# @(#)READMEFIRST	1.11 93/03/23	Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation
#	From 	1.15  Interphase
#

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What is on this CD-ROM ?
---- -- -- ---- ------ -

This CD-ROM disk contains release 1.2 of the Sun Network CoProcessor (SNC)
software.


Where is it used?
----- -- -- -----

This release of the Sun Network CoProcessor software is intended for
use with SunOS Releases 4.1.3.

This SNC software requires at least one Network CoProcessor board to be
present in the system. The same software distribution is used for
configurations with one or several Network CoProcessors. Note that this
SNC software release is supported for the machines listed below with any
type of Interphase VME NC board including the boards that were previously
referred to as SNC or NC400 boards.

Supported systems:				Max Supported NC boards
	SPARCserver 690MP (4/690)			8
	SPARCserver 670MP (4/670)			4
	SPARCserver 630MP (4/630)			2
	SPARCserver 490 (4/490)				6
	SPARCserver 470 (4/470)				4

In addition to the Network CoProcessors, Sun Ethernet interfaces can be
configured on the server.  Of course, using only Network CoProcessors for
all Ethernet connections to the server will allow you to maximize the
server's NFS serving capacity.

Please refer to the SNC 1.2 Installation Guide for instruction on how
to install the SNC boards.

**************************************************************************
*                                                                        *
*      IMPORTANT:   MINIMUM HARDWARE REVISION LEVEL REQUIREMENTS         *
*                                                                        *
*  1 - SPARCserver 490 or 470 CPU board:                                 *
*                                                                        *
*  The Sun CPU board of the target SPARCserver 4/470 or 4/490 MUST be    *
*  at the -09 (or higher) revision level. This number can be located on  *
*  the plastic tab attached to the top extractor handle of the board.    *
*  The top side of the tab carries a part and serial number that starts  *
*  with the following digits: 5011381. The revision level is found on    *
*  the back side of this tab and starts with a dash (e.g. -09).          *
*                                                                        *
*  CPU boards marked -08 and below will experience system hangs or       *
*  crashes (e.g. data fault) under heavy load as explained in the        *
*  Field Information Notice #I0069-1. Changes were made in the VME       *
*  arbitration PAL to support VME boards that produce high VMEbus        *
*  activity and data transfers. Do not attempt to install any NC         *
*  board in the system if the CPU board does not meet this revision      *
*  level requirement.                                                    *
*                                                                        *
*  2 - Sun ISP-80 IPI disk controllers:                                  *
*                                                                        *
*  Two generations of the Sun ISP-80 IPI disk controller exist. As       *
*  described above, the part number is located on the plastic tab        *
*  attached to the top extractor handle of the board. If the number on   *
*  the top side of the plastic tab starts with: 5011539, the revision    *
*  level found on the back side should be -10 or higher. If the number   *
*  on the top side starts with: 5011855, the revision number on the back *
*  side should be -03 or higher.                                         *
*                                                                        *
*  Lower revision numbers may result in system crashes and file system   *
*  inconsistencies if the disk controllers are subjected to an intense   *
*  load (often a result of the improved capacity of the server following *
*  Network CoProcessor installation.)                                    *
*                                                                        *
*                                                                        *
*      IMPORTANT:   MINIMUM SOFTWARE REVISION LEVEL REQUIREMENTS         *
*                                                                        *
*  SunOS 4.1.3							 *
*									 *
*  The following patch is recommended for SNC 1.2 to run properly on     *
*  SunOS 4.1.3 at high loads.  Install the patch before loading the	 *
*  SNC software:	 						 *
*									 *
*  Patch ID:  100623							 *
*									 *
*  Performance Note:							 *
*	For optimum performance on a server with 128 MB or more, we      *
*	recommend setting MAXUSERS to 128.  Refer to the Sun Systems	 *
*	Administration guide for more information about tuning kernel	 *
*	parameters.							 *
*									 *
**************************************************************************


How is it installed?
--- -- -- ----------

Sun recommends that you use the script(1) command before starting
installation to keep a log of the installation in a file of your choice. 
This may prove useful in case of problems or for your own future reference.

The Network CoProcessor boards are configured by default in the factory
for operation in an 802.3 network environment. It is important to verify
a proper match exists between the various components of the network
connection: both the transceiver and the transceiver cable must be 802.3
compliant to insure a reliable network connection.


