| I only know the answer to 1a)
The Stack Director can talk over the ThinWire LAN
or its UTP port. The MS612EX does not connect to thinwire
by default, you must manually do that using MCM.
So if you used a repeater port instead it would
have worked, since repeaters are connected to the
thinwire by default.
Also, there is no listening/learning period involved
since the MS612 does not implement spanning tree.
I can guess 1b) is that the stack director is considered
to be an end-station rather than a repeater. So its UTP
can be connected to a repeater port which normally has
a cross-over built-in.
-Mike
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| You should be able to manage the Stack Director and all its modules from
the 612EX front port if:
- The correct cable type is going into the 612EX (straight thru).
- You have used MCM 6.1 to connect the 612EX to Thinwire.
[This is probably where you went wrong.
The 624T by default will connect to Thinwire; the 612EX won't.
This is analagous to DECswitch 900EF not connecting by default
while DECrepeater900TM does. And with the 612EX not providing
spanning tree, it would be realllly dangerous to default to
Thinwire.]
- There is no 10baseT cable connected to the Stack Director's
10baseT port. If there is a 10baseT connection, it will
override any management traffic on the Thinwire, whether the
origin of the traffic on the Thinwire was a stack module or
the Stack Director's own 10base2 port (BNC connector).
[The 10baseT override is how you got your stack manageable.]
- The BNC connector on the Stack Director has a 50ohm terminator,
or a valid connection.
The Network Activity LED on the Stack Director will blink whenever
there is activity on the management channel. Which management
channel? The management channel will be the Thinwire if there is no
10baseT connection on the Stack Manager, or 10baseT if there is a
connection to the Stack Director 10baseT connector. Unfortunately
there is no visual indication of which management channel is in use.
The LEDs next to the 10baseT and BNC connectors simply indicate that
they are operational.
Another difference between the 10baseT and BNC management connectors
on the Stack Director is that the BNC connection will pass traffic
received over it onto the Thinwire, and traffic that goes from
modules to Thinwire is also propagated out the BNC port, DEChub 90 style.
Traffic that enters the Stack Director via the 10baseT port is not
propagated beyond the Stack Director's own MAC (though of course
the CSNMP gateway will relay management commands to modules).
Dotsie
|
|
So, the MS600 family differs from the DH900 in that the Stack
Director really has it's own MAC whereas the MAM in a DH900
depends on being associated with the MAC of some module, identified
by the "IP Services Module Slot".
Since the "Stack Director" setup menus didn't ask about any slot when
the IP address was defined, I guessed that the module plugged into
the "Stack Director" provided the MAC and the special management
channel path from the MS612EX (in this case) to the SD (Stack Director).
Not true. Instead, the SD has a MAC that is associated with the ThinWire
by default, or the 10baseT port if something is plugged in there.
OKay, I can understand that. I was slightly concerned that everybody
in the world was going to need a cross-over cable to get anything
going and it doesn't seem to be the case. In my case, I would have been
able to plug into one of the 624Ts and pinged away. In a typical DH900
config, that doesn't work until the repeaters have to have a path to the
"IP Services Module" (which I was thinking was the MS612EX) and I
presumed (correctly) did not have defualt connections to any
back[stack]plane LANs.
If I didn't have a cross over cable, and all I had was a MS612EX+SD I
could use a straight cable to jumper from the SD's 10baseT port to a
front panel MS612EX port and another straight cable to the Mgnt stn.
I_admit_to_never_reading_the_manuals, Dave
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