Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!amdcad!pepsi.amd.com!remaker
From: remaker@pepsi.amd.com
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.lans
Subject: Supporting Novell Networks on an internet
Message-ID: <29319@amdcad.AMD.COM>
Date: 28 Feb 90 19:30:35 GMT
Sender: news@amdcad.AMD.COM
Reply-To: remaker@pepsi.amd.com ()
Organization: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Sunnyvale CA
Lines: 47

I have a problem.  Here at AMD we have a well administered highly heterogenous
TCP/IP and DECNET network.  Recently we have come under a great deal of pressure
to support novell LANs on the network.  Now I know that these protocols can
exist on the same backbone and be routed by our cisco routers.  I hope to get
advice on the following:

1)  How can I centrally administer these nodes?  Since the hardware address
    is used as the network address, does this imply that I have to keep a
    database of the hardware addresses?

2)  How can I monitor traffic from a Unix platform?  etherfind is no help and
    etherview is kind of ugly since I'd have to sit and disect individuall type
    8137 packets.

3)  What kind of diagnostic utilities (on a Unix platform) are available?  For
    IP I have ping, etherfind and traffic on my Sun.  I can log into a VMS
    machine and do NCP monitoring for DECnet (or I can use an Ultrix/VMS 
    combined station).  However, no such diagnostic utilities exist for Novell.
    I do NOT want a DOS station in my cube only to monitor Novell.  I want 
    centralized troubleshooting at one point.

4)  How can we do traffic accounting for bandwidth management?  I want to keep
    the broadcasts as localized as I can IF I have to support IPX, and I want
    to know WHO is producing the most traffic, and how to best localize it.
    This is especially a concern in keeping our long lines free of extraneous
    traffic from careless mounts (a current problem with NFS).

5)  Tell me any advice and experience you all have putting Novell, 3Com,
    Banyan, and LAN manager based machines on your TCP/IP backbone.

I appreciate any help.  I'm highly concerned, since IPX was designed as a 
protocol for small LANs, I fear it will grossly misbehave in a WAN environment.
I also fear that the traffic among these LANs may be prohibitive.  But what
I fear the most is the inability to adequately track, troubleshoot and document these nodes, since we will not be assigning addresses for them, and it would
be hard to track down illegal installations.  We run a tight ship here and
need 24 x 7 availability, and we simply cannot afford chaos on out network.

Thanks again for all of your help.  I will post a summary if sufficeient 
interest exists.

P.S.  Vendors like Novell & 3Com were baffled by this request at NetWorld 90.
Why would you want that?  Just make your TCP/IP hosts speak IPX!  Sigh. 8-(.
I turn to the net for the definitive answer 8-).

Phillip A. Remaker A.M.D. M/S 167 P.O. Box 3453 Sunnyvale, CA 94088-3000
remaker@amdcad.amd.com  Cutting Edge Networking...Close to the Jugular...
"It's only work if someone makes you do it."  -Calvin