Improvements Since Previous Release
------------ ----- -------- -------

This SNC 1.2 release offers the following improvements over the
previous SNC 1.0 release and subsequent patches to this release:

1. The SPARCserver 690 now supports up to eight (8) NC boards.

2. SNC software installation script:
   The installation script now allows the installer to specify names for
   the kernel configuration file and the new kernel, overriding the 
   automatic name selection performed by the script.

3. Additional server off-loading:
   All duplicate NFS request processing is now handled by the NC board
   itself. The NC board detects and filters as appropriate NFS requests
   that were retried by impatient NFS clients, if a previous identical
   request was just serviced by the server. It also maintains a cache of
   NFS replies for the same purpose. These techniques improve the overall
   performance of the server in congested situations by limiting duplicate
   work on the server. [NOTE: This feature is off by default.]

4. Increased NFS write performance:
   The processing of the NFS write operations was streamlined and highly
   optimized to provide at least a factor of two performance improvement.
   This is achieved through better control of the file system, improved
   disk scheduling and reduced disk seeks and accesses by processing
   related NFS write operations concurrently present on the server at the 
   same time.  As most NFS client machines send NFS write operations in 
   groups to the server (through the existence of biod(8) processes), this 
   improvement has a significant impact on performance. This impact is most 
   dramatic for machines that do not already benefit from a hardware NFS 
   write performance accelerator such as PrestoServe (TM). Clients running 
   additional biod(8) processes provide better optimization opportunities 
   and achieve the highest performance.  This feature maintains total 
   compliance to the NFS protocol specification and guarantees the 
   synchronous nature of NFS write operations.

5. New sncnet -E option:
   Support for a new -E command line option was added to the sncnet(8)
   utility to display the factory-installed Ethernet address of the given
   NC board. As explained in the box below, the Ethernet address may not be
   the address currently in use by the board; the -e option should still
   be used as before to obtain the current (in use) Ethernet address.

This release was ported from Interphase's NC600 2.1.2P2 release.

**************************************************************************
*                                                                        *
*                        NC Ethernet Addresses                           *
*                        ---------------------                           *
*                                                                        *
*  By default, the Ethernet address of an NC board is initialized to     *
*  its host system Ethernet address that is contained on the Sun CPU     *
*  motherboard PROM. Sun uses a single Ethernet address PER SYSTEM, not  *
*  per Ethernet port.                                                    *
*                                                                        *
*  This standard Sun approach may cause difficulties in networks where   *
*  MAC-layer bridges are used between networks connected to separate     *
*  Ethernet interfaces of a same server, as the bridges rely on unique   *
*  Ethernet addresses PER PORT to switch packets between networks.       *
*                                                                        *
*  In this situation, or in any other situation where unique Ethernet    *
*  addresses PER PORT are desired, the NC offers several options to make *
*  use of a unique Ethernet address on each NC board. A unique address   *
*  is factory programmed on each NC board. This address can be used by   *
*  the NC software to replace the Sun system address when the board      *
*  initializes.                                                          *
*                                                                        *
*  A command line that is part of the NC /etc/rc.boot script additions   *
*  may be used to control this address selection. The line is:           *
*  #			ifconfig ne$N ether `sncnet -E ne$N`             *
*  This line is normally commented out, to maintain the use of the Sun   *
*  PER SYSTEM address on all NC boards. To select the PER PORT addresses *
*  on the NC boards,  edit /etc/rc.boot to remove the '#' sign in front  *
*  of this line and reboot the system.                                   *
*                                                                        *
*                      ****  Important Note  ****                        *
*  Whenever an Ethernet address for a given interface changes, other     *
*  systems that used to directly communicate with the server (i.e. on    *
*  the same IP network) through this interface may need to be made aware *
*  of the change. Any outdated entry in the ARP table of these machines  *
*  showing the old server interface addresses MUST be deleted to be able *
*  to communicate to the server. This particularly applies to ALL the    *
*  systems that are directly attached to the reconfigured  server        *
*  interface if they intend to communicate with the server, e.g. client  *
*  machines or ROUTERS to other IP networks. On UNIX machines, you may   *
*  use the "arp -d <server_name>" command or simply reboot the machine.  *
*                                                                        *
**************************************************************************

6. Improved version string:
   The NC software version string for a given NC board is obtained via
   the sncnet(8) command, used with the '-V' option. The first line of 
   the version information display pertains to the software running on the
   NC board itself. A field is added to the end of this first line that
   indicates the clock rate of the NC board on-board CPU, in megahertz.

