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We have an application on a 280 running Oracle 8 (supposedly latest patch
level) that talks to an Oracle database on a 420 running Oracle 9.
There is a private gigabit network (crossover cable) between the two
machines.

The application does a very large amount of Oracle transactions in the
middle of the night. Next morning, we find the private network hung --
can't ping between the boxes -- but no error messages. Upon unplugging
and plugging in the cable, we get a message that the network has been
unplugged, and the problem (temporarily) goes away.

The admin that set up these machines says there was an issue with
Gigabit interfaces with Solaris 8 but the required patch had been
applied.

Anyone else heard of this? It appears to only happen under load, the
symptom is that the (private) network goes completely away, and a simple
unplug/replug restores it.


Ron
--
[http://www.christianfamilywebsite.com
"Portland: The city that works" -- Mayor Vera Katz
...By an overwhelming margin, Oregonians voted Portland the crappiest
city in Oregon. (The Oregonian, August 21, 2003)

Ron Christian wrote:
>
> We have an application on a 280 running Oracle 8 (supposedly latest patch
> level) that talks to an Oracle database on a 420 running Oracle 9.
> There is a private gigabit network (crossover cable) between the two
> machines.
>
> The application does a very large amount of Oracle transactions in the
> middle of the night. Next morning, we find the private network hung --
> can't ping between the boxes -- but no error messages. Upon unplugging
> and plugging in the cable, we get a message that the network has been
> unplugged, and the problem (temporarily) goes away.
>
> The admin that set up these machines says there was an issue with
> Gigabit interfaces with Solaris 8 but the required patch had been
> applied.
>
> Anyone else heard of this? It appears to only happen under load, the
> symptom is that the (private) network goes completely away, and a simple
> unplug/replug restores it.

Can you put a gigabit switch in between the two machines for the private
network? It saves money to wire computers straight together like this, but
I've never known it to be completely hassle-free. You didn't say if this
was copper or fiber, but maybe something like a Netgear GS104 and a couple
of straight-thru cables would be an inexpensive way to find out if it helps.
Or maybe you have some spare kit you can temporarily liberate for the purposes
of a test.

--
Griff Miller II | |
Manager of Information Technology | "I need to be the owner of all of |
Positron Corporation | the files in /usr/kvm." |
griff.miller@positron.com | |

Try forcing both interfaces to full duplex, no auto neg. and same speed.

"Ron Christian" <ronc@europa.com> wrote in message
news:vmbs36dei17h80@corp.supernews.com...
>
> We have an application on a 280 running Oracle 8 (supposedly latest patch
> level) that talks to an Oracle database on a 420 running Oracle 9.
> There is a private gigabit network (crossover cable) between the two
> machines.
>
> The application does a very large amount of Oracle transactions in the
> middle of the night. Next morning, we find the private network hung --
> can't ping between the boxes -- but no error messages. Upon unplugging
> and plugging in the cable, we get a message that the network has been
> unplugged, and the problem (temporarily) goes away.
>
> The admin that set up these machines says there was an issue with
> Gigabit interfaces with Solaris 8 but the required patch had been
> applied.
>
> Anyone else heard of this? It appears to only happen under load, the
> symptom is that the (private) network goes completely away, and a simple
> unplug/replug restores it.
>
>
> Ron
> --
> [http://www.christianfamilywebsite.com
> "Portland: The city that works" -- Mayor Vera Katz
> ...By an overwhelming margin, Oregonians voted Portland the crappiest
> city in Oregon. (The Oregonian, August 21, 2003)

Rick Jones wrote:
>
> Ron Christian <ronc@europa.com> wrote:
> > We have an application on a 280 running Oracle 8 (supposedly latest patch
> > level) that talks to an Oracle database on a 420 running Oracle 9.
> > There is a private gigabit network (crossover cable) between the two
> > machines.
>
> Does Gigabit Ethernet really need a cross-over cable to connect to
> hosts back-to-back? My understanding was that a straight-through
> cable would suffice. Certainly, that is what I've been doing when
> going back-to-back with GbE.

AIUI, GigE is supposed to autodetect such situations and compensate for
them. It shouldn't matter one way or the other.

Approximately 9/15/03 12:49, qwerty top-posted:

> Try forcing both interfaces to full duplex, no auto neg. and same speed.

Gigabit doesn't *do* anything but half duplex and unless it is
a 10 gigabit capable NIC, there is no speed setting. Nor can
you really disable auto negotiation...although in some NIC's if
you set no auto, it makes flow control mandatory for link up.

Lon Stowell wrote:
>
> Approximately 9/15/03 12:49, qwerty top-posted:
>
> > Try forcing both interfaces to full duplex, no auto neg. and same speed.
>
> Gigabit doesn't *do* anything but half duplex and unless it is
> a 10 gigabit capable NIC, there is no speed setting.

Are you talking about a specific NIC, here? IME, this statement isn't
true. (Note though that I'm new to the world of Sun hardware. My
background is Intel.)

According to the docs I have, GigE supports *full* duplex only. Plus,
every (copper) gigabit card I've seen autonegotiates to 10/100/1000.
There are always ways to force them to a specific speed via their
driver.