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DECnet

There is currently a shortage of node numbers in the CERN DECnet area and for this reason new numbers will not normally be allocated to ULTRIX workstations. This restriction will be removed in the future with the introduction of DECnet Phase V. For the moment, if you must install DECnet, you should not install DECnet/OSI but continue to use DECnet-ULTRIX Version 4.2. If you have any questions concerning DECnet at CERN please send them via email to decnet-support@dxmint.cern.ch.

Installing DECnet

If you have been allocated a DECnet number and you have selected the DECnet kernel option during the installation of the supported subsets you may proceed as follows:

If you have not already done so you should use the licence management facility to register the DECnet licence before going any further. If you do not register the licence DECnet will not be started after the installation.

The lmf register command is used to register the license details from your Product Authorization Key (PAK). See section The License Management Facility (LMF), of this guide for further details. Fill in all the fields given on the PAK or the checksum at the end will fail. Once the PAK has been registered don't forget to issue the command /etc/lmf reset to make it active.

  1. If you are installing from tape you may use the setld program as shown below: 

        #cd /
    #/etc/setld -l /dev/rmt0h     (where  "rmt0h" is the device
                                   special  file  name for tape
                                   #unit 0.)

  2. If you are installing the software from CDROM you must first mount the c partition of the CDROM on /mnt: 

        #cd /
    #/etc/mount -r /dev/rz4c /mnt   (where "rz4c" refers to the
                                     device special file for the
                                     c partition of disk unit 4.

Then use the setld command as follows:

    #/etc/setld -l /mnt/RISC/DECNET

or
                                     
    #/etc/setld -l /mnt/VAX/DECNET

  3. If you are using the remote installation service issue the following command: 

    	   #cd /
	   #/etc/setld -l dxsoft:

The installation procedure will then present the following menu: 
  *** ENTER SUBSET SELECTION ***
       
 The subsets listed below are optional:

 1) DECnet-ULTRIX Base Software        2) DECnet-Internet Gateway
 3) DECnet On-Line Manual Pages        4) DECnet-ULTRIX Unsupported
                                                 software
 5) All of the above
 6) None of the above
 7) Exit without installing subsets

 Enter your choice(s):

  1. For reasons of security it is recommended that you do NOT install the DECnet-Internet gateway.
  2. If you are loading the software via the remote installation service, this menu will include all of the subsets for which your machine has been authorized and which has not been already installed.

The DECnet configuration procedure will start automatically once the selected subsets have been loaded. If you have not installed your DECnet-ULTRIX license a warning message will appear. It is not necessary to interrupt the configuration procedure at this point. You will then be asked if you want to configure DECnet, if you answer no you will be told how to do this later, if you answer yes the procedure will continue and you will be prompted for the following information:

  1. Your node name (dx....)(19)
  2. Your DECnet node address (aa.nnnn).
  3. Your identification string. This string may be up to 32 characters and may include blanks but not shell metacharacters (! ? ' " *). Hint - choose a string which identifies the function of your workstation.
  4. If you have more than one network interface in your machine you will be asked which one you wish to use for DECnet.
  5. You will then be asked to enter the names and addresses of any nodes that you wish to add to the node database. It is not necessary to enter any nodes at this point. Just enter a carriage return to skip this and update the database as shown below.

Updating the Node Database

The master copy of the CERN DECnet data base is held on vxcrna. You use /etc/update_nodes to copy the names to your DECnet database: 

	   #/etc/update_nodes 22.47          (22.47 = vxcrna)

This will update the permanent database. You should then update the volatile database as follows: 

	   #/usr/bin/ncp set known nodes all

The above should be done at regular intervals, preferably during the night when the network is quiet, in order to keep the database up to date. This can be done using crontab.

DECnet Tailoring

By default DECnet ULTRIX sends out a "hello" message every 10 seconds. Given the number of workstations at CERN this generates a considerable amount of unnecessary network traffic. You are therefore requested to reset the hello timer to 120 seconds. This can be done as shown below: 

	   #/usr/bin/ncp set circuit sva-0 hello timer 120
	   #/usr/bin/ncp define circuit sva-0 hello timer 120

This updates both the volatile and the permanent databases.

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