Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!aplcen!samsung!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!newstop!sun!coherent!next!amarcum From: amarcum@next.com (Alan M. Marcum) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: Can't find parent NetInfo server. Message-ID: <270@next.com> Date: 24 Oct 90 20:50:00 GMT References: Reply-To: amarcum@NeXT.COM (Alan M. Marcum) Organization: NeXT, Inc. Lines: 39 velasco@kingkong.ucsd.edu (Gabriel Velasco) in : > Every once in a while, someone resets our NeXT or turns it off. When > it reboots, it gives a message something like this, "Cannot find parent > NetInfo server. Still trying. Talk to your system administrator if > you are having problems." When a NetInfo daemon starts up for a domain (e.g., the machine's local domain), it tries to contact a server process for the parent domain (e.g., the root domain). In a NetInfo network (as opposed to a non-NetInfo network), the default server machine for the local domain's parent is broadcasthost. So, the local NetInfo daemon sends a request to the broadcasthost -- i.e., it broadcasts the request, waiting for some process to respond. (Side note: recall that broadcast packets typically do not cross subnet boundaries. That's why, unless you play a couple of games, you need a server for the domain on each subnet. Regardless, for performance reasons, you SHOULD have a server, either clone or master, on each subnet.) One other thing happens when a NetInfo daemon starts: it checks the consistency of the NetInfo database. During this time, it will not respond to any incoming NetInfo queries. So, during startup, the daemon for the local domain tries to contact a server for its parent domain. But, the daemon for the parent is busy checking its database, and won't respond. Eventually, the parent domain's daemon will finish checking its database, and, if the child domain is still broadcasting, will respond to the bind request. As someone mentioned, just wait a bit. Yes, it could take a while; we recommend you wait at least 20 minutes unless you KNOW something is wrong. (Why 20? It's longer than we've ever had to wait, and we run a pretty big NetInfo network. If you have a four-level hierarchy, or a very broad three-level hierarchy, or a very dispersed network with many clone servers, you might have to wait longer.) ----- Alan M. Marcum NeXT Technical Support