Sun Microsystems, Inc. So ft ware TECH Bulletin Bulletin Number: NETW-0001 Document Control Number. 812-0001 Date: 10 / 23 / 85 Page 1 of 4 Product(s) Affected: 2.0 and up software releases Symptoms / Topic: Poor Network Performance Problem / Background: Excessive collision rates on network Current Solution: Effective Maintenance of Hardware Permanent Solution: Effective Maintenance of Hardware Other Information: Ethernets, unlike other local area networks, are designed to keep working despite the possible failure of one or more of the computers on the net. While this is an admirable feature, it does not mean that an ethernet is entirely immune to the behavior of individual computers or stations. There are times when a malfunction in one machine can affect the performance of the entire network. Recently, such a phenomenon was observed on the Sun Customer Support network. Service in general was very poor. All the machines were running too slowly, with the greatest impact being felt by the diskless clients. Processes were timing out, not because the servers were down, but because response time was so slow. From the viewpoint of individual clients, it often appeared as if, in fact, their server had died. Through the use of netstat and perfmeter, high collision rates were detected on the net. For some time the cause of this problem was not clear. Eventually it was discovered that one machine was the source of the trouble. It had a short in its internal ethernet cable that resulted in a failure to detect carrier presence. When a station on the ethernet wants to broadcast something it first checks the net for a carrier signal. The presence of carrier indicates the use of the net by someone else. Normally, the station in question would wait a randomly determined period of time before attempting a re-broadcast. A collision occurs whenever two or more machines try to broadcast at the same tine, or when one machine has the net and another tries to use it. A collision causes all stations to stop broadcasting and to retry later. Ideally, collision rates are very low, below 1%. Rates higher than a few percent mean that stations are spending too much time trying to broadcast messages and/or waiting for answers. The main implication of this carrier detection scheme is that control of an ethernet is distributed among the constituent stations. There is no centralized arbiter analogous to a bus master. In effect, one workstation was ignoring the ethernet arbitration method and broadcasting whenever it had a packet ready.The result was an 85% collision rate for this rogue machine and lower, but still very high, rates for all the others. The culprit was found by running a simple shell ■cript, as root, from a machine with an entry in the /.rhosts file of every other machine on the net. Some information on the organization of the Customer Support network may be helpful here. The net is fairly homogeneous in the sense that all machines on it are Suns. However, it is heterogeneous in terms of the individual machine configurations. There are 80 Suns on the net. Many are diskless SO's and 100's being served by 170's. Some are 100's or 120's with their own local disks, using some NFS services. Most, but not all, are running 2.0, and most of these are running yellow pages. The script netbugs, with comments and sample output, is included here. #!/bin/sh # # usage: netbugs netnumber [Mtu value] # # Netbugs runs the command 'netstat -i' on all the machines on a local # network and directs the output to a file called 'results'. This file # is then used as input to a grep|awk|sort pipeline which writes to # standard output. The form of the output is a 4 column table. Each # row contains, .in order, the host name, the number of output packets, # the number.of collisions and the percentage of collisions. The table # is sorted by collision percentages, in descending order. # # Netbugs requires at least one argument and may take an optional second # one. The first argument is that part of an internet number which is # specific to the domain you wish to search. For example, given the # argument '192.9', netbugs will try to run on every host known to my # yp server. Given '192.9.4', netbugs will try to run on every host on # the support net. Finally, given '192.9.4.80', netbugs will only run on # my machine, aurora, (inefficient, but allowable). # # The second, optional, argument is the Mtu number (Maximum transmission 0 unit). This is the largest allowable