Accepting and Advertising Services from a Network Not Listed in the Routing Information Table Novell Internet Access Server 4 1 routing software includes a SET command that ...

Page 83: ...does not find the network number it discards the packet This function occurs if the following command has been entered at the LAN router SET REQUIRED NETWORK FOR SERVICES ON This function is disabled by default However if this function has been enabled by the preceding command it can be disabled by entering the following command SET REQUIRED NETWORK FOR SERVICES OFF If the previous command has bee...

Page 84: ... connection requests from the workstations A dedicated router always replies to Get Nearest Server requests As a proxy the router still replies but gives the proxy name rather than its own In fact the router replies with the server name even if the server is not active In addition to having a server proxy on the network each NetWare workstation should be configured with a preferred server This top...

Page 85: ...ant these changes to take effect immediately select Reinitialize System If you want to configure other parameters do so now then reinitialize the system when you are finished How to Check the Proxy Configuration To make sure the router is proxying for the correct file server complete the following steps 1 At the router console prompt enter TRACK ON 2 Display the SAP Tracking screen 3 Restart one o...

Page 86: ...e advertised by the IPX Address Mapping Gateway The SAP name is used by other gateways to locate gateways that use the same address mapping network number when a packet with an unknown reverse mapping is received 4 Configure the following parameters as needed To configure the maximum number of address mappings that is allocated during router initialization select Maximum Address Mapping Entries an...

Page 87: ...s with matching SAP types After finding all matching SAP types the IPX Address Mapping Gateway determines the network numbers on which the services are found and applies those network numbers to the list of nonmappable networks This option makes configuring nonmappable network numbers easier For example all packets originating from the Novell Directory ServicesTM NDSTM software or NetWare Mobile I...

Page 88: ...r the prefix for the network addresses to be aggregated For example any network beginning with C9 such as C9123829 or C9823878 can be aggregated using the address summary C9000000 with a mask of FF000000 2b Select Mask and enter a number with Fs for the part of the mask that corresponds to the common prefix of all network addresses to be aggregated and 0s for the rest of the mask For example to su...

Page 89: ...outer propagates type 20 packets only through interfaces that do not lead back to the source of the packets For example if Router A receives a type 20 packet from Router B Router A forwards the packet only through interfaces that do not lead back to Router B This is a packet forwarding mechanism known as reverse path forwarding The router does not propagate type 20 packets through the same interfa...

Page 90: ...nfiguration menu 5 If you want this change to take effect immediately select Reinitialize System If you want to configure other parameters do so now then reinitialize the system when you are finished Changing the Hop Count Limit for IPX Packets The Novell Internet Access Server 4 1 routing software enables you to increase the range of outbound IPX packets with the Hop Count Limit parameter The hop...

Page 91: ...o Chapter 1 Understanding on page 11 How to Change the Hop Count Limit To change the hop count limit complete the following steps 1 Load NIASCFG then select the following parameter path Select Configure NIAS Protocols and Routing Protocols IPX Expert Configuration Options 2 Select the Hop Count Limit parameter enter a value between 8 and 127 then press Enter 3 Press Esc and save your changes 4 Pre...

Page 92: ...nge and Default Cost of Typical Network Media You can specify up to eight equal cost routes to a single destination with the Maximum Number of Path Splits parameter Two routes are equal in cost if the cost to the destination is the same for both routes To equalize the costs of two interfaces you set their Cost Override parameter to the same value By default Cost Override is set to 0 for all interf...

Page 93: ...ic Loads over Equal Cost Routes Before you begin make sure of the following NLSP is enabled on all interfaces you plan to configure To enable NLSP globally or on one or more interfaces refer to How to Configure NLSP on page 74 The media over which you plan to configure equal cost routes have the same or similar throughput ranges For a list of throughput ranges and associated media refer to Table 4...

Page 94: ...SCFG enables you to adjust the values of the following parameters Maximum IPX Socket Table Size Maximum number of concurrent IPX sockets that can be opened by an application SPX Watchdog Abort Timeout Time in ticks about 1 18 of a second SPX waits without receiving a packet from the other end of a connection before concluding that the connection is no longer valid SPX Watchdog Verify Timeout Time ...

