survival of the fittest decnet in an ip-only world john marshall riverwillow pty ltd

DECnet

DECnet

IP

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTESTDECnet in an IP-only World

John MarshallRiverwillow Pty Ltd

27 March 2001 John Marshall - Riverwillow Pty. Ltd. 2

DECnet

DECnet

IP What Problem Are We Trying to Fix?

Company relies upon DECnet for Client/Server and Peer-to-Peer Applications across its WAN

Addition of IP systems and applications means that the company either has multiple WAN circuits or runs multi-protocol WAN circuits

Management wants to reduce network costs and standardize on an IP-only WAN

27 March 2001 John Marshall - Riverwillow Pty. Ltd. 3

DECnet

DECnet

IP What Happens to Our DECnet Applications?

Re-write to use IP protocols?– Can you find the source code? the programmer?

Replace (all) with IP-capable applications? Centralize all DECnet hosts onto a single

LAN? Configure DECnet to use the IP transport?

– No need to touch applications!

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DECnet

DECnet

IP

DECnet Is…?

DECnet-Plus– DECnet Transport– OSI Transport– IP Transport

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DECnet

DECnet

IP

DECnet Is…?

Application LayerPresentation Layer

Session LayerTransport LayerNetwork LayerData Link LayerPhysical Layer Physical Layer

Data Link LayerNetwork LayerTransport Layer

DECnet IP

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DECnet

DECnet

IP DECnet Session Control Applications

FAL (17) MAIL (27) PHONE (29) NOTES (33) CTERM (42) …and others All still work!

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DECnet

DECnet

IP

What Do We Need?

DECnet-Plus TCP/IP Services (Compaq or other vendor)

– Must include PWIP driver (Examples in following slides use:)

– OpenVMS VAX V7.1– DECnet-Plus V7.1 ECO 6– UCX V4.2 ECO 4

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DECnet

DECnet

IP

How Do We Get Started?

SYS$MANAGER:UCX$CONFIG.COM– [4] Optional Components

• Configure PWIP Driver (for DECnet-Plus and PATHWORKS)

SYS$MANAGER:NET$CONFIGURE.COM– [2] Change Naming Information

• Include DOMAIN Directory Service• Supply IP FQDN and Address

– [4] Configure Transports• Configure OSI Transport

– Run OSI Applications over TCP/IP– Run DECnet over TCP/IP

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DECnet

DECnet

IP How Do We Make It Transparent?

Resolve Addresses from Simple Names Resolve Addresses to Simple Names Add new UAF PROXY records

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DECnet

DECnet

IP

DECnet Name Resolution

Common Directory Interface (CDI)– Interface between DECnet Session Control and

any configured Directory Services• DECdns• LOCAL• DOMAIN

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DECnet

DECnet

IP

DECdns Directory Service

DEC Distributed Name Service DECnet and OSI Name/Address/Synonym Implemented via DECdns Servers Maintained via DECNET_REGISTER.EXE Full Name: DECUSOZ:.syd.vms01 Node Synonym: VMS01 DECnet Address: 62.606

• $ type DECUSOZ:.syd.vms01::PUBLIC:fred.txt• $ type VMS01::PUBLIC:fred.txt• $ type 62.606::PUBLIC:fred.txt

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DECnet

DECnet

IP

LOCAL Directory Service

LOCAL Name Service DECnet and OSI Name/Address/Synonym Implemented via per-node/cluster database Maintained via DECNET_REGISTER.EXE Full Name: LOCAL:.vms01 Node Synonym VMS01 DECnet Address: 62.606

• $ type LOCAL:.vms01::PUBLIC:fred.txt• $ type VMS01::PUBLIC:fred.txt• $ type 62.606::PUBLIC:fred.txt

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DECnet

DECnet

IP DOMAIN Directory Service

Internet Name Service (DNS/BIND) Internet Name/Address Implemented via DNS Servers/Local Host Files Maintained via UCX or text editors (edt/tpu/vi) Full Name: DOMAIN:.vms01.syd.decusoz.com IP Address: 123.123.4.51

