Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!gamiddleton
From: gamiddle...@watmath.waterloo.edu (Guy Middleton)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: subnetting supported by Sequents?
Message-ID: <18969@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Date: 18 May 88 23:57:40 GMT
Reply-To: gamiddle...@watmath.waterloo.edu (Guy Middleton)
Organization: University of Waterloo [MFCF/ICR]
Lines: 2
Does anybody know whether the Sequent's version of Unix (called "Dynix", I
think), supports subnetting yet?
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bbn!rochester!cornell!batcomputer!itsgw!nyser!rutgers!orstcs!mist!hakanson
From: hakan...@mist.cs.orst.edu (Marion Hakanson)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: subnetting supported by Sequents?
Message-ID: <4776@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU>
Date: 25 May 88 20:38:46 GMT
References: <18969@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Sender: netn...@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU
Reply-To: hakan...@mist.CS.ORST.EDU (Marion Hakanson)
Organization: Oregon State University - CS - Corvallis, Oregon
Lines: 31
I hope this is of general interest....
We are running DYNIX 3.0.4 on a Sequent B21, and it does indeed
support subnets (and a settable broadcast address). According to
the people at Sequent, they put in the 4.3bsd IP networking code,
but are still running the 4.2bsd TCP code (why, I don't know). This
means that any 4.3bsd systems you have must be configured with the
TCP_COMPAT_42 hack (TCP sequence number bug). It also includes the
4.3bsd routed and RIP code.
Other than the fact that DYNIX 3.0 does not include a nameserver (or
MX-speaking sendmail), and that it still runs the buggy 4.2bsd ftp,
telnet and rlogin implementations, along with the other 4.2bsd TCP
performance bugs, our Sequent functions adequately as an Internet site
(behind a Cisco router). The only annoyance I really notice is that
sendmail has the "loop on EOF" bug if an Internet SMTP connection is
lost during a mail transfer (this can be fixed when we port the 4.3bsd
sendmail.MX).
Rick Adams at UUNET may be of help to you, as well. The UUNET machine
is also a Sequent B21 running DYNIX 3.0. Don't let my criticisms put
you completely off of the machine. It is very solid, no crashes, and
has a tremendous amount of CPU bandwidth (by that, I meant it's very
hard to slow the thing down, especially if you have enough RAM). But
if we didn't have a 4.3bsd machine to handle nameservice and mail
routing, we'd be up a creek. In short, it ain't 4.3.
--
Marion Hakanson Domain: hakan...@cs.orst.edu
CSNET : hakanson%cs.orst....@relay.cs.net
UUCP : {hp-pcd,tektronix}!orstcs!hakanson
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!SEISMO.CSS.GOV!rick
From: r...@SEISMO.CSS.GOV (Rick Adams)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: subnetting supported by Sequents?
Message-ID: <8805261504.AA27649@beno.CSS.GOV>
Date: 26 May 88 15:04:47 GMT
Sender: dae...@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 16
If you bitch and scream loudly enough, Sequent will send you a
special version of TCP. Its not as good as the latest
Jacobsen/Karels TCP, but it is a tremendous improvement over
what they were shipping. I think it will be included as part
of the next real release.
They do still ship the broken 4.2bsd user programs and don't seem
to care. The good news is that the 4.3bsd source programs
port rather easily. We are running the latest bind and sendmail
on our Sequent and it performs quite well.
It is important to keep yelling at Sequent until they fix it. They
think that their customers don't care about things like
high performance networking. If enough sites keep complaining, they
might finally fix things.
--rick
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mandrill!gatech!purdue!i.cc.purdue.edu!j.cc.purdue.edu!mace.cc.purdue.edu!abe
From: a...@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Vic Abell)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: subnetting supported by Sequents?
Summary: Don't yell at Sequent; be polite.
Message-ID: <88@mace.cc.purdue.edu>
Date: 27 May 88 13:49:59 GMT
References: <8805261504.AA27649@beno.CSS.GOV>
Organization: Purdue University
Lines: 17
In article <8805261504.AA27...@beno.CSS.GOV>, r...@SEISMO.CSS.GOV (Rick Adams) writes:
> If you bitch and scream loudly enough, Sequent will send you a
> special version of TCP.
.
.
.
> It is important to keep yelling at Sequent until they fix it. They
> think that their customers don't care about things like
> high performance networking. If enough sites keep complaining, they
> might finally fix things.
>
> --rick
This is completely different from our experience with Sequent. They do
care, they do respond -- to polite and informed requests.