Page 95: ...s change to take effect immediately select Reinitialize System If you want to configure other parameters do so now then reinitialize the system when you are finished Setting Delay and Throughput for a Slow Link Delay is the time in microseconds to send a byte of information from one system to another Throughput is the bandwidth of the network medium that connects the systems Together these paramet...

Page 96: ... enable the workstations to communicate with the router and the systems in the IPX internetwork on the other end of the link you set the Throughput Override on each router to 56 000 the throughput of the satellite link and the Delay Override to 800 000 an arbitrary but sufficiently high value to prevent timeouts over the link IMPORTANT Although this configuration enables systems on each end of the...

Page 97: ...set to 0 which means the router uses the value reported by the LAN driver or estimated by IPXWAN The valid range is from 300 to 4 294 967 295 bps The value you enter overrides the default throughput for this interface 4 Press Esc and save your changes 5 Press Esc to return to the Internetworking Configuration menu 6 If you want these changes to take effect immediately select Reinitialize System If...

Page 98: ...en select the following parameter path Select Configure NIAS Protocols and Routing Protocols IPX 2 Select Mobile IPX Support then select Enabled NOTE Selecting Enabled automatically causes client validation on remote access servers to be disabled Remote access systems check whether packets received from a WAN client have the same source IPX node address that was assigned to the client during the I...

Page 99: ...g directed at mobile clients or if a mobile client s application does not require broadcast select Discard By directing the Home Router to discard broadcast packets you reduce the amount of bandwidth used on the network 4 Press Esc to return to the Internetworking Configuration menu save your changes when prompted 5 If you want these changes to take effect immediately select Reinitialize System If...

Page 100: ...CHO OFF SET NWLANGUAGE ENGLISH CD NWCLIENT LSL driver IPXODI VLM ps server_name CD 2 Add the following changes indicated in bold in the order shown ECHO OFF SET NWLANGUAGE ENGLISH CD NWCLIENT LSL NESL driver IPXODI M VLM ps server_name CD NESL must be loaded for the mobile client to be activated NetWare Mobile IPX reacts to changes in the system such as location and the client s adapter board The ...

Page 101: ...how these parameters are used is provided in Example NET CFG File on page 105 Customizing Home Router Parameters The following parameters enable you to customize the interaction between a mobile client and its Home Router Preferred HR Home_Router_Name This command causes IPXODI to attempt to attach to the specified Home Router HR If the router does not exist or is not specified the Home Router clo...

Page 102: ... Live to a large value if the mobile client is out of network range for a long time While the time to live value is still active in the Home Router the router responds to server NCP watchdogs on behalf of the client so that client sessions do not time out while network connectivity is lost If this value is too small the Home Router stops serving the mobile client before it returns within network r...

Page 103: ...ink Driver Heading for the desired alternate board Alt Name Alternate_Driver_Name Alt Name specifies the name of the driver supporting the alternate board Alt Board Number Alternate_Board_Number Alt Board Number specifies the Link Support LayerTM LSLTM board number of the alternate board displayed when the driver loads The board number of a driver changes if there is a change in the order of MAC d...

Page 104: ...e primary driver is not loaded first If PCMCIA adapters are used and the card vendor s drivers are written to support card in card out events or driver initialization without the PCMCIA card inserted the PCMCIA cards need not be inserted into the system until network connectivity is needed Here is an example STARTNET BAT file that shows the load order of the primary driver alternate driver and IPX...

Page 105: ... ON VLM AUTO VLM MOBILE IPX PREFERRED HR Home_Router_Name ALT NAME Wireless2 ALT BOARD NUMBER 2 ALT FRAME ETHERNET_802 2 PROTOCOL IPX SPX WATCHDOGS OFF Configuring the MacIPX Gateway The Novell Internet Access Server 4 1 routing software includes MACIPXGW LAN a LAN driver that enables your router to operate as a gateway between Internetwork Packet Exchange IPX networks and Macintosh clients runnin...

