Ethernet Problem 8

[aixquest]

I have a F80 Enterprise Server. At most sense, I have configured ethernet with IP-address and host-name. I am successful connect to anywhere through the box. I am able to ping anywhere with successful reach. The problem I have is reboot of the server. After each reboot, the server will not let me login as normal session because server, for some reasons, doesn't find the ip-address and hostname. It keeps saying my host-name and IP are corrupted during the boot process and need to fix in /etc/hosts or re-run ConfigAssist to update the ethernet protocol. Both options need to be done in fail-safe mode before I can login as normal session. I am using super-user login. Thanks.

 

[aixqueen]

WEll that is strange... Some things you could check:

1) I would create the /etc/netsrv.conf file with a one line
hosts=local and see if that fixes anything.

1)I assume you are at 4.3.3 with maintenance patches...since there were tons of bugs in early 4.3.3 ....
AIX is at maintenance level 7
instfix -i | grep ML to see where you are?

3) Check errpt -a and look for errors?

4) If there is an /etc/resolv.conf move it to someother name for now.

5) do an alog -o -t boot | more
and see if the machine came up normally or did it have problems..

6) Last resort remove the definitions for the interface in the odm..
ifconfig en0 down
ifconfig en0 detach
rmdev -d -l en0
cfgmgr
(do for all en1 et etc) not l0 though for now....
then recreate in smit with minimum configuration...be sure to choose cable type.
When you are done, you should check the /etc/hosts file to make sure there is an
entry for lo0 (your loopback at 127.0.0.1 and that you do not have any duplicate
entries. If you had an entry for one IP address and you changed it, make sure the
original is removed. Make sure there are no spaces before the entry for the loopback entry. If there are you may have problems with NFS as well. Usually you get a E18E984F label or a 256-9020 for the rpc.mountd.
If you cannot ping yourself, it is probably that the loopback line is missing or incorrect. Check the rc.net file. Is the entry for the loopback line commented out?
The line should be /usr/sbin/ifconfig/lo0 inet loopback up >> $LOGFILE 2>&1

Check to see if you can ping localhost, can you ping loopback? Can you ping
127.0.0.1?

Check the errpt..... errpt -a | more (any errors?)


7) Check the oslevel
#>oslevel
make sure they have the update cd loaded or the latest patches for bos.net
lslpp -l | grep bos.net

If you tried a network setup, make sure you are in the right slot.
..are there two ethernet cards in this machine? Are you in the right one?

Do the Netstat command #> netstat -in
(this will tell you if they have set up en0 or et0 )the lo0 is the loopback and the
en0 means there is one ethernet card defined... the en1 means there is a
second ethernet card defined....

Is there an asteric next to the en0? this means that the ethernet is down.

en1* 1500 link#3 2.60.8c.f5.2d.32 6324354 0 8397043 0 0

Do a ifconfig en0 up
Then check the netstat -in again and see if the star is gone

Is the device available? #>lsdev -Cc adapter

sio0 Available 00-00 Standard I/O Planar
fda0 Available 00-00-0D Standard I/O Diskette Adapter
sioka0 Available 00-00-0K Keyboard Adapter
siota0 Available 00-00-0T Tablet Adapter
sioma0 Available 00-00-0M Mouse Adapter
ppa0 Available 00-00-0P Standard I/O Parallel Port Adapter
sa0 Available 00-00-S1 Standard I/O Serial Port 1
sa1 Available 00-00-S2 Standard I/O Serial Port 2
scsi0 Available 00-00-0S Standard SCSI I/O Controller
nep0 Available 00-01 GXT150M Graphics Adapter
ent0 Available 00-02 Ethernet High-Performance LAN Adapter (8ef5)
ent1 Available 00-03 Ethernet High-Performance LAN Adapter (8ef5)

8) Check for latest patches and software #> lslpp -l | grep bos.net
Shows that the filesets needed for tcpip are loaded as well as the filesets for
nfs...(look for the word committed....if nothing comes back, you do not have the
filesets loaded.)

bos.net.ncs 4.3.3.0 COMMITTED Network Computing System
bos.net.nfs.client 4.3.3.0 COMMITTED Network File System Client
bos.net.tcp.adt 4.3.3.0 COMMITTED TCP/IP Application Toolkit
bos.net.tcp.client 4.3.3.0 COMMITTED TCP/IP Client Support
bos.net.tcp.server 4.3.3.0 COMMITTED TCP/IP Server
bos.net.tcp.smit 4.3.3.0 COMMITTED TCP/IP SMIT Support
bos.net.ncs 4.3.3.0 COMMITTED Network Computing System
bos.net.nfs.client 4.3.3.0 COMMITTED Network File System Client
bos.net.tcp.client 4.3.3.0 COMMITTED TCP/IP Client SupportM
bos.net.tcp.server 4.3.3.0 COMMITTED TCP/IP Server

9) Did someone try and set up DNS? IF so remove the /etc/resolv.conf file until
you are done trying to ping and get the system set up. Do not do multiple
configurations at the same time or you will never figure out what is wrong.

10) Set up a /etc/netsvc.conf file with the line
hosts=local,bind if you are planning on doing DNS...or just
hosts=local if you are not.



