NAME

sncnet − Sun Network CoProcessor network query and administration

SYNOPSIS

/usr/etc/sncnet [ −V ] [ −v ] [ −e ]
[ −t target [ −c counter ] ]
[ −s parameter [ value | default ] ]
[ device ]

AVAILABILITY

This command is available from the Sun Network CoProcessor (NC) software distribution.  For information about installing the NC software distribution, refer to the Sun Network CoProcessor Installation Manual. 

DESCRIPTION

sncnet tests whether the Network CoProcessor  is present in the system.  Shell scripts use sncnet when the Network CoProcessor availability needs to be tested. Without options, sncnet does not display anything and only returns an exit status value.  Additionally, by using options, the command may interactively administer various Network CoProcessor configuration parameters. 

device is an optional parameter that identifies a Network CoProcessor device.  It may use one of the two following forms: /dev/ne0 or ne0.  Up to six Network CoProcessor interfaces may be installed depending on the configuration of the system. Device names range from ne0 to ne5. 

With no options and no specified device, sncnet returns a zero exit status value if the kernel has built-in Network CoProcessor support; otherwise an exit status value of one is returned.  When a device is specified, the returned exit status value similarly indicates the operational status of the device. 

Options are used to display or set device specific configuration parameters. A list of these parameters and their current values may be displayed using the −s option without a parameter name. 

OPTIONS

−V Returns Network CoProcessor version information. 

−v Prints a descriptive message in addition to setting the exit status. 

−t Specifies a target Ethernet address in target for transmit rate control.  When used with the −c option, this option  specifies a minimum delay between packets sent to the target Ethernet address. This option allows more reliable transmission to hosts which are slow or congested. 

−c Specifies the minimum delay counter for consecutive packets being sent by the Network CoProcessor to the address specified in the −t option.  counter specifies the amount of time to wait. A value of 1 is approximately equal to a delay of .08 milliseconds.  Valid values range between 0 and 100.  A value of 0 turns off the delay counter for subsequent back to back transmission by the Network CoProcessor.  The default value of 50 corresponds to a transmission rate of 250 packets per second.  This switch must be used with the the −t option. 

−e Prints the ethernet address of the specified device or the system default Network CoProcessor device if no device is specified. 

−s Returns the name and value of the specified parameter when no value is provided; otherwise sets the specified parameter to the given value.  If “default” is specified, the parameter is set to its default value. 

−i Adds an alternate IP address as specified in address parameter to the specified Network CoProcessor device.  The address must be either a valid IP address (e.g. “123.45.78.90”) or an ASCII name representative of a valid IP address (e.g. “mymachine”,where “mymachine” is a valid entry in /etc/hosts or hosts NIS database).  The Network CoProcessor will normally accept input from the network that are intended for its own IP address.  When an alternate IP address is added using this option, Network CoProcessor will accept additional input from the network intended for the alternate IP address and preprocess any NFS requests for the host.  This option may be useful when automount is used on clients; a single name for the NFS server can be used by all clients regardless of the interface-specific IP addresses. 

FILES

/dev/ne[0-5] Network CoProcessor interfaces

EXIT STATUS

0 Success or Network CoProcessor support.  If a device name was specified, the zero exit status value indicates kernel support for this Network CoProcessor and that with this Network CoProcessor device is present, loaded and operational (see neload(8) ). 

1 Error or no Network CoProcessor support.  If a device name was specified, this exit status value indicates that the device has been recognized by the kernel but is not in an operational state. 

2 Error or no Network CoProcessor support.  This exit status value may appear only when a device name was specified on the command line; this exit status value indicates that the device does not exist or has not been recognized by the kernel. 

SEE ALSO

ne(4), automount(8), neload(8), nestop(8), newatch(8)

Sun Network CoProcessor Installation Manual

NOTES

Currently identified Network CoProcessor configuration parameters are: onboardnfs, nfsretryfilt, cachesource and udpcksum. 

The following command is used to disable NFS processing on the ne0 Network CoProcessor device:

sncnet −s onboardnfs 0 ne0

In this configuration, the Network CoProcessor board is only used as an Ethernet datalink controller. By default NFS processing is enabled on the Network CoProcessor. 

The following command is used to disable Network CoProcessor NFS retry filtering on the ne0 Network CoProcessor device:

sncnet −s nfsretryfilt 0 ne0

NFS retry filtering avoids further overloading the server with duplicate NFS requests in the case of high load and slow server response. By default NFS retry filtering is enabled on the Network CoProcessor. 

The following command is used to enable full Network CoProcessor IP routing on the ne0 Network CoProcessor device:

sncnet −s cachesource 0 ne0

By default, the Network CoProcessor caches the source Ethernet address of the machine (client or IP gateway) sending an NFS request and sends the NFS reply back to this address. This technique speeds up processing and is appropriate for most installations. Nonetheless, some installations with a complex internetwork may choose to configure their gateways in such a way that an NFS reply should not return to the gateway from which the NFS request arrived.  The above command is provided in that case to configure the Network CoProcessor to make full use of its IP routing table and ARP cache, to find the appropriate gateway where the NFS reply should be sent. 

The following command is used to enable UDP checksums on the ne0 Network CoProcessor device:

sncnet −s udpcksum 1 ne0

By default the UDP checksums are not turned on.  Enabling it allows checksums to be generated and included in the outbound UDP packet.  If present in the inbound UDP packet it is used to validate the UDP data. 

By default, the Network CoProcessor processes NFS requests that are intended for its own IP address as well as the specified alternate IP address.  All other incoming network data accepted by the ethernet controller on the Network CoProcessor are forwarded to the host.  The following command can be used to provide an alternate IP address “mymachine” (a valid entry in /etc/hosts file or NIS database) for the Network CoProcessor:

sncnet −i mymachine ne0

This is normally done in rc.boot which is modified during the Network CoProcessor installation. 

Sun Release 4.1  —  Last change: 10/13/91