Page 106: ... the networks use only the AppleTalk protocol family to connect Macintosh clients to the network From a user perspective the MacIPX gateway is required only for Macintosh users who select the AppleTalk icon in the MacIPX Control Panel If all Macintosh users select either the Ethernet or Token Ring icon and if IPX traffic is permitted on those networks then you do not need a MacIPX gateway MacIPX a...

Page 107: ...nfigure NIAS Protocols and Routing Boards Press Ins MACIPXGW 2 Configure the MACIPXGW driver 2a Select Board Name and assign a name to the gateway driver 2b Select Gateway Name and assign a name to the MacIPX gateway This name is used to advertise the MacIPX gateway on the AppleTalk network Because the name appears in the MacIPX Control Panel it should be one that users recognize easily If you do ...

Page 108: ...number of MacIPX clients 2d If you want to enter a note or comment about the gateway select Comment and enter the information 2e Press Esc to return to the Internetworking Configuration menu save your changes when prompted 3 Bind IPX to the gateway Binding IPX to the gateway causes the MacIPX Gateway icon to appear in the MacIPX Control Panel 3a Select the following parameter path Select Bindings ...

Page 109: ...y to serve all AppleTalk networks except those whose numbers are listed on the following lines include Directs the MacIPX gateway to serve only networks whose numbers are listed on the following lines this is the default mode if no keyword is specified The AppleTalk networks can appear as a number or range You specify additional network numbers or ranges by placing each network on its own line For...

Page 110: ...ice to selected AppleTalk networks complete the following steps 1 Use a DOS ACSII text editor to create a file called MACIPXGW DAT in the router s SYS SYSTEM directory 2 Place commands in the file using the following syntax exclude include net_number net_number 3 Save and close the file 4 To put your changes into effect enter UNLOAD MACIPXGW REINITIALIZE SYSTEM ...

Page 111: ...o monitor remote servers routers or network segments To launch IPXCON enter LOAD IPXCON at the system console prompt or load NIASCFG and follow this path Select View Status for NIAS Protocols and Routing IPX Protocol Stack You can use IPXCON to perform the following tasks Monitor and troubleshoot IPX routes and network segments throughout your IPX internetwork Display the status of any IPX router ...

Page 112: ...able 5 Table 5 IPXPING New Target Window After entering the network address node address and number of seconds to pause between pings press Esc to start sending request packets The sending node continues to send request packets and collect response time statistics until you press Esc again and exit IPXPING Request and reply packets use the same format each packet contains the standard IPX header T...

Page 113: ... Syntax IPXPING netaddr s size r repeat d delay c char All parameters except netaddr are optional If no parameters or an invalid parameter is entered help is displayed The parameters are case insensitive A minus sign can be used instead of a slash Parameters The netaddr parameter is the internal network address of the server to ping It is an eight digit hexadecimal value The server must support th...

Page 114: ...he program Otherwise IPXPING will wait until it receives a response Using the SPFCON Utility The SPFCON utility enables you to monitor Sequenced Packet ExchangeTM SPXTM spoofing statistics Spoofing is the process of preserving the transport end point connection by imitating keep alive packets and responding to watchdog request packets without passing this traffic across on demand WAN links Using S...

Page 115: ... NCP The Connections Window shows each connection s interface name source node destination node source ID and destination ID Spoofing Statistics Window The Spoofing Statistics Window displays the SPX and NCP spoofing statistics for a selected connection Table 6 describes the fields on this window that require explanation Table 6 Spoofing Statistics Fields Field Meaning Spoofing State Initial indic...

Page 116: ...e whether a remote router is reachable you can run an IPX Echo test To run an Echo test load IPXPING and perform the following steps 1 Specify the target router address in the Network field 2 Specify the target router node number in the Node field 3 Specify the number of seconds between each transmission in the Seconds to pause between pings field 4 Press Esc to begin transmitting IMPORTANT To run...

