Can't connect to Win 2000 Domain Controller thru 4006 router via Boot Disk

djhender · ‎01-24-2003

Our network is segmented by Class C IP regions. We previously had a seperate 2600 series router for each of these regions. We purchased a 4000 series router and set it up to route IPX on all the vlans. We are able to connect to both our Novell server (running IPX) and our 2000 server (running NWlink) using the workstation's Netware and Microsoft clients.

We use Rapid Deploy from Altiris (similar to Ghost) to down load images from our server and multicast them to the other workstations in our microlabs. We use floppy boot disk to connect to the server to start these processes. A DOS level boot up.

The problem is that the boot disks worked fine connecting to the server through the old 2600 series router, but do not connect to the server through the 4006 router.

Our NetWare server is running 4.11. All our servers our in one IP region and our labs are in a couple of other regions.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

psijnja · ‎01-24-2003

I need some more information.

Are the servers reachable via IPX? and not via IP?

Are the 2600 still in the networks?

Does the floppy use IPX or IP?

djhender · ‎01-27-2003

They are reachable by both IP and IPX via the Microsoft Client and the Newtware Client on a Windows machine. I can't connect at the DOS level using a floppy diskette.

We purchased the 4006 to replace the 2600's. We have 24 class C IP regions and each region uses one of the 2600. We moved one of these regions to the 4006 and was testing it.

I am using IPX because of another problem we have had with IP. When we tried using IP the Client would request an IP from the DHCP server. The DHCP server would process the request and reply to the client, but the client didn't appear to recognize the reply from the DHCP server, therefore never getting an IP. We still haven't figured that problem yet. We use a Linux OS for the DHCP server at the time and it and the DHCP was an older version. We installed the latest version of DHCP and Linux, but that didn't help.

Back to this problem. As I said we use IPX and it was getting through the 2600s just fine. I can connect to both the Netware and 2000 server via IPX using the floppies when the servers are in the same IP region or when going through the 2600s from a different IP region, but not through the 4006. When we enabled IPX on the 4006 we had to set up three IPX networks on the 4006. We have three networks set up on the NetWare server as well. One for 802.2, 802.3 and Ethernet II. The 4006 is set up with 802.2 as the primary network and 803.3 and Ethernt II as secondary. The NICs in the client workstations that we are testing are Intel Pro 100 VE and 802.2.

Hope this helps.

psijnja · ‎01-28-2003

I have a hard time getting a clear picture of your problem.

With the information I have, I think there is something in the floppy disk which does not deal with IP very well. I suspect there is something wrong with the IPX configuration because Windows and Novell client work and the floppy doesn't. The windows and netware client do not rely on IPX for their connection the floppy seems to need it.

Can you tell me what kind of floppy you are using, is it just a DOS floopy with an IPX/ODI netware client? which connects to a "share"?

Or is it something else.

djhender · ‎01-28-2003

I use a product from Altiris called Rapid Deploy. This product comes with a network boot disk creator. It has you gather the necessary NIC and DOS files and then uses a wizard to create the disk. Below is a copy of the Autoexec.bat and Startnet.bat files that the wizard created. As a test I entered each of the commands one at a time until I received an error message. It got all the way to the 9th line of the Startnet.bat file before I got the error “Invalid drive specification”. I am assuming that line 8 didn’t complete properly, although it didn’t give me an error, or there was some kind of disconnect immediately after line 8 completed.

Autoexec.bat:

@echo off

set PATH=A:\;A:\dos;A:\net;F:\bootwiz\dos

REM Autoexec.bat file for Bootworks and Network Boot

call startnet.bat

rem ibmaster.exe -mcast:ipx

Startnet.bat:

cd A:\net

A:\net\net initialize

A:\net\nwlink.exe

A:\net\netbind.com

A:\aname.exe

if exist A:\net\connect.dat del A:\net\connect.dat > NUL

A:\bwlogin BootWork

A:\net\net use F: \\W2kdc01\Lab_Imaging /yes

F:

Below is the Pro100ve.bat file I use to connect to the NetWare server. It is strickly IPX/ODI and I get the same results with it when I use it to try to connect though the 4006 router. It gets to line seven and won’t return an F: drive. It pauses for a moment and comes back with the A: prompt with no error messages. The remaining lines display “Bad command” error messages.

cd\pro100VE

lh lsl

lh e100bodi

lh ipxodi

vlm /ps=DENEB

cd \

F:

login .admin.owu

map r M:=USR:USERS\djhender

Map r P:=IMG:pcmaint

As I said both of these boot floppies work fine through the 2600 series router. They just don’t work with the 4006.

psijnja · ‎01-29-2003

There must be a configuration flaw in IPX on the 4006.

Have you copied the IPX config from the 2600 to the 4006?

That does not always mean it works though..Can you post the IPX configuration of both routers?

You can also mail it, if you do not want this information publicly available.

Regards,

Pim

djhender · ‎01-29-2003

I sent the configuration files from both the 2600 and 4006 to you. With the 2600 we were able to use a bridge group to bridge all protocols. With the 4006 when we tried this it returned the "Unrecognizable Command" error.

Thanks.

Dave

paulo.s · ‎01-29-2003

Hi !

Did you configure ip helper address in your vlans ?

djhender · ‎01-30-2003

Yes we have ip helper addresses set up.

psijnja · ‎01-30-2003

The catalyst 4006 does not support bridge groups.

Because switches are more than bridges. It would be weird, to create a brigde-group on a router inside a switch.

michael-faust · ‎01-31-2003

OK I admit it right from the beginning - I guessing. Could this be a frame type issue? I have no more guesses right now - I think I'll get some coffee.

russell-r · ‎01-30-2003

I know this seems to simplistic, but I had a similar problem with the 4006 and trying to use a boot disk over the network. For me though, it was a simple "set port host" on the port of the machines I was attempting to boot. Just thought I would share...

9mmurphy · ‎01-30-2003

Actually, the "set port host" could be very helpful to you.

It will alow packet forwarding to start much faster,since the port will not go through the spanning tree blocking, listen, learning, forwarding steps. Some hosts boot fast enough that the port is still in the spannng tree listening or learning stage while the client is trying to make a network connection. I think I remember that IPX will become disabled or something like that if the port is not forwarding when it is trying to load.

As far as the bridge group command goes, each port in the same vlan is part of the same bridge. You would have to try and add a bridge group at the L3 layer if you wanted to bridge two different vlans. I am sure there are instances when this is needed, but it would have to be the 4908-L3 model to support bridge groups on the VLAN interfaces.

HTH

djhender · ‎01-30-2003

We disabled the Spanning Tree function and it didn't help.

9mmurphy · ‎01-31-2003

Which routing module do you have installed in the 4006?

Can you post a sanatized config from the 4006 switch and the 4006 routing module?