Speed of N/W Card?

[KOG]

Hi,

How do you find the speed of the network card on the server?

I have been trying many different menu options using smitty and I can't find anything that is relevant as some day our N/W card is dodgy !

Hope you can help me out pls.

Many thanks

KOG

 

[DSMARWAY]

hi,

lsattr -El ent? ? =number of card i.e. 0,1,2,3
remember to use ent

the speed will be listed as media_speed

A question, does your network card connect to a switch , if
so you need to get your comms guys to have alook at what speed that port is set to , and it is recommended to set the speed of your card , depending on what the switch / card is capable of e..g set to 100mb full duplex on switch & card

to change settings , smit -- devices -- communictions --
ethernet adapter --- adapter -- change

HTH

 

[KOG]

Hi DSMARWAY,

It seems we have two network cards on the old server (its news to me !) and I am getting a bit confused as to which is being used.

Why is there two network cards? Should I disable one and leave the best one running?

$ lsattr -El ent0
bus_intr_lvl 12 Bus interrupt level False
intr_priority 3 Interrupt priority False
xmt_que_size 512 TRANSMIT queue size True
bus_mem_addr 0xd0000 Bus memory address False
dma_bus_mem 0x302000 Address of bus memory used for DMA False
bus_io_addr 0x7280 Bus I/O address False
dma_lvl 3 DMA arbitration level False
bnc_select dix Adapter CONNECTOR True
use_alt_addr no Enable ALTERNATE ETHERNET address True
alt_addr 0x ALTERNATE ETHERNET address True
rec_pool_size 37 RECEIVE buffer pool size True

$ lsattr -El ent1
bus_intr_lvl 10 Bus interrupt level False
intr_priority 3 Interrupt priority False
dma_bus_mem 0x480000 Address of bus memory used for DMA False
bus_io_addr 0x1c00 Bus I/O address False
dma_lvl 4 DMA arbitration level False
tx_que_size 256 TRANSMIT queue size True
rx_que_size 256 RECEIVE queue size True
use_alt_addr no Enable ALTERNATE ETHERNET address True
alt_addr 0x ALTERNATE ETHERNET address True
media_speed 10_Half_Duplex Media Speed True
ip_gap 96 Inter-Packet Gap True
$

COMMAND STATUS

Command: OK stdout: yes stderr: no

Before command completion, additional instructions may appear below.

ent0 Available 00-04 Ethernet High-Performance LAN Adapter (8ef5)
ent1 Available 00-05 IBM 10/100 Mbps Ethernet TX MCA Adapter (8f62)



Ethernet Adapter ent0
Description Ethernet High-Performa>
Status Available
Location 00-04
TRANSMIT queue size [512] +#
Adapter CONNECTOR dix +
RECEIVE buffer pool size [37] +#
Enable ALTERNATE ETHERNET address no +
ALTERNATE ETHERNET address [0x] +
Apply change to DATABASE only no +


[Entry Fields]
Ethernet Adapter ent1
Description IBM 10/100 Mbps Ethern>
Status Available
Location 00-05
HARDWARE TRANSMIT queue size [256] +#
HARDWARE RECEIVE queue size [256] +#
Media Speed 10_Half_Duplex +
Inter-Packet Gap [96] +#
Enable ALTERNATE ETHERNET address no +
ALTERNATE ETHERNET address [0x] +
Apply change to DATABASE only no +


My plan is to install AIX 4.3.3 and oracle 8.1.7 on this old server and prepare it for standby db but I need to check if the network card is running at 100 mb as our internal network 100MB. It is important that I configure it to use this speed so that archived log files can be transferred from other new server to this server within 15 mins.

This is new area and I am finding it rather complicated than expected.

Cheers

KOG

 

[DSMARWAY]

hi,

type in ifconfig -a ( does it list ip addresses for both
cards)

The one you are interesetd in is the one which has 10 MB full duplex i.e. ent1 , the other network is a dix network
i think that is ethernet so max speed will be 10 MB anyway, hence no media_speed defined. You need to check if you use this network or whether there are any physical connections off it .

If you are not using it and it doesn't have an ip address assigned to it you can leave it as it is or remove it , its up to you .

The network card ent1 is capable of supporting 100MB full duplex ?
Will this be connected to a switch or a hub ?
if a hub , is it a 100MB hub ? if so change speed of card as stated above , and plug it into the hub.

If it is a switch then you must make sure the port you connect the network cable into is sett to 100MB full duplex, and then change the network card setting .

hope this helps

 

[AIX5L]

Hi

Check which NIC is up with ifconfig -a
Then check the Media Speed selected and running with entstat -d entn
I prefer to fix them to the same value

 

[KOG]

Hi

I emailed our NT Manager for more info abt the old server as I have not been at this job for long.

This is what he said

"There was a long running issue with the network card in the J40. One went down completely once and our ex-DBA had it replaced under maintenance. When it was replaced it would drop packets intermittently and kick staff out of Unitrac.

After hours of testing we came to the conclusion that the new card would simply not run properly at 100Mb and was srooping packets. One evening Dave and I put the J40 on it's own LAN switch to prove it wasn't our network causing the problem. Doing pings on this seperate LAN with the card running at 100Mb caused it to lose packets, but when it was switched to 10Mb it was fine.

This proved beyond doubt that the machine/card was a fault and not the network as this was totally isolated. After this work was carried out, our ex-DBA still insisted that the card couldnt possibly be at fault, still insisting it was the network, and refused to log it again!!

In the end the network port on the J40 and network switch were both set to 10Mb

Not ideal but it fixed the problem - although not running at optimal bandwidth."

So it is either the network card problem or another issue? I do not know but I am anxious to get it up and running on 100MB speed.

Any suggestions or do any of u had any experience?

Many thanks

Regards

Katherine

 

[Chapter11]

The question I would have after reading all of this is: "Was the switch set to auto-detect or to a specific speed?"

With rs6k's, I've found it's best to never use auto on either end.

 

[amobasse]

Try this coomand as well
entstat -d en0

hope this helps
regards
Allen

 

[KOG]

Will do and many thanks

Cheers