   For example:
       server# sncnet -V ne1
       NC version e4207-2b-2.1.2 #250 (25 Sep 92) [16]
       Sun Network CoProcessor (SNC) Release 1.2 (17 Jan 93)
       Copyright (c) 1990-1993, Interphase Corporation.
       Copyright (c) 1991-1993, Sun Microsystems, Inc

       server#

   This display indicates that SNC board "ne1" on host "server" is a 16 MHz
   SNC board, running SNC 1.2 software.


Bugs Fixed In This Release
--------------------------

1. A problem was fixed with Ethernet multicast frame reception. This would
   only happen whenever the NC board is used with a non-ntaive protocol
   such as AppleTalk(tm) or DecNet(tm).

2. A problem was fixed in the downloaded NC software that could have affected
   non-sun4m server: an NFS write request containing 0 bytes of data may
   in certain situations have caused the server to panic in snc_nfsd with
   "data fault."

3. A problem was fixed with running NC utilities that make use of the
   "kvm" library on a SunOS 4.1.3 machine.

4. The server will now boot even if the on-board server Ethernet port
   is not connected to an Ethernet.  If your on-board Ethernet port
   *will not* be connected to a network, i.e. it will be unused, then
   you should configure the on-board Ethernet as down when doing the
   install.  Prior to this release, you would get reverse ARP timeouts
   from the on-board Ethernet port if it was not connected to a network
   which prevented the server from booting completely.

A complete list of the fixed bugs follows:

1077307 - SNC 1.0 software doesn't contain 4.1.2 lockfs support
1082456 - Galaxy with 6 - NC600 sometimes panics under load
1085635 - System panics when allocating new kernel memory
1091436 - panic iinactive omni_nfsd
1093534 - With NC600, the system keeps failing with "panic: Data fault"
1095031 - snc 1.0 is not compatible with sunlink dni
1093247 - SNC 1.0 on sun4m causes NFS server not responding under 4.1.2
1098571 - Sun Network Coprocessor install munges kernel config files
1105969 - Cannot build a kernel for NC400 on a Sun4 system
1106100 - SNC 1.0's nfsstat reports kas error on 4.1.3m


Limitations / Deficiencies
----------- - ------------

The following limitations exist in this release of the Sun Network
CoProcessor software:

1. Secure RPC is not supported (bugid 1100619).

2. The "auto-revarp" parameter of the ifconfig(8C) utility is not
   supported by this release of the SNC. This parameter is intended for
   acquisition from the network of an IP address for the requesting
   interface.


Upgrading From SNC 1.X
--------- ---- --- ---

No deinstallation of previous SNC software is required to upgrade to SNC
1.2.  Proceed with the normal installation instructions as described in
the "Sun Network CoProcessor, Release 1.2, Installation Guide".  The
installation script may prompt the operator with the following message: 

"It appears that SNC has already been installed on this server.
 Do you want to continue with this installation?"

Answer 'yes' or 'y' to this question to proceed with the normal SNC 1.2
installation.


There are a few differences between the SNC 1.0 and the SNC 1.2 software:

1. For servers with five or more NC boards:
**************************************************************************
*  The NC board addresses for boards ne4 and ne5 have been modified to   *
*  avoid an address conflict with the Sun or Legato VME PrestoServe      *
*  board. Refer to the "Sun Network CoProcessor, Release 1.2,            *
*  Installation Guide" for the new switch settings for these two boards. *
**************************************************************************

2. The Ethernet address used by the NC board(s) with the SNC 1.2
   software release is the address assigned by Sun Microsystems to the    
   server. This follows how SunOS configures native Ethernet interfaces.  
   This represents a change from some of the earlier NC software releases
   that made use of the NC on-board Ethernet address configured by
   Interphase on each NC board. Refer to the box on NC Ethernet addresses
   in the "Improvements since Previous Release" section of this document.
                                                                          
3. This SNC software release also provides enhancements over SNC 1.0
   in the area of IP network addresses.  On multi-Ethernet servers,
   installation of new SNC boards or new NFS clients accessing the server
   through an SNC board no longer requires configuration changes on the
   SNC-attached NFS clients. To mount file systems through NFS from the
   server, clients may either use the "hostname" of the server (output of
   /usr/bin/hostname on the server) or the name associated with the SNC
   interface IP address on the server.  Refer to Appendix F of the "Sun
   Network CoProcessor, Release 1.2, Installation Guide" for more details.
                                                                          
If SunOS 4.1.3 was installed on the server using the "sunupgrade"
upgrade utility (as opposed to the "suninstall" installation utility), and
if a previous version of the Interphase Network CoProcessor release (not
SNC) was already installed on this machine, this previous NC software
probably still exists and we recommend that you delete it BEFORE installing
SNC 1.2.