• $ type DOMAIN:.vms01.syd.decusoz.com::PUBLIC:fred.txt• $ type 123.123.4.51::PUBLIC:fred.txt

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DECnet

DECnet

IP

CDI Search Path Templates

Allow us to query directory services using simple names

Session Control

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DECnet

DECnet

IP

CDI Search Path Templates

Applying– “vms01”

to the template– “LOCAL:.*”

Will lookup “LOCAL:.vms01” and return DECnet address 62.606

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DECnet

DECnet

IP CDI Search Path Templates (DOMAIN)

Applying– “vms01”

to the template– “*.syd.decusoz.com”

Will lookup “vms01.syd.decusoz.com” and return IP address 123.123.4.51

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DECnet

DECnet

IP

CDI Search Path Templates

DOMAIN (Reverse) Lookup of 123.123.104.52

Results in “vms02.mel.decusoz.com” If we have the DOMAIN template

“*.mel.decusoz.com” in the CDI Search Path, CDI will return the simple name “vms02” to DECnet

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DECnet

DECnet

IP

CDI Search Path Templates

Default DOMAIN templates supplied by NET$CONFIGURE will include the DNS domain of the local host

Custom templates can be added via NET$SEARCHPATH_LOCAL.NCL(in SYS$MANAGER)

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DECnet

DECnet

IP

CDI Search Path Templates

With valid CDI Search Path templates…– $ type vms01::PUBLIC:fred.txt– Will return a network address from the

directory service with the first match– Will connect to DECnet on the remote node via

the corresponding transport

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DECnet

DECnet

IP

IP Local Host File

If a node is defined in the IP Local Host file with a simple-name alias, CDI will use the simple name even if there is no corresponding DOMAIN template maskUCX> set host vms02.mel.decusoz.com –/address=123.123.104.52 –/alias=vms02

Useful if your network does not have a DNS server or if you have DECnet systems in many different IP subdomains

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DECnet

DECnet

IP If DOMAIN Directory Service is Not Configured

Connection is still possible but via IP address onlyNo DOMAIN Directory Service

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DECnet

DECnet

IP How Do We Make It Transparent?

Resolve Addresses from Simple Names Resolve Addresses to Simple Names Add new UAF PROXY records

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DECnet

DECnet

IP

UAF PROXY Records

Specify the Full Name of the Remote Host– UAF> add/proxy –

vms02.mel.decusoz.com::john john/default Incoming connections do not use cluster

alias IP address Need to add PROXY entries for individual

nodes in remote cluster

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DECnet

DECnet

IP Can DECnet Applications Tell the Difference?

No Unless you are not resolving to simple

names Or unless you explicitly test

SYS$REM_NODE_FULLNAME

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DECnet

DECnet

IP

Can I Tell the Difference?

If you’re keen!Transport Discovery 1Transport Discovery 2

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DECnet

DECnet

IP

What Tools Do We Have?

CDI$TRACE.EXECDI Trace

DECNET_REGISTER.EXEDECnet Register

NCL DCL UCX

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DECnet

DECnet

IP

What are the Obstacles?

Fear of DECnet-Plus Fear of NCL Fear of IP Your company’s DNS subdomain structure

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DECnet

DECnet

IP

Beware!

Troubleshooting can be difficult if you forget that CDI maintains a cache.

To Flush the CDI Naming Cache• NCL> flush session control naming cache entry “*”

CDI$TRACE.EXE is your friend C C TrD ace

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DECnet

DECnet

IP

QUESTIONS?

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DECnet

DECnet

IP

Useful Links

• http://www.compaq.com/info/spd/• http://www.openvms.compaq.com/doc/index.html• mailto:John.Marshall@riverwillow.com.au

DECnet

DECnet

IP

NCP> set executor state shut