Vic Abell
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!ucsd!ucbvax!SEISMO.CSS.GOV!rick
From: r...@SEISMO.CSS.GOV (Rick Adams)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: subnetting supported by Sequents?
Message-ID: <8805310051.AA09423@beno.CSS.GOV>
Date: 31 May 88 00:51:58 GMT
Sender: dae...@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 9
When I politely asked Sequent to provide better TCP support
and SLIP support I was told "the customers dont want it, so
we wont waste time providing it".
When I bitched loudly and publically about it, I got a fixed TCP.
Draw your own conclusions.
--rick
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!bellcore!rutgers!mailrus!uflorida!umd5!vrdxhq!daitc!generous
From: gener...@daitc.ARPA (Curtis Generous)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sequent
Subject: BIND and resolver routines under Dynix 3.0.4
Message-ID: <143@daitc.ARPA>
Date: 12 Jul 88 14:15:34 GMT
Organization: Defense Applied Information Technology Center, Alexandria VA
Lines: 8
Is there a version of Dynix out there that supports the internet domain name
server and the resolver routines? Any info is appreciated.
--curtis
Curtis C. Generous
Defense Applied Information Technology Center (DAITC)
ARPA: gener...@daitc.ARPA OR gener...@osd.tis.llnl.gov
UUCP: {uunet,vrdxhq,lll-tis}!daitc!generous
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!fletcher
From: fletc...@cs.utexas.edu (Fletcher Mattox)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sequent
Subject: Re: BIND and resolver routines under Dynix 3.0.4
Message-ID: <2961@cs.utexas.edu>
Date: 13 Jul 88 15:00:05 GMT
References: <143@daitc.ARPA>
Organization: U. Texas CS Dept., Austin, Texas
Lines: 26
In article <1...@daitc.ARPA> gener...@daitc.ARPA (Curtis Generous) writes:
>Is there a version of Dynix out there that supports the internet domain name
>server and the resolver routines? Any info is appreciated.
I think the answer is "Not Yet". From the 3.0.4 netdb.h:
struct hostent {
char *h_name; /* official name of host */
char **h_aliases; /* alias list */
int h_addrtype; /* host address type */
int h_length; /* length of address */
#ifdef notyet
char **h_addr_list; /* list of addresses from name server */
#define h_addr h_addr_list[0] /* address, for backward compatiblity */
#else
char *h_addr; /* address */
#endif notyet
};
We brought up BIND 4.8 under 3.0.4 without any trouble. However,
one needs DYNIX sources to relink the utilities with the resolver.
I really hope the next DYNIX release supports the nameserver; the static
host table routines aren't terribly useful these days.
--
Fletcher Mattox fletc...@cs.utexas.edu
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!nosc!ucsd!ucbvax!decwrl!purdue!i.cc.purdue.edu!j.cc.purdue.edu!mace.cc.purdue.edu!rsk
From: r...@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Rich Kulawiec)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sequent
Subject: Re: BIND and resolver routines under Dynix 3.0.4
Message-ID: <264@mace.cc.purdue.edu>
Date: 14 Jul 88 03:14:28 GMT
References: <143@daitc.ARPA> <2961@cs.utexas.edu> <4080@oxtrap.UUCP>
Reply-To: r...@mace.cc.purdue.edu.UUCP (Rich Kulawiec)
Organization: Purdue University Computing Center Unix Systems Staff
Lines: 9
In article <1...@daitc.ARPA> gener...@daitc.ARPA (Curtis Generous) writes:
>Is there a version of Dynix out there that supports the internet domain name
>server and the resolver routines? Any info is appreciated.
We have them running under 2.1 and (will soon) under 3.0; but I am all
but certain that we can't release the sources without violating our license.
If you have a BSD source license, you'll find that these are not difficult
to port. If you don't, I'm not sure how hard it will be.
---Rsk
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!bu-cs!purdue!i.cc.purdue.edu!h.cc.purdue.edu!s.cc.purdue.edu!gh3
From: g...@s.cc.purdue.edu (Gerrit)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sequent
Subject: Re: BIND and resolver routines under Dynix 3.0.4
Message-ID: <3382@s.cc.purdue.edu>
Date: 14 Jul 88 20:59:42 GMT
References: <143@daitc.ARPA> <2961@cs.utexas.edu> <4080@oxtrap.UUCP> <264@mace.cc.purdue.edu>
Reply-To: g...@s.cc.purdue.edu.UUCP (Gerrit)
Organization: Purdue University
Lines: 15
In article <2...@mace.cc.purdue.edu> r...@mace.cc.purdue.edu.UUCP (Rich Kulawiec) writes:
>In article <1...@daitc.ARPA> gener...@daitc.ARPA (Curtis Generous) writes:
>>Is there a version of Dynix out there that supports the internet domain name
>>server and the resolver routines? Any info is appreciated.