size for the data segment of an # Ethernet packet. This may be installation specific. The default value # is 1500, the Mtu on Sun's network. # # All sorts of error messages show up on the final output if the machine f from which netbugs is run is not known to the target machines. # # case $# in 0) echo "Usage: netbugs netnumber [Mtu value] " ; exit 1 ;; 1) netnum-$l ; Mtu=1500 ;; 2) netnum»$l ; Mtu»$2 ;; *) echo "netbugs: too many arguments" ; exit 1 esac rm results for i in "ypcat hostsjgrep $netnum|awk '{print $2}'* do echo 'Host: ' $i »results rsh $i -n netstat -i 2>itl »results echo 'Done: ' $i »results done echo " Host Opkts Collis %" ; echo "" grep $Mtu results|\ awk '{printf("\t%-12s%10d%10d%10.lf%%\n",$4,$7,$9,(($9/$7)*100))}'|\ sort +3n -r Here is some sample output generated from the Customer Support Network by the command 'netbugs 192.9.4'.,The list is relatively short because the script cannot access all the machines on the support net from my machine. Host Opkt Collis % arrakis 17220 1174 6.8 % brahe 140170 4178 3.0 % perle 75349 1850 2.5 % mtbsc 210085 4539 2.2 % sunview 17059 3814 2.2 % doctor 175955 3696 2.1 % fedora 130391 2751 2.1 % ufo 43351 903 2.1 % cos 80143 1636 2.0 % nebadon 151019 3025 2.0 % terrapin 9989 198 2.0 % do jo 98547 1878 1.9 % junior 166796 3152 1.9 % polar 253375 4810 1.9 % stellar 278984 5412 1.9 % daedalus 95878 1726 1.8 % mabstoa 151642 2449 1.6 % shogun 200312 3245 1.6 % kuma 116195 1763 1.5 % sunstorm 231093 3353 1.5 % aurora 578814 6185 1.1 % helios 186373 2004 1.1 % ray 317618 3447 1.1 % sunbow 369949 4109 1.1 % delmar 11770 123 1.0 % sundial 326012 3282 1.0 % vfree 1066755 10353 1.0 % jazz 186185 1602 0.9 % sunburst 1763686 14717 0.8 % celestial 40860 306 0.7 % sundew 12002 71 0.6 % prophet 60021 274 0.5 % hades-bb 90508 49 0.0 % sundew-hp 2153 0 0.0 % Originator: Michael Kamerick Organization: Customer Support Engineering SUN LSER CROUP 25 February 1985 Dear Sun User Group Member: Thank you for your interest in the Sun User Group Donated Software Distribution. As you may know, it is our intention to collect and distribute software programs written by our members that can be shared with others. Conceivably, some of this software might contain licensed software that has distribution restrictions. We have made application to AT&T for permission to distribute any software containing UNIX source code to those members with AT&T UNIX source licenses. However, since this licensing issue remains unresolved, we will be collecting ONLY unlicensed software for the first distribution targeted for release April. If you have any software program, utility, game, tool etc. that you would like to contribute to this first release, simply follow the instructions below. Some of you may already know that you would like to contribute licensed software. Though it cannot be included on this first release, we will certainly want to have it on the second release. Please notify us that you have such software and we will be sure to contact you when the licensing issues have been resolved. If you do not have any software to contribute, but would like a copy of the distribution, complete and return the Sun User Group Donated Software Distribution Request Form and License with your payment. How to contribute software: 1. Complete the "Software Contributor Release Form and License" with required information and authorized signature. 2. Provide your software on either a 1/4" or 1/2" tape made in tar format. You may also send it electronically to !sun!users. If you do send it over the network, include for all listings a checksum [SUM(l)] of the files being sent. 3. Each program should be in a separate directory and include the following: a) a "READ_ME" file i. author information: name, address, phone (optional) ii. copyright information (if applicable) iii. program size (binary form) and block size b) a makefile c) a brief on-line manual page (written in standard UNIX manual documentation format — see sample attached or can be found in User Manual for the Sun Workstation, Section 7 MAN(7). 4. Since this is an unsuppported tape, inclusion of your name and phone number is optional. Be sure to note on the "Software Contributor Release Form and License" whether or not you wish to have this information on the tape. Sun Microsystem*. User Group, Inc. • 2550 Garcia Avenue • Mountain View, CA 94043 • 415-QoO-1300 • TLX 4^327 - 2 - 5. This form and accompanying software must be received by the Sun User Group 110 later than March 15, 1985 for inclusion in the 85.1 Software Distribution which will be ready in April. How to order the Donated Software Distribution: 1. Complete the "Donated Software Distribution Request Form and License" with required information and authorized signature. 2. Attach a check for $100 made payable to "Sun User Group" drawn on a U.S. bank and in U.S. dollars. Sun User Group does not invoice. Checks must be identified with the name of the member and/or membership number or they will be returned. Address all correspondence to: Sun User Group 2550 Garcia Avenue M/S 5-12 Mountain View, CA 94304 Attn: Laura Tong MAN(7) TABLES MAN(7) NAME man - macros to typeset manual SYNOPSIS nroff -man file ... troff -man file ... DESCRIPTION These macros are used to lay out pages of this manual. A skeleton page may be found in the file /usr/man/manO/xx. Any text argument t may be zero to six words. Quotes may be used to include blanks in a 'word' If text is empty, the special treatment is applied to the next input line with text to be printed In this way .1 may be used to italicize a whole line, or .SM followed by .B to make small bold letters. A prevailing indent distance is remembered between successive indented paragraphs, and is reset to default value upon reaching a non-indented paragraph. Default units for indents t are ens. Type font and size &re reset to default values before each paragraph, and after processing font and size setting macros. These strings are predefined by —man: \*R ' '(Reg)' in nroff. \*S Change to default type size. FILES /usr/lib/tmac/tmac.an /usr/man/manO/xx SEE ALSO troff(l), man(l) BUGS Relative indents don't nest. REQUESTS Request Cause If no Explanation Break Argument .B I no f=n.t.l.* Text t is bold. .BI t no t=n.t.l. Join words of t alternating bold and italic. .BR t no <=n.t.l. Join words of t alternating bold and Roman. .DT no ,5i li... Restore default tabs. .HP » yes i=p.i.* Set prevailing indent to t. Begin paragraph with hanging indent. .1 t no <=n.t.l. Text t is italic. .m t no <=n.t.l. Join words of I alternating italic and bold. .IP x i yes J WW Same as .TP with tag x. .m t no (=n.t.l. Join words of t alternating italic and Roman. .LP yes - Same as .PP .PD d no d=Av Interparagraph distance is d. .PP yes • Begin paragraph. Set prevailing indent to .5i. .RE yes - End of relative indent. Set prevailing indent to amount of starting .RS. .RB t no <=n.t.l. Join words of t alternating Roman and bold. .RI t no <=n.t.l. Join words of t alternating Roman and italic. .RS » yes t=p.i. Start relative indent, move left margin in distance i. Set prevailing indent to ,5i for nested indents. .SH t yes <=n.t.l. Subhead .SM t no <=n.t.l. Text < is small. .TH n c x v i rnyes - Begin page named n of chapter c; x is extra commentary, e.g. 'local', for Sun Release 1.1 Last change: 7 March 1983 11 MAN(7) TABLES MAN(7) page foot center; v alters page foot left, e.g. '4th Berkeley Distribution'; m alters page bead center, e.g. 'Brand X Programmer's Manual'. Set prevailing indent and tabs to 5i .TP t yes t=*p.i. Set prevailing indent to t. Begin indented paragraph with hanging tag given by next text line. If tag doesn't fit, place it on separate line. * n.t.l. = next text line; p.i. = prevailing indent 12 Last change: 7 March 1983 Sun Release 1.1 Sun Microsystems User Group, Inc. DONATED SOFTWARE DISTRIBUTION Contributor Release Form and License (Unlicensed Software) Name of Submitter: Institution:_ Address: _ Phone: ( )_ Network Address: ___ Circle one: Please include/don't include the above information in the tape. I have submitted the materials identified below (hereinafter referred to as the MATERIALS) to the Sun User Group for inclusion in the "Sun User Group Donated Software Distribution" (hereinafter referred to as the SOFTWARE). I hereby grant to the Sun User Group a license to use the MATERIALS and to redistribute them to its members. Identification or description of the MATERIALS: Approximate size of the program (binary):_Block size:_ I declare that, to the best of my knowledge, the proprietary rights to the MATERIALS: ( ) are in the Public Domain or ( ) remain with_. (owner) Authorized Signature Ni Please return form to: (Printed) Date Sun User Group Attn: Laura Tong 2550 Garcia Avenue M/S 5-12 Mountain View, CA 91013 Sun Mitrosv«.t«TK User Group Int. • 2550 Garcia Avenue • Mountain View, CA 04043 • 415-9oO Rev. 01: 2/19/85 -1300 • TLX 4/p032'r SUN i si k (.ROUP To: Sun User Group Member From: Sun User Group Technical Committee Re: Product Survey As the first project for the Technical Committee, we have composed the following product survey in order to have input to Sun's current and future product development. Please take a few minutes to complete this survey and return it to the Sun User Group office. I. General User Information Optional: We can get all general user information from the Sun User Group database if you provide us with your member number (see enclosed directory). Member Number:_ Application: CAD/CAM/CAE _ CIM_ CASE_ AI_ CAP_ O/A_ Graphics_ Academic_ Science/Research_ Other_ II. Software 1. What release are you running? 1.0_ 1.1_ 1.2_ 1.3_ other_ 2. What software packages have you purchased from the Catalyst Program? 3. What software do you need that is not currently offered through-the Catalyst Program? III. Networks/Communication 1. Do you need to plug into the IBM mainframe world? yes_ no_ SNA 3270 _ X.25_ X.21_ Other . 2. What percentage of your workstations need this? _% 3. Are your workstations on a network? yes_ no_ 4. If yes, what is the number of nodes in your network? <4_ 5-10_ 10-30_ 30-100_ >100 Sun Microsystems User Group, Inc. • 2550 Garcia Avenue • Mountain View, CA 04043 • 415-960-1300 • TLX 4t>032 5. How many workstations per fileserver? _ 6. How much fileserver disk space is needed per workstation? _MBytes 7. Do you need local storage on a workstation that is on a network with a fileserver? yes_ no_ 8. If yes, why? 9. How important do you consider the NFS (Network File System)? extremely_ fairly_ not at all_ IV. Performance 1. What level of graphics performance do you require? vector draw rate_ 2D & 3D transform clip & scale rate_ area fill rate_ other performance requirements?_ 2. What level of cpu performance do you require? _mips 3. How do you measure/evaluate performance (benchmarks)? 4. What level of networking performance do you require? V. Peripherals Disks: 1. How much disk capacity do you need on a standalone workstation? _MBytes 2. llow much disk capacity do you need on network a fileserver? _MBytes Tape: 1. In what % of your workstations do you need 1600bpi 1/2" tape _% 6250bpi (GCR) 1/2" tape_% 20MByte 1/4" tape _% 45MByte 1/4" tape_% I i Laser Disks: 1. Do you have an interest, in laser disks of 1GByte capacity? (write once, no erase) yes_ no_ Floating Point Processors: 1. Do you need a floating point accelerator? yes_ no_ 2. If yes, what is a reasonable price for a 5x improvement? $_20x improvement? $ 3. Do you need an array processor? yes_ no_ VI. Graphics and Display Black and White: 1. What size display do you require? 14" _15" _17" _19" _ 2. What resolution do you require? 640x480 _ 896x700_ 1024x800 _ 1152x900_ 1000x1000_ 1280x1000_ other_r Color: 3. Do you need color? always_ sometimes_ never_ 4. What size display do you require? 13" _15" _17" _19" _ 5. What resolution do you require? 640x480_ 896x700_ 1024x800 _ 1152x900 _ 1000x1000_ 1280x1000_ other_ VII. General Hardware 1. For file servers, which packaging do you prefer? rackmount_deskside pedastal 2. For workstations, which packaging do you prefer? rackmount_deskside pedastal_ desktop_ 3. Do you add your own or 3rd party boards to Sun workstations? yes_ no_ 4. If yes, can you change to VME? yes_ no_ 5. If yes, is it easy? yes_ no_ BIOGRAPHIES OF NOMINEES March 1985 WILLIAM BENT - Bill has worked for Compugraphic for the last 18 months as a Project Leader His responsibilities include hardware development on Sun based equipment and technical liaison between Compugraphic and Sun in regards to hardware questions. Bill previously worked for ECRM, a manufacturer of electronic processing camera laser scanners and recorders He graduated in 1978 from North Eastern University and is now pursuing his Masters in Business Administration He is a member of IEEE. He has a special interest in Graphic Arts, especially computer generated graphics. NICK CERCONE - Since 1980, Nick has been chairman of the Computing Science Department at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, BC He has designed and implemented a new computing science instructional laboratory for his department, based on a network of Sun systems, which is being used by 21 faculty and 63 graduate students Nick received his PhD from the University of Alberta and has strong research interests in A.I., software engineering and instructional technology. He is co-editor of a new international journal on A.I, published by the National Research Council of Canada, has served as past president of the Canadian A 1. Society and is currently a nationally elected member of the steering committee for the Canadian Society for Fifth Generation Research DAVID R. MARK - Dave is a long-time UNIX enthusiast and early supporter of Sun Microsystems He recently moved to the Washington D C. area where he works for INCO (a defense contractor) as the manager of a project which will select a standard workstation for the Air Force. (Dave is hoping this will be Sun workstations). Prior to INCO, Dave worked at TRW for 4-1/2 years where he was involved in such areas as systems services, software productivity analysis, message handling network design and artificial intelligence. He has a B S in Math and Psychology from Carnegie-Mellon University and a M S. in Computer Science and Computer Engineering from Stanford. Dave is seriously committed to advancing the information sharing between Sun users and would like to help deepen the involvement between Sun users and Sun. He is Chairman of the local Sun User Group chapter in Washington D C. and also a member of USENIX and /usr/group. MARLEEN MARTIN - Marleen is Manager of End User Marketing at Sun and is responsible for the Sun User Group. She has been a founder of Gnostic Concepts, a marketing research company, and the UNIX /usr/group, for which she served as the first Executive Vice President and Program Chair, helping UNIX gain commercial acceptance. Marleen was Western Regional Manager at 3COM before joining Sun in March of 1983 In addition to consulting for numerous companies, on product design requirements and marketing strategies, she remains active in IEEE, USENIX and /usr/group She would like to see Sun User Group really take off in the coming year, and to that end would provide liasion to Sun Microsystems. NORM SEETHOFF - Norm has been working with Sun systems for two years at the John Fluke Manufacturing Company in Seattle (which makes test and measurement equipment such as hand-held multimeters). He has been a beta site for Sun networking and has used his Sun's to augment his VAX-UNIX systems If elected to the board, he would be particularly interested in working on distribution tapes. WILLIAM TOTH - Bill has worked as the Division System Programmer since August 1980 for the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard College Observatory Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory The computers at the Solar and Stellar Physics Division have operated under UNIX continuously since January 1978. Bill feels that if you're serious about solar research you need a Sun. The division became a Sun customer in August 1983. He is a member of ACM, DECUS UNIX Special Interest Group and USENIX MARK WALLEN - Mark is a principal programmer for the Cognitive Science Laboratory at UC San Diego He has been involved with UNIX since 1976 (back in his PDP 117*15 days)__ The _CogniiiV£ Science L^ircrw has~T6~Suns an User Croup. Inc. • 2550 C,ai\ la Avenue • Mountain View. CA 04043 • 415-O«M300 • TLX 4o0327 SUN LSfR GROUT BALLOT March 1985 This ballot is to elect three (3) additional members to the Board of Directors of the Sun User Group for the term July 1, 1985 - June 30, 1987. This election will bring the total number of directors to seven (7). VOTE FOR THREE: Mark choice one (l), choice (2) and choice (3 _William Bent Compugraphic _David R. Mark INCO _Norm Seethoff John Fluke Manufacturing _Mark Wallen University of California, San Diego Nick Cercone Simon Fraser University Marleen Martin Sun Microsystems, Inc. William Toth Harvard University, Center for Astrophysics Current Board Members: (Note: The term for the current board expires June 30, 1986) Robert Judd, President Keith Cooper, Vice-President Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Rice University Richard Morin, Secretary/Treasurer Gary McGreal, Director Canta Forda Computer Laboratory USC-ISI Philip Wood, Director (term expires June 30, 1985) Los Alamos National Laboratory -Please retemfrhts^baHotintheenvelope provided Must be received by April 15, 1985 to be counted in this election. Stir. Microsystems User Group. Irn • 2550 Garnj Avenue • Mountain Ww. CA °4043 • 4i3-°o0-1300 • TLX 4t>°327 Sun Microsystems User Group, Inc. DONATED SOFTWARE DISTRIBUTION Request Form and License (Unlicensed Software) As a member of the Sun User Group, I wish to receive the 85.1 Software Distribution (hereafter referred to as the SOFTWARE). By virtue of this signed release form, I agree to the following Terms and Conditions governing the use of any and all SOFTWARE sent to me. (1) Neither the Sun User Group, its officers, employees, and agents, nor the authors nor submitters of the SOFTWARE (hereafter referred to as the ABOVENAMED) make any representation or warranty, expressed or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of the SOFTWARE or the contents thereof for any purpose whatsoever. (2) To the extent permitted by law, I hereby hold harmless the ABOVENAMED from any claims, costs, damages and liability whatsoever with respect to the SOFTWARE. (3) No ownership rights with respect to the SOFTWARE shall transfer to me. The SOFTWARE shall remain the property of the Sun User Group or the person or persons who previously possessed that property. (4) The licensing of my use of the SOFTWARE by the Sun User Group is limited to those materials for which the Sun User Group is authorized to do so. The Sun User Group has attempted to verify that it has the right to distribute the SOFTWARE, but it cannot guarantee that it has such right. In the event that any dispute arises as to the distributed materials, I agree that the Sun User Group may direct me to erase all or part of the SOFTWARE and that I will remove said materials from the SOFTWARE, destroy all copies thereof, and make no claim against the ABOVENAMED for any action arising out of the use or the destruction of the SOFTWARE. (5) I agree that this license grants me no rights to subdistribute any or all of the SOFTWARE, except for use at the address designated below or on my membership form. This license grants me no rights to incorporate any of the SOFTWARE in a commercial product, and I agree that, if such materials are not in the public domain, I will secure such rights from the owner of the property before redistributing or incorporating any of the SOFTWARE in a commercial product. In consideration of the mutual promises contained herein, I release and discharge the ABOVENAMED from any claims, causes of action, costs or demands of whatever nature, whether anticipated or unanticipated, and whether known or unknown, which I have, may claim to have, or at any time heretofore have had against the above mentioned individuals and entities, or against any of them, including but not limited to, any and all claims, demands or causes of action which are contained in or may arise out of the circumstances set forth in this agreement. The parties hereto acknowledge that they are familiar with the provisions of Section 1542 of the California Civil Code and expressly agree that the Release set forth above constitutes a waiver and release of any rights or benefits that they jnay have under California Civil Code Section 1542, whielr provides that: ^ATgeneral Release does not extend to claims which the creditor does not know or suspect to exist in his favor at the time of executing the release, which if known by him must have materially affected his settlement with the debtor." Rev 01: 02/19/85 Sun Miiw-ysU-nv. l\er Croup. Inc. • 2550 Garcia Avenue • Mountain View CA °4043 • 4l5-*0-LW • Tl.X 4od32. - 2 - Subject to the above conditions, the Sun User Group grants and I hereby accept a personal, nonexclusive limited license to use the SOFTWARE at the address given below PLEASE PRINT: Member Name : _ Member Number (if known): _ Institution:_ Mailing Address: Phone: ( )_ Network Address: _ Tape format required (specify choice): l/4"(1600 bpi)_ 1/2" (1600 bpi)_ Authorized Signature:________ Date: _;_ Sun User Group Authorized Signature:_ Date: _ * * * Enclose payment in the form of check only in U.S. dollars drawn on a U.S. bank to the address below. Sun User Group does not invoice. Checks must be identified with the name of the member or membership number or they will be returned. Please sign and return two copies of both pages of this form to: Sun User Group 2550 Garcia Avenue M/S 5-12 Mountain View, CA 94043 Attn: Laura Tong Rev 01: 02/19/85 INS..; ASSY 2., 3 UPGRADE SUNBIN A > SOURCE:; i-i R E U :: A DATE ? •K- UED» JIJN 350-i030- 0 , HO DEE:: ZCO NO:: 23.L5 DATE OF EAST ECO:: 3/20/86 PART NUMBER 800 -1.^33 • 10 800-1^^6-04 800-1380-04 D'lEE in NATERIAES AS Ui 6/04/86 REO:; A nNE ASSY 2 3 UPGRADE SlJNBiN PAGE NO DESCRIPTION (Ely PER REFERENCE ITM ASSEMBLY UN SC DESIGNATOR EFF DATE GBS READ THIS i NNE y SUN CG NNE y S/U v RE!. "V J) 000 EA B 000 Ef'i B ea b 4/01/86 99/99/9? 4/01/86 99/99/99 4/01/86 99/99/99 ASSENfcEY PART NUMBER';'