Page 117: ...s not routing for some reason This information can often help you locate a defective network interface To check your network for inactive routers load IPXCON and follow this path Select NLSP Information Routers IPXCON lists the NLSP routers known to the system you are monitoring Any router labeled Unreachable might either be down or have a defective network interface This labeling might also indic...

Page 118: ...work number One way in which this can occur is when a bridge connecting two LAN segments fails a condition known as a split LAN When the bridge fails each segment becomes a separate LAN but retains the same network number As a result routers forwarding packets to that network number see two destinations and simply choose the nearest one To check your network for duplicate network numbers load IPXC...

Page 119: ... Information LANs The Known LANs window displays the following information about each NetWare LAN of which the local system is aware Network Number External network number of the LAN Throughput Number of Mbps reported by the LAN board Delay Time in microseconds required for packets to reach the LAN If NLSP is importing RIP routes to a LAN the entry is labeled RIP Active If the entry is labeled Unr...

Page 120: ...s on the LAN Only broadcast LAN circuits have Designated Routers To find the NLSP Level 1 Designated Router on a LAN load IPXCON select a system and follow this path Select Circuits a broadcast circuit The Circuit Information window appears and displays the name type and state of each circuit The Circuit Information window displays among other information the name of the Designated Router and the ...

Page 121: ...cket Errors and interface specific errors To view these counters load MONITOR and follow this path Select LAN WAN Information interface you want to view By using PPPCON for WAN connections to view the following PPP counters Bad Address Fields Bad Control Fields Bad FCS Values Packets Too Long To view these counters load PPPCON and follow this path Select PPP Interfaces interface you want to view P...

Page 122: ...st threshold set at 1 AppleTalk nets this gateway is configured to serve 10 20 111 2222 2223 3333 3335 AppleTalk nodes registered for IPX broadcasts IPX node 0xffffffffffff Socket 0x452 10 238 1501 138 1502 168 Socket 0x453 The information in the preceding example includes the following items The unicast threshold The network numbers of all AppleTalk networks served by this gateway All AppleTalk n...

Page 123: ...P Packets with Unknown Options Number of AppleTalk packets received by the gateway that include unrecognized encapsulation demultiplexing options This indicates corrupted packets or incompatible client software Ensure that your network cabling is working correctly and that software on the Macintosh clients is compatible with this version of the MacIPX gateway Received DDP Packets with Wrong Type N...

Page 124: ...124 Internetwork Packet Exchange Internetwork Packet Exchange 103 000176 001 August 29 2001 Novell Confidential Manual 99a38 July 17 2001 ...

Page 125: ... help you isolate and resolve the problem If a problem with a specific symptom occurs refer to Common Problems on page 131 Troubleshooting Tools The IPX specific troubleshooting tools are explained in the following sections IPXCON on page 125 System Console Commands on page 126 IPXCON IPXCON is a NetWare Loadable ModuleTM NLMTM utility that provides access to statistics and information about the s...

Page 126: ...em console prompt that prove useful in troubleshooting IPX connection problems The following commands are examples DISPLAY SERVERS This command lists all known NetWare server names and the number of hops IPX routers that must be crossed to reach each server This information is similar to the information shown in the IPXCON forwarding table but it is less comprehensive than IPXCON DISPLAY NETWORKS ...

Page 127: ...k number even if you have configured a PPP unnumbered WAN link that connects two LANs Each WAN in the entire internetwork must have a unique internal internetwork number Troubleshooting Checkpoints Observe the procedures described in the following sections when you are configuring IPX or NLSP for the Novell Internet Access Server 4 1 routing software IPX Checkpoints on page 127 NLSP Checkpoints on...

Page 128: ...ion with RCONSOLE and check for any error messages indicating duplicate internal network numbers Typically if you can log in to a server but cannot establish a connection to the same server using RCONSOLE then the server is configured with a duplicate IPX address 3b Enable SAP on one of the interfaces in a router in the NLSP area Between SAP periodic updates you should see two routers or more if m...

