Hey Folks -
Thanks for the quick response! The patch I was looking for was # 100768.
Randy Ott of Logicon on beatiful Bellvue, WA sent the README, so I will
in my summary.
The specific patch was designed to work with SS2, but you will notice in
the README that sun4m is supported.
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Patch-ID# 100768-01
Keywords: collisions, repeaters, PC
Synopsis: 4.1.1;4.1.2;4.1.3: Extremely high collision rate when using SS2 servers and repeaters
Date: 13-Oct-92
SunOS release: 4.1.1, 4.1.2, 4.1.3
Unbundled Product: Not Applicable
Unbundled Release: Not Applicable
Topic: Network performance with SS2's.
BugId's fixed with this patch: 1075049
Changes incorporated in this version:
Architectures for which this patch is available: sun4c,sun4m
Patches which may conflict with this patch: 100330
Obsoleted by:
Files included with this patch: if_le.o
Problem Description:
In a multi-vendor network (with PC's,etc),collision-rate was going
sky high when the first SparcSation-2's were installed as servers.
Collision rate was around 1-3% and goes to 30-50% when connecting
SS-2's on the net.
INSTALL:
1) mv /sys/sun{4c,4m}/OBJ/if_le.o /sys/sun{4c,4m}/OBJ/if_le.o.fcs
cp sun{4c,4m}/4.1.{1,2,3}/if_le.o /sys/sun{4c,4m}/OBJ
2) In case of sun4m and 4.1.2 also:
cp sun4m/4.1.2/atom.h /sys/os
Please Refer to the System and Networking Administration Manual
section on building and installing a custom kernel.
CAVEATS :
1) The patch should be installed on ALL Sparcstations on the
network for obtaining lowered collision rate.
2) When the network utilisation is high for ex > 30%, this patch will
NOT be effective - since the load is high and high collision rate is
inevitable. This patch is NOT a cure-all and should be used as a
last resort
3) There is a possible performance hit with this patch installed-
though this was found to be nominal even at high CPU utilisation.
4) This patch is more effective in a Multi-vendor environment as against
a Sun Workstation only network because the original problem was that
the slower machines ,such as the PC's, could not get on the network
and used to time out.
OTHER NOTES:
The patch for the "le" driver is designed such that "le" interface switches
from "back-to-back packet" mode to "packet-at-a-time" mode at a collision rate
of 10 % by default (lecollhi = 100 Decimal). When the collision rate drops
below 5% by default (lecolllo = 50 Decimal), the "le" interface switches
back to "back-to-back packet" mode.
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Thanks to all those who responded:
Randy Ott <randy@sisdbell.Logicon.COM
"Harold A. Miller" <Hal.Miller@mel.dit.csiro.au
shandelm@jpmorgan.com (Joel Shandelman
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