I have never delt with VIO, so can't help there, but the very fact that a
ping fails in one direction says this is a network issue.   It sounds to me
like something is timing out in the vio network, and somehow the ping from
tsm-server-to-client kicks it back in.  My networking knowledge is quite
old - the only 2 things I'm aware of that can timeout are routes and arp
table entries.

Rick






             Steven Harris
             <steve@STEVENHARR
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             Sent by: "ADSM:           ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
             Dist Stor                                                  cc
             Manager"
             <[email protected]                                     Subject
             .EDU>                     AIX networking issue


             02/09/2009 06:18
             AM


             Please respond to
             "ADSM: Dist Stor
                 Manager"
             <[email protected]
                   .EDU>






Hi All

I have an issue that seems related to networking somehow.

New site, P595 AIX 5.3 with many LPARs.  Most LPARs run SAP and TDP for
ERP Oracle.  TSM Client is at 5.5.1.0 TSM server. is 5.5.1.0.  Both
client and server are in different LPARs on the same P595.  SAP instance
has 3 interfaces, one for the application, one for management purposes
and one for backups.  These are all virtual networks using the VIO
server lpar.   The client and server have backup addresses on the same
subnet, and TCPADDRESS is set in the dsm.sys stanzas to force the backup
down the backup network.

Backups have been working, but now fail.  Both ba client and TDP start
getting tcp/ip failure rc -50 when trying to initiate the backup
session.  Client can ping server.  If I ping the client from the server,
then the tcp/ip failure goes away and I can get a good backup, but then
the next day's backup fails.

I'm thinking this has to be an AIX problem because the backup packets
should never get out of the virtual backup lan.  Thus it can't be
firewall or external routing.  The default gateways look correct and so
the packets should be going out of the right interface and finding their
target, but obviously are not.  The lpars are all built from the same
image and several of them are exhibiting the same issue.  The ping fix
always works, temporarily.

Any ideas on how this can be fixed permanently, or debugged, will be
gratefully received.

Regards

Steve

Steven Harris, TSM Admin
Sydney Australia



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