Configuring ODI / TCP/IP & IPX Networking within REAL/32

Topic's Covered

1. Connectivity Pack installation.
2. Network card installation.
3. REAL/32 configuration.
4. TCP/IP configuration.
5. Trouble shooting.
6. Advanced TCP/IP Configuration parameters.

Connectivity Pack Installation
The REAL/32 connectivity pack provides all of the elements required to allow REAL/32 to use the Novell ODI stack to provide IPX & TCP/IP networking.

Simple Installation 
IMS recommends using the simple installation routine. If you require the ODI stack for running the following IMS products:
          IMS Winserver
          IMS WEB Server
          IMSTerm for Netware Server
The simple installation mechanism can be located on REAL/32 CD's \SIMPLE directory (from 7.8 onwards) or downloaded here. Unzip the file to a floppy disk and then on the REAL/32 server run INSTALL.BAT from the floppy disk.
Full Installation
If you require to connect to Novell Netware servers then you will have to install the full connectivity pack which is located on all REAL/32 7.7 CD's and above. To install this product first load the CD-ROM driver and then run INSTALL.EXE from the cdrom drive.

Network Card Install
Once you have installed the network stack into the C:\NWCLIENT directory you will have to install the card driver and configure its parameters.
If you are using a ISA NE2000 card then you will only have to edit the text file net.cfg. To amend a cards IRQ and IO Port base settings change the following .

Link driver NE2000
    INT 5                        <- The card IRQ Number
    PORT 340                   <- The cards IO Port base

For all other network card types you will have to install the cards ODI/DOS Netware client card driver. Most network cards come with a floppy disk based install routine which will automatically copy the card driver to the c:\nwclient directory and configure the net.cfg appropriately.

Important Note 1 

If prompted ensure that the card driver install routine copies the driver into the C:\NWCLIENT directory.

You should find after the card drivers install routine has completed the net.cfg file has some new entries such as :

LINK DRIVER W30ODI
    FRAME Ethernet_802.2
    Protocol IPX E0 Ethernet_802.2
    FRAME Ethernet_II

You will note that there is NO IRQ and PORT statement as this is a PCI network card.

Important Note 2 

If you require IPX then ensure that you have at least the lines FRAME Ethernet_802.2 &

If you require TCP/IP networking then you must ensure that you have ETHERNET_II frame type.

Important Note 3 

Your network card install routine may have edited your AUTOEXEC.BAT file to load the new card driver. Make sure that these lines are removed as they may cause problems on boot up.

REAL/32 Configuration
To configure the ODI network layer within REAL/32 run the REAL/32 SETUP.EXE utility and then select Networking and then configure ODI support. You will now see a screen such as below :

Important Note 4 

The location of the card driver is assumed to be C:\ NWCLIENT.

If you are configuring the stack for just IPX for Imsterm remote or REAL/32 Winserver then this is all you will have to do. From this point onwards except all of the default prompts. The Operating system should now be ready to install REAL/32 Winserver or IMSTerm remote driver.

TCP/IP Configuration
If you wish to use the IMS Email REAL/32 Web Server or REAL/32 Winserver with TCP/IP protocol then you will have to configure the operating system to accept this.
Step 1
Each virtual console that will load TCP/IP will have to be allocated a Unique IP address. You will also need to obtain the following information which applies to all configurations.

Subnet mask ( Typically 255.255.255.0 )

Default gateway ( This is normally the IP address of your router if you have one )

Its is recommended that you amend the C:\NWCLIENT\NET.CFG file with the correct information before continuing with any of the further steps. You TCP/IP section with NET.CFG should look something like this....

Protocol TCPIP
    PATH SCRIPT C:\NWCLIENT\SCRIPT
    PATH PROFILE C:\NWCLIENT\PROFILE
    PATH LWP_CFG C:\NWCLIENT\HSTACC
    PATH TCP_CFG C:\NWCLIENT\TCP
    IP_ROUTER 194.202.27.254 
    IP_NETMASK 255.255.255.0 
    IP_ADDRESS 194.202.27.44 

Make sure you also have sufficient buffer space configured for LSL. You should see a section within your net.cfg like this :

Link support

Buffers 4 1504
MemPool 8096
Max Stacks 4

Without this section you will receive an error message on loading TCPIP of "NO: LSL memory Pool  minimum 1024."