Page 129: ...er then use that system 2 Check the forwarding table on both systems 2a If you are on the server or router representing network A then find network B in the forwarding table Load IPXCON parameter path Select Forwarding Display entire forwarding table 2b If network B is not displayed in the table then exit and enter the forwarding table until it appears 2c If network B still does not appear in the ...

Page 130: ...er If this is not the case and the router does not quickly acquire the downstream routes then the system probably has a software error in it Contact the router manufacturer s technical support for further assistance To help minimize problems like this you should purchase only NLSP certified routers 4 If connectivity loss occurs outside an NLSP area check each router in the end to end path for an e...

Page 131: ...tivity Verify that there are sufficient potential paths within each area Verify that all LANs are listed in the NLSP LANs table in IPXCON Verify that all NLSP routers are listed in the NLSP Routers table in IPXCON 2 Determine whether RIP is active Verify that the NLSP LANs window indicates that RIP packets are being absorbed Verify that the Circuits table indicates the state of any system Common P...

Page 132: ...ting Excessively page 145 Heavy Network Layer Traffic Occurs on a Point to Point Link page 146 Applications Perform Poorly page 147 CALLMGR Shows an IPX Circuit but IPXCON Does Not page 149 Single System Is Entering an Overloaded State page 149 Many Systems Are Entering an Overloaded State page 149 Connectivity Is Lost on Only One LAN page 150 NetWare Mobile IPX Client Loses Connectivity to the Se...

Page 133: ... numbers and both systems are in the same NLSP area resulting in a duplicate NLSP system ID A number of activities occur when this situation exists If router A and router B have the same system ID both routers attempt to assert that they own the system ID First router A issues LSPs that supersede router B s LSPs and purges any LSPs of router B that it does not have Then router B does the same to r...

Page 134: ...e running the NLSP decision process frequently Change the internal network number of one of the conflicting systems or remove one of the systems from the network immediately For information about how to find the malfunctioning node refer to IPX Connectivity Problems Duplicate ID or Network Number on page 129 Error Messages Are Displayed Duplicate ID or Network Number The console displays the follo...

Page 135: ...diately For information about how to find the malfunctioning node refer to IPX Connectivity Problems Duplicate ID or Network Number on page 129 Other Router Names Are Not Displayed If other router names do not display when the DISPLAY SERVERS command is used the NLSP Local Area Addresses might be different Load NIASCFG and select Configure NIAS Protocols and Routing Network Interfaces IPX IPX Expe...

Page 136: ...uter is receiving all the Hello packets from the system by comparing the packets sent to the packets received If you still cannot determine the problem with the system and if you have the routing software located on the LAN then load IPXPING at the console prompt Set the PING send rate to zero and check to determine whether packets are being dropped A packet dropped every once in a while should no...

Page 137: ...he system load In this case increase the processor power of the system that is dropping packets or reduce the load on the server by either removing NLM files or decreasing the number of users on the system You can determine whether the system is using too much CPU processing power by using MONITOR and viewing utilization Cause 5 NLM on the server is not relinquishing control of the CPU frequently ...

Page 138: ...ed Refer to Many Systems Are Entering an Overloaded State Cause 2 Designated Router or some other system on the LAN is causing the network outage Another system can cause this problem by electing itself as the Designated Router on the LAN A single malfunctioning system on a LAN might be causing all systems on the LAN to become unreachable intermittently Using IPXCON check the Designated Router Cha...

Page 139: ...OR and view LAN WAN Information under a specific NIC or LAN adapter Determine whether the link has excessive errors by viewing discrepancies in packet error counts Issue the SET ISLL DEBUG ON command and capture the IPXWAN exchanges Contact the manufacturer of the router that appears to be in violation of the IPXWAN specification Cause 4 Link has excessive errors Load MONITOR and view LAN WAN Info...

Page 140: ...ould be in communication have the same area addresses It is acceptable for systems to have different addresses if that is the desired configuration Cause 2 RIP is not enabled If you are running multiple areas on a LAN and are using RIP to interconnect the systems verify that RIP is enabled on those servers that are interconnecting areas Load NIASCFG and select Configure NIAS Protocol and Routing B...

