DEC protocol and associated headaches

[andrewpartington]

Hi,

I have just been attempting to enable the DEC protocol on 2 of our routers with not alot of success, and was hoping someone could help!

The background is that we have a distribute VAX system. with a small "cluster" at the Head office and a single unit at a remote site. Currently we are using IP encapsulation to route the DEC stuff between the 2 systems, but we`d like to use the DEC protocol on the routers to see what effect it has on traffic and also it enables us to monitor the VAX traffic.

Firstly, followed the basics, making sure both IOS versions could handle it etc etc.

Then enabled the DEC protocol on both routers. The protocol was enabled, but then the IP network went down!..quickly rolling back and turning off the DEC stuff resolved this one.

Understandably Im worried about doing it again until i really know whats going on. So any help is much uch much apprecited.

Cheers

Andrew

[mvicente]

Plesase create a bridge group on both routers.

This way its bridges instead of routing and it will work out! Ists not a clean way but...

[xavierchang]

You have to be careful because enabling Decnet changes all the MAC-addresses around - consult Decnet documentation for why this happens. I believe this is why your IP routing died.

[andrewpartington]

Thanks everyone for replying, i`ll have a read of some more documents on it. One theory i did have was that both protocols have different layer 2 stuff. Therefore it would be difficult if both existed on the same interface. So what i may do is create another sub interface and route the DEC stuff across one and the IP traffic across the other. All fun and games..

Any more ideas would be greatly appreciated. Is anyone using the DEC protocol on their routers these days?? do people have VAX systems anymore or are we the ONLY one :-)

Thanks

Andrew

[xavierchang]

Nah, the layer-2 protocols are the same (Ethernet, PPP, HDLC, etc.) Layer-2 protocols shouldn't be giving you any trouble. More likely it is that MAC-address change that is giving you problems.

You still occassionally find people who are running Decnet (formally, Decnet Phase IV). But it's pretty rare now. Heck, even DEC, before they got bought by Compaq, was moving away from Decnet, and phaseV-Decnet was essentially CLNS with IS-IS routing.

[andrewpartington]

Ah with you. So (final question on this one) do you think its even worth enabling this on 2 routers if, as it is currently, being IP encapsulated and routed that way? Will I see any benefits of enabling this as far as network traffic or broadcasts go??

Once again..many thanks.

Andrew

[karl.jones]

Hi,

I would bridge it, I am bridging Dec Vax across the wan with no problem to many sites. You can use the

"sh int s1/2 accounting" to give some idea of traffic stats. Routing it will probably be more bother than it is worth.

Karl