Step 2
Decide which virtual console you will be running the TCP/IP client software ( RUNWNET.EXE for Winserver & HTTPD.EXE for WEB Server ). If you have already installed Winserver to run on the last VC of the main screen, you may have a line such as this in your autoexec.bat :

if "%VC"=="4" C:\REAL32\WINSERVE\RUNWNET.EXE

Note : If you are running the REAL/32 WEB server you will only load the TCP/IP stack in one virtual console before loading HTTPD.EXE. The TCP/IP stack is not required to be loaded in the phantom consoles where the slaves are running.
Step 3
You will now have to configure the USRxx or PHAxx directories which contain the configuration for each stack. 
 Create the following subdirectories on the boot drive of your REAL/32 system:
\REAL32\
\REAL32\TCPIP
\REAL32\TCPIP\USRnn
where nn represents the hexadecimal DOS session number based from 0.
If your TCP/IP stack is to run in a phantom and you are using 7.83 or better then you can simplify the procedure for a phantom console and use the following syntax.
\REAL32\TCPIP\PHAnn
where nn represents the hexadecimal Phantom console number based from 0.
Copy C:\NWCLIENT\NET.CFG into each of these directories and then edit the line:

IP_ADDRESS <unique IP address>

and enter the appropriate IP address for the DOS session i.e. :

IP_ADDRESS 194.202.27.44

for example :
To configure TCP/IP to run on the fourth console of the main screen and also on the first phantom of the system you will have a NET.CFG with a unique IP address in the following directories.
C:\REAL32\TCPIP\USR03
C:\REAL32\TCPIP\PHA00

Trouble Shooting
Checking the physical hardware : 

If you are using UTP cabling do you see the LED's on the network card light up to indicate a good connection. Is the network hub powered up and LED's on to indicate a good connection?

If you are using Thin Ethernet ( BNC connector ) do you have terminators at both ends. On old ISA cards is the jumper indicating which connector to use set to BNC?

If you are using a ISA network card do the IRQ & port settings in NET.CFG match the card. Have you set the IRQ used by the network card as reserved in the BIOS setup screens? If the card is memory mapped you will have to mark the upper memory blocks as unused using  REAL/32 SETUP.EXE.

Checking the Software configuration :

Using your favorite text editor edit the ODI network card lines within mconfig.sys.

INSTALL = C:\NWCLIENT\LSL.COM
INSTALL = C:\NWCLIENT\NE2000.COM
INSTALL = C:\REAL32\NWCLIENT\MDOSODI.COM -P:1514 -C:32 -S:255

to be

?INSTALL = C:\NWCLIENT\LSL.COM
?INSTALL = C:\NWCLIENT\NE2000.COM
?INSTALL = C:\REAL32\NWCLIENT\MDOSODI.COM -P:1514 -C:32 -S:255

Now reboot the machine. Now when each of the components load you will see if any error messages are displayed. Also check that when the card driver loads, that the frame type you require is also present ( ETHERNET_II for TCP/IP and typically ETHERNET_802.2/ETHERNET_802.3 for IPX.

 

With Token ring networks the maximum packet size may be 4096 which will require you to update the -P option within mconfig.sys to read :

INSTALL = C:\REAL32\NWCLIENT\MDOSODI.COM -P:4096 -C:32 -S:255.

 

Testing

Within any DOS session type C:\NWCLIENT\IPXODI . This will load the IPX stack. If it successfully loads then normally you would expect the system to be operating normally and then you will have to look to WINServer or IMSTerm remote or the physical networking layer as having problems.

Testing TCP/IP

Within the session you expect to load the server software, run C:\NWCLIENT\BIN\TCPIP.EXE. Check the information that is displayed to ensure that the configuration is the same as you would expect it to be. If you are running 7.83 or above and the C:\REAL32\TCPIP\USRxx directories have not been configured, you will see an error message .. Previous to this version no message was displayed.

From a second machine that you know is on the network, attempt to PING the REAL/32 machine. If you get a response, then you know that the software is configured correctly and you will have to look towards the configuration of  WINServer or WEBServer   

If you cannot PING the REAL/32 IP Address :

Make sure that you can ping another machine on the TCP/IP network to check that the client machine is working ok.

Check that the subnet mask is the same on the client machine & the REAL/32 machine and that the portion of the address that is masked is the same on both machines ( IE : If sub net is 255.255.255.0 then the first three digits of the IP addresses of both machines should be the same).

Make sure that there is not another machine with the same IP address on your network.

Copyright © 1997-2002 Intelligent Micro Software. All rights reserved. Information in this document is subject to change without notice. Other products and companies referred to herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies or mark holders.
Last modified: Tuesday November 26, 2002.