  DECnet IVADDR invalid media address? 
 The Question is:
 
We have a Vax 7000/640 CI cluster with two nodes, running shadowed system
disk vms 7.1 from 2 hsj40's. After adding a satellite node (a Vax 3100 -96,
running netconfig, updating ncp databases on both CI nodes using
netnode_update.com, I'm able to run the
machine as part of the cluster, able to start LAT and UCX, but cannot start
DECnet (Phase IV).
The error seems to be due to the ethernet address reverting to
00-00-00-00-00-00.
The line id is correct (ISA-0).
I Have checked:
1) Startup order - by doing a Minimum boot so that only Security server and
job control processe are running.... still unable to start Decnet.
2) After running netconfig, I cannot start decnet  due to line having
"invalid media address".
3) I have checked the ncp hardware address on both CI nodes is defined
correctlt in perm and vol databases.
4) SCSNODE and SCSSYSTEMID are correct.
5) If I manually define the line in ncp and the try to start the line, the
ethernet address again = 00-00-00-00-00-00.
6) Licenses are valid for net-app-sup-400, vaxcluster, vax-vms and
base-vms-*****.
7) I tried an alternate 3100-96 machine with the same results. These two
machines were previously in a LAVC with decnet working correctly.
8) One of the CI nodes is a decnet  area router, but not the BOOT server.
(Is this a problem ? )
Help!!!
 
 
 The Answer is:
 
  Ensure that DECnet starts before other Ethernet protocols.  (It is
  possible to start DECnet after other protocols via various switches,
  but this is generally the easiest approach.)
 
  As for the "invalid media address" errors, please see:
 
$ HELP/MESSAGE IVADDR
 
 IVADDR,  invalid media address
 
  Facility:     SYSTEM, System Services
 
  Explanation:  This message can occur for several reasons:
 
		...
 
                o A duplicate address test failed on an attempt to start a
                  network protocol.
		...
 
  Additional information is available in the IVADDR error message and
  recovery text.  Ensure that you do not have an address collision.
 
  The boot server operation need not involve DECnet at all, as the one
  piece of the DECnet architecture used for satellite downloads -- the
  maintenance and operations protocol (MOP) -- is also available via the
  LANCP utility (in V6.2 and later).  That there is a DECnet area router
  involved in the cluster matters not.
 