>
>We have them running under 2.1 and (will soon) under 3.0; but I am all
>but certain that we can't release the sources without violating our license.
>If you have a BSD source license, you'll find that these are not difficult
>to port. If you don't, I'm not sure how hard it will be.
I just added the support to the Dynix 3.0.8 kernel to support the last bits
of the 1 or 2 ioctl's that Sequent hasn't completed. They have all the
guts in place, but they haven't yet put in the hooks. Without kernel
source, there isn't much you can do as yet.
Gerrit Huizenga (g...@s.cc.purdue.edu)
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!rick
From: r...@seismo.CSS.GOV (Rick Adams)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sequent
Subject: Re: BIND and resolver routines under Dynix 3.0.4
Summary: inadequate
Message-ID: <44375@beno.seismo.CSS.GOV>
Date: 14 Jul 88 21:52:12 GMT
References: <143@daitc.ARPA> <2961@cs.utexas.edu> <4080@oxtrap.UUCP>
Organization: Center for Seismic Studies, Arlington, VA
Lines: 31
You haven't lived until you've had to wait for a NS32032 processor
(even if you have 14 of them, some things don't work in parallel) do a
linear search on a 6,500 line /etc/hosts (thats how big the arpanet
host table is today).
Ignoring the issue of not being able to connect to sites not in the
host tables, the speed alone is enough reason to scrap the current
implementation (I'm sure that it runs fine on their 40 line host file
for their local ethernet). It's so bad that I've been begging them to
send us NFS so we can use the yellow pages! (I loathe the yellow
pages. The yellow pages are a wonderful example of how a good idea can
be destroyed by a bad design and a worse implementation)
Our "solution" was the obvious one. For critical programs like
sendmail, we totally scrap what Sequent delivers and install a version
that uses bind.
For things like ftp or telnet, we have a small program that uses bind
to turn a hostname into an ip address. Then we ftp to the address.
The Sequent could be a wonderful networking machine if they would let
the engineers keep the networking software within 3-4 years of current
technology.
Sequent has a very nice hardware base, but I really wish I could
call the software something better than "adequate".
(We've had ZERO hardware downtime in 16 months if you need an
example of how the hardware works.)
--rick
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!alberta!ncc!lyndon
From: lyn...@ncc.Nexus.CA (Lyndon Nerenberg)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sequent
Subject: Re: BIND and resolver routines under Dynix 3.0.4
Message-ID: <10344@ncc.Nexus.CA>
Date: 17 Jul 88 22:30:20 GMT
References: <143@daitc.ARPA> <2961@cs.utexas.edu> <4080@oxtrap.UUCP> <44375@beno.seismo.CSS.GOV>
Reply-To: lyn...@ncc.nexus.ca (Lyndon Nerenberg)
Organization: Nexus Computing Inc.
Lines: 15
In article <44...@beno.seismo.CSS.GOV> r...@seismo.CSS.GOV (Rick Adams) writes:
>The Sequent could be a wonderful networking machine if they would let
>the engineers keep the networking software within 3-4 years of current
>technology.
>
>Sequent has a very nice hardware base, but I really wish I could
>call the software something better than "adequate".
What was the criteria used to select the system that would run uunet?
It seems to me that a reliable and complete set of networking tools
would be of prime importance in this application.
--
{alberta,pyramid,uunet}!ncc!lyndon lyn...@Nexus.CA
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!rick
From: r...@seismo.CSS.GOV (Rick Adams)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sequent
Subject: Re: BIND and resolver routines under Dynix 3.0.4
Summary: uucp
Message-ID: <44376@beno.seismo.CSS.GOV>
Date: 18 Jul 88 21:55:57 GMT
References: <143@daitc.ARPA> <2961@cs.utexas.edu> <4080@oxtrap.UUCP> <10344@ncc.Nexus.CA>
Organization: Center for Seismic Studies, Arlington, VA
Lines: 9
The selection criteria for uunet included the ability to run
a minimum of 50 simultaneous uucicos; to support at least 2 56kbps
X.25 lines; and to support at least 4 16 port multiplexors.
The networking code is adequate. However, TCP/IP is not a
large portion of the use of the machine.
---rick
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