11) Make sure you have the ipforwarding on? default is off..

no -o ipforwarding=1
do a no -o ipforwarding and see what it is set at? To make permanent add to
/etc/rc.net

Make sure the cards are talking the same speed,the same full or half
duplex, if one is not matching, it will not communicate. Both ends, router and
card, or card and card...or hub and card.

On New ethernet cards, especially on PCI machines 7025-F50/PCI Ethernet
Performance Tuning. The performance of the PCI Ethernet Adapter (Features
2985 and 2987), when used in the 7025-F50, can be significantly improved by
setting the tx_que_size and rx_que_size parameters to 256. This can be
accomplished by using the following command to change the adapter settings:

smitty chgenet
Set the "HARDWARE TRANSMIT" queue size and "HARDWARE RECEIVE"
queue size fields to 256.

smit chinet
to change the full duplex and the media speed Change/Show Characteristic of
Network Interface (chinet, shinet)

Duplex
The Ethernet High-Performance LAN Adapter (8f95) can be configured to
operate in a full duplex 10BASET network. This mode of operation is only valid
using the adapter's RJ-45 (10BASET) port. Duplex mode is not valid when using
the AUI port or the BNC (10BASE2) port. Beginning with AIX Version 4.1.5, the
10/100 Mbps Ethernet TX MCA device driver (8f62) supports the following
additional configuration parameters:
Media Speed
The 10/100 Mbps Ethernet TX MCA device driver (8f62) supports a
user-configurable media speed for the adapter. The media speed attribute
indicates the speed at which the adapter will attempt to operate. The available
speeds are: 10 Mbps half-duplex, 10 Mbps full-duplex, 100 Mbps half-duplex,
100 Mbps full-duplex, and auto-negotiation. The default is auto-negotiation.
Note:Auto negotiate does not function properly, it is better to select either 100
or 10 but not auto.


12) entstat -d ent0
Is the card status up?
if not do a chdev -l en0 -a state=up
netstat -d ent1

13) netstat -v | egrep "STATISTICS|Media Speed"

ETHERNET STATISTICS (ent1)
Media Speed Selected: Auto negotiation
Media Speed Running: 10 Mbps Half Duplex
The first is how it is set up, the second is the speed it is using.

14) lsattr -E -l en0
lssrc -g tcpip
tftpd running? inetd running? dhcpd?
startsrc -s tctpd to start demons
stopsrc -s dhcpd to stop demons
15) Does the rc.net file have the system starting tcpip? are the tcpip daemons up?

Check your demons
lssrc -a| more and see what is running.
Have you checked the /etc/services file?
Is tcp commented out? What about the /etc/rc.tcpip file is dhcp uncommented?
What about inetd is it uncommented, lo0 uncommented?

Telnet to loopback, Telnet hostname (to yourself)

16) netstat -rn
Is loopback up? Is there an arrow to the right of the lo0 or en0 indicating an
error?

17) Check for an /etc/resolv.conf file. If present rename it
mv /etc/resolv.conf /etc/resolv.old

If the loopback line is messed up in /etc hosts, try retyping it. Do not cut
and paste.

There should be two lines as follows: (In the /etc/hosts file
127.0.0.1 loopback localhost # loopback (lo0)
Make sure there is no spaces before this line, or that it is not commented out.
199.99.99.12 yourhostname yourhostname. # . or .com
The later versions of AIX like a fully qualified hostname... so you should at least
add yourhostname then tab and yourhostname. (dot) or .com or .net, whatever

Check the rc.net file in /etc There was a problem with the lo0 being
commented out for starting the interface.

18) Turn Cloning routes in 4.3.3 off
add to rc.net also......They need to be before /usr/lib/methods/definet.
#no -o tcp_pmtu_discover=0
#no -o udp_pmtu_discover=0
. This values are set to 1 by default in AIX 4.3.3.
Which means clone routes....if you don't want cloned
routes change to zero.

Here is where it is (near the bottom) in the rc.net file:
at the very bottom..... /usr/sbin/no -o extendednetstats=0 >>/dev/null 2>&1
if [ -f /usr/sbin/no ] ; then
/usr/sbin/no -o tcp_sendspace=65536
/usr/sbin/no -o tcp_recvspace=65536
/usr/sbin/no -o ipforwarding=1
/usr/sbin/no -o tcp_pmtu_discover=0
/usr/sbin/no -o udp_pmtu_discover=0
fi

Hope this helps....good luck #-)

 

[aixquest]

Thank for your quick response. I will give it a try.

 

[MikeLacey]

Wow AiXQueen -- very complete response....... Mike
michael.j.lacey@ntlworld.com
Email welcome if you're in a hurry or something -- but post in tek-tips as well please, and I will post my reply here as well.

 

[trush]

I believe the file aixqueen meant to refer to in step 1 above was /etc/netsvc.conf. It's spelled right in step 10 however!

 

[aixqueen]

Oops thanks....I didn't notice that....it is the old fat finger....
sorry
#-)

 

[aixquest]

The posting really help and I have corrected the problem. Thanks.

 

[silvaril]

One last point with regards to the file

/etc/netsvc.conf

hosts=local,bind4,bind6


We found several boxes starting up would hang on 581 for a while.
Tying down the IP version used for name resolution helped with that.

Have Fun