Page 141: ...oftware incompatibility with other systems Clients running UnixWare software OS 2 Named Pipes and NetWare IPTM software have problems with connectivity The systems are not properly configured Refer to Chapter 1 Understanding on page 11 and Chapter 3 Setting Up on page 51 for information about the solution LAN Is Partitioned A LAN is partitioned when there are duplicate LANs or one of the LANs is d...

Page 142: ...ntation claims that it does Set the MAC Channel option to Broadcast parameter path Select Bindings a specific binding Expert Bind Options NLSP Bind Options A workstation cannot communicate with a server on a different connecting LAN but other systems on the LAN can communicate Cause 1 Physical problem on the workstation for example a broken LAN card Replace the malfunctioning hardware Cause 2 Pack...

Page 143: ...ket filtering has been implemented on a router This can cause symptoms similar to those caused by duplicate network numbers for example network A might be visible from network B but network B is not visible from network A If communication does not occur within an NLSP area it is usually easy to determine whether the network fault is caused by packet filtering or a duplicate network number Use IPXC...

Page 144: ...om the beginning of the table instead of completing the current update Contact technical support Number of Routes and Services on a System Shows Local Connectivity Only The number of routes and services on a system shows that there is local connectivity only Cause 1 If the network to which the system is attached is an NLSP only network and if the system is not configured for RIP mode only then the...

Page 145: ...again sometime later NLSP does not detect the condition and RIP does not turn on again If you are running RIP and SAP on the network and the routes and services fluctuate refer to Services or Routes are Fluctuating Excessively Services or Routes are Fluctuating Excessively The number of routes and services are fluctuating excessively Some fluctuation is normal in a large network Change is occurrin...

Page 146: ...ge 138 You might find that one system that is supplying routing information to the network is losing its neighbors particularly the Designated Router This system is probably the source of the problem If you find that the problem is caused by some interaction with RIP and SAP check all systems for consistency on the LAN regarding the following configurable RIP and SAP parameters in NIASCFG Packet S...

Page 147: ...changes are occurring in your network because there is too much RIP activity in your network Migrate more of your network to NLSP Cause 3 Some systems are sending too many updates If possible migrate more of your network to NLSP If you cannot migrate more of your network to NLSP find the boundary routers those that are importing RIP by looking at the NLSP LANs window Increase the Maximum LSP Gener...

Page 148: ...t require more bandwidth than you have available Make sure that the problem is not caused by latency Compression adds latency which can slow down protocols that do not have windowing such as the Sequenced Packet ExchangeTM SPXTM protocol Also older versions of the NetWare shells do not have windowing If you experiment with the Packet BurstTM protocol you might be able to reduce latency and increas...

Page 149: ... system in an overloaded state is causing your system to go into an overloaded state On each suspect system use MONITOR to check whether the Alloc Memory Pool is set too low If the value is too low increase the value set for the Alloc Memory Pool or remove some applications Cause 3 Transient condition on that router If the problem persists the system is running out of memory If the value is too lo...

Page 150: ...ckbone has been imported more than once look carefully at all routers that are importing RIP Using IPXCON find the systems that are importing RIP into the NLSP area then determine whether RIP Active is displayed for the LAN parameter path Select NLSP Information LANs Find the Designated Router in each LAN Look at the Forwarding table of each Designated Router If more than one Designated Router is ...

Page 151: ...in This can happen when you swap boards Simply reinsert the wireless or Personal Computer Memory Card International Association PCMCIA board Reestablish the connection as explained in Re establishing the Connection on page 151 Cause 4 The PCMCIA board was swapped when the portable was in a low power state This tends to confuse the card and socket services and events are not sent to the drivers Thi...

Page 152: ...electing Retry will not reestablish the connection and you must log in again In the DOS environment you have three options Abort Retry or Fail Abort and Fail both terminate the connection to the server you were accessing and you must log in again to reestablish a connection If you want the operation to be completed you must select the Retry option when you return to the network In the meantime the...

Reviews: