1. olicom.zip Driver
2. MIRROR.TXT File Contents

MIRROR.TXT Driver File Contents (olicom.zip)

Madge Adapter Mirroring
=======================
                                                    LSS 7.1(0), September 2000
                                                    --------------------------

Contents
--------

(1) Summary
(2) Introduction to mirroring
(3) Supported environments and adapters
(4) General information
(5) Mirroring under Microsoft Windows NT 4
(6) Mirroring under Microsoft Windows 2000
(7) Mirroring under Novell NetWare
(8) Advanced mirroring configuration
(9) Testing mirroring


(1) Summary
-----------

This file contains information about the Madge adapter mirroring fault
tolerance (failover) solution for Novell NetWare, Microsoft Windows NT 4 and
Microsoft Windows 2000 servers.


(2) Introduction to mirroring
-----------------------------

Madge adapter mirroring provides fault tolerance (failover) for Madge token
ring network adapters running under Novell NetWare, Windows NT 4 or Windows
2000. Mirroring uses a redundant slave adapter which is installed as a standby
for a master adapter. In the event of a problem with the master adapter, such
as a lobe cable fault, the driver switches immediately to using the slave
adapter. This switch is invisible to both the server and any attached clients.
After a mirror switch, the master adapter becomes the slave and vice-versa.
The server may contain multiple mirrored pairs of adapters.

A mirror switch is initiated in the following circumstances:

    o if the adapter closes (due to a lobe cable fault, for example) 
    o if the adapter fails

    and, if configured (see "Advanced mirroring configuration"):

    o if the adapter beacons for longer than the Ring Beacon timeout value 
    o if the adapter remains a single station for longer than the Single 
      Station timeout value.

Mirroring is an extension of the standard fault recovery mechanisms
implemented within the drivers and provides an additional level of fault
tolerance.


(3) Supported environments and adapters
---------------------------------------

Mirroring is supported in the following environments:

    o Microsoft Windows NT 4 (MDGNDIS4.SYS - NDIS4 miniport driver)
    o Microsoft Windows 2000 (MDGNDIS5.SYS - NDIS5 miniport driver)
    o Novell NetWare >= 3.12 (CMDGODI.LAN - 32-bit ODI driver)

The following adapter types support mirroring:

    o Madge Smart 100/16/4 PCI Ringnode
    o Madge Smart 100/16/4 PCI-HS Ringnode
    o Madge Smart 16/4 PCI Ringnode Mk3
    o Madge Smart 16/4 PCI Ringnode Mk2 
    o Olicom RapidFire 3540 HSTR 100/16/4 PCI Adapter
    o Olicom RapidFire 3141 Token-Ring 16/4 PCI Fiber Adapter
    o Olicom RapidFire 3140 V2 16/4 PCI Adapter
    o Olicom RapidFire 3140 Token-Ring 16/4 PCI Adapter
    o Olicom RapidFire 3139 Token-Ring 16/4 PCI Adapter
    o Olicom Token-Ring PCI/II 16/4 Adapter (OC-3137)

For more information on CMDGODI.LAN, MDGNDIS4.SYS and MDGNDIS5.SYS, refer to
the driver documentation.


(4) General information
-----------------------

Mirroring requires a slave adapter to be associated with each master adapter
in the computer. A slave adapter must therefore be installed in the computer
for each master adapter which is to be mirrored.

When using mirroring, a locally-administered node address override (LAA) must
be specified. This is to enable both the master and slave adapters to open
with the same node address which is necessary to ensure that clients can still
communicate with the server afer a mirror switch.

Madge recommends that the master and slave adapters are connected to different
hubs to protect against individual hub failure.


(5) Mirroring under Microsoft Windows NT
----------------------------------------

(5.1) Installation
------------------

IMPORTANT - When using mirroring under Windows NT, the master and slave
            adapters must be of the same type and must be attached to the same
            PCI bus. Some server machines contain multiple PCI buses so take
            care to place the master and slave adapters in PCI slots which are
            attached to the same bus.

To install the MDGNDIS4.SYS driver software, follow the normal network adapter
driver installation procedure, that is:

    (1) Click on the "Network" icon from the Control Panel.
    (2) Click on the "Adapters" tab.
    (3) Click on the "Add..." button to add a new adapter.
    (4) Insert a floppy disk containing the MDGNDIS4.SYS installation files
        into Click on "Have Disk..."
    (5) Choose "Madge Automated Installation" from the Select OEM Option list.

This procedure will automatically install an unused adapter. To enable
mirroring for this (master) adapter, you must choose a mirror slave:

    (1) Highlight the master adapter in the "Network Adapters" list on the
        "Adapters" window of the Network dialog box.
    (2) Click on the "Properties" button.
    (3) Insert a locally-administered node address (LAA) into the dialog box.
    (4) Click on the "Advanced" button.
    (5) In the dialog box section titled "Mirror Slave Adapter", choose a
        slave adapter from the "Slave PCI Device ID" list provided. This list
        is automatically compiled when the dialog box is opened and contains
        the PCI Device IDs of only those adapters which can be used as a slave
        for the master adapter currently being configured.
    (6) You may also configure the "Ring beacon timeout" and "Single station
        timeout" values at this point if you wish. See "Advanced mirroring
        configuration" for more details.
    (7) Click "OK" on all dialog boxes to confirm the settings.

When prompted, re-boot the machine to cause the configuration changes to take
effect.

(5.2) Diagnostic information
----------------------------

All driver diagnostic information is written to the Windows event log. To
view the event log use the Event Viewer program.

If mirroring has been badly configured, the driver may fail to load in which
case a diagnostic message will be written to the event log.

When a mirror switch occurs, a message which includes the reason for the
switch is written to the event log.


(6) Mirroring under Microsoft Windows 2000
------------------------------------------

(6.1) Installation
------------------

IMPORTANT - When using mirroring under Windows 2000, the master and slave
            adapters must be of the same type. Unlike Windows NT4, there
            is no restriction that both adapters must be attached to the
            same PCI bus.

To install the MDGNDIS5.SYS driver software, follow the normal network adapter
driver installation procedure:

o If the adapters you are using are supported by a driver already on the
  system (e.g a driver supplied on the Windows 2000 CD), the driver will be
  automatically loaded. In this case you must upgrade this driver to the new
  driver by clicking on "Update Driver..." from the "Driver" tab on the
  Properties page for each adapter and following the on-screen instructions.
  You may find it necessary to delete the copy of the NETMADGE.INF file
  (called C:\WINNT\INF\OEM<n>.INF, where <n> is a number) made by Windows
  when it installed the original driver before updating the driver to get the
  update process to work cleanly. 

o If the adapters you are using are not supported by a driver already on the
  system, Windows will prompt you to provide a new driver, and you should
  follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.

Once the driver is installed for both master and slave adapters, you can
enable and configure mirroring as follows:

    (1) Enable mirroring by setting the "Mirroring group" property from the
        "Advanced" tab on the Properties pages for both master and slave
        adapters to the same (non-zero) value. If multiple mirrored pairs of
        adapters are installed, each pair must be identified by a different
        "Mirroring group" value.
    (2)	Also from the Advanced tab, you must specify a Locally Administered
        Node Address (LAA) for both master and slave adapters using the
        "Network Address" property. You must specify the same LAA for both
        master and slave.
    (3) You may also configure the "Mirroring beacon timeout" and "Mirroring
        single station timeout" values at this point if you wish. See
        "Advanced mirroring configuration" for more details.
    (4) You must ensure that all other properties are set to the same values
        for both master and slave adapters, particularly the "Maximum frame
        size", "Rx pipeline slots" and "Tx pipeline slots values".

Once mirroring is enabled for a pair of adapters, only one of the mirrored
pair will be open at any time (this is the current master adapter). The driver
prevents protocols from using the other adapter by telling them that the
network cable is unplugged (you will see the network cable unplugged icon in
the taskbar to indicate this). No matter which of the adapter pair is the
current master, the driver always tells protocols that the same adapter is
unplugged to make mirroring transparent. This means that the adapter pair
always uses the protocol configuration of the adapter which is not flagged as
unplugged. As an optimisation, you can unbind all protocols from the adapter
of a mirrored pair which is flagged as unplugged by un-checking the
appropriate boxes in the Properties page of the adapter.

(7.2) Diagnostic information
----------------------------

All driver diagnostic information is written to the Windows event log. To
view the event log use the Event Viewer program.

If mirroring has been badly configured, the driver may fail to load in which
case a diagnostic message will be written to the event log.

When a mirror switch occurs, a message which includes the reason for the
switch is written to the event log.


(7) Mirroring under Novell NetWare
----------------------------------

(7.1) Installation
------------------

To install the CMDGODI.LAN driver software, follow the normal network adapter
driver installation procedure.

You need to know the slot, IO Port or burned-in address (BIA) of both the
master and slave adapters to install mirroring. If you do not know these
values, type "LOAD CMDGODI DISPLAY" at the server command prompt to display
details of all supported adapters in the machine.

To enable mirroring with CMDGODI, the location of a slave adapter must be
given when the master adapter is loaded. As with the master adapter, the slave
adapter can be selected by either its IO Port, Slot or BIA using the the
command line parameters MIRRORPORT=<n>, MIRRORSLOT=<n> or MIRRORBIA=<n>
respectively. Also, a locally administered node address (LAA) must be
specified using the NODE=<n> parameter.

For example, the following line (which can be entered at the server command
prompt or in autoexec.ncf) loads CMDGODI onto a master adapter located in Slot
2 and associates a slave adapter at Slot 3 with the master:

    LOAD CMDGODI NODE=400000000001 SLOT=2 MIRRORSLOT=3

If the driver loads successfully, a console message will be displayed which
gives details of the master and slave adapters.


(7.2) Diagnostic information
----------------------------

All driver diagnostic information is displayed on the server console.

If mirroring has been badly configured, the driver may fail to load in which
case a diagnostic message will displayed.

When a mirror switch occurs, a message which includes the reason for the
switch is displayed.

The custom statistic "Mirror switch count" records the number of times a
mirror switch has occured. Driver statistics are viewed using MONITOR.NLM.


(8) Advanced mirroring configuration
------------------------------------

Once mirroring has been installed, the driver will initiate a mirror switch if
the adapter closes or fails in some detectable way. Additionally, mirroring
can be configured to cause a mirror switch in the following circumstances:

    o if the adapter beacons for longer than the Ring Beacon timeout value 
    o if the adapter remains a single station for longer than the Single
      Station timeout value
    o if the adapter signals a lobe cable fault for longer than the Lobe
      timeout value (NetWare only).

These timeout values are set using the following driver parameters (refer to
the driver documentation if you are unsure how to specify driver parameters):


Win NT4  : Ring beacon timeout
Win 2000 : Mirroring beacon timeout
NetWare  : BEACON=<timeout>
-----------------------------------
Use this parameter to force a mirror switch after the adapter has been
transmitting beacon frames for the number of seconds given by the timeout
value. In the event of a lobe cable fault, the adapter will beacon before
eventually closing - the adapter will not close until several seconds after
the cable fault. By setting the ring beacon timeout to a small value, a mirror
switch will occur before adapter actually closes, therefore reducing the time
before the server regains its network connection.

Win NT4  : Single station timeout
Win 2000 : Mirror single station timeout
NetWare  : SINGLE=<timeout>
----------------------------------------
If the hub to which the master adapter is connected loses power or the hub
port is accidentally disabled, the hub port may wrap causing the adapter to
become a single station without the adapter actually closing. To cause the
driver to initiate a mirror switch in this case, set the single station
timeout value. The timeout value is the number of seconds to wait while in
single station mode before a switch is initiated.

Win NT4  : N/A
Win 2000 : N/A
NetWare  : LOBE=<timeout>
-------------------------
This parameter can be used to force a mirror switch after the adapter has been
signalling a lobe cable fault for the number of seconds given by the timeout
value. This parameter can be used to cause a mirror switch to occur before the
adapter actually closes due to a lobe cable fault and is therefore similar in
function to the ring beacon timeout parameter.


(9) Testing mirroring
---------------------

After installing mirroring and re-booting, test that mirroring is operating
properly. Attach some machines to the server to generate some network traffic
(copy some files, perhaps) then remove the lobe cable from the master adapter.
The slave adapter should open after a few seconds and the client machines
should remain connected to the server.


**** End of MIRROR.TXT ****