Release Notes 93000221N for PORTSERVER II Operating System 40001260M Version 3.0.10 Software Manual P/N 92000246B Software Manual P/N 92000271A May 14, 1999 Introduction These release notes provide information on PortServer II OS version 3.0.10. They include information on the following: Incompatibility between older versions of the PortServer II OS and this one, which can affect your configuration. 1. ROM limitations for those with Pre-Rev K Model PortServer IIs. 2. Limitations for systems with fewer than 2 Mb of memory. 3. Upgrading flash ROM. 4. Enhancements and added feature sets. 5. Bug fixes in this release. These include both bugs reported in Problem Report numbers. 1.Pre-3.0 Incompatibility Notice This version (3.0) of the PortServer II OS is incompatible with versions older than 3.0. Certain parts of the non-volatile storage formats used to store configuration information have been changed. Consequently, if you want to use this version of the OS and preserve your current configuration, you must use the cpconf command to save your configuration to a host and then restore it once the new version of the PortServer II OS has been installed. 2.Pre-Rev K Model ROM Limitations The addition of Frame Relay to 3.0 and later versions of the OS causes the size of the boot image to exceed the space available in the PortServer II flash ROM for units built prior to the Rev K models. Consequently, you want to use a 3.0 or later OS with these older units, you must do one of the following: * Boot PortServer II via TFTP over the ethernet port. * Acquire a smaller version of the OS, which does not have Frame Relay, this is available from the Digi ftp site. 3.Limitations for Systems with 2 Mb of Memory Testing has determined that the PortServer II's previously standard 2 Mb of installed memory is inadequate in the following instances and is likely to require an expansion to at least 4 Mb. * Full 64 port configurations in which more than 50 asynchronous and/or TCP users are simultaneously using PortServer II. This include users accessing PortServer II via the ethernet connection or any type of connection using the serial ports. Note: Exceeding this number of users is unlikely in RealPort environments because each RealPort connection is seen as a single user. This means that while that user may control more than one port, if there is only one host connected to the PortServer II using RealPort, it will use only a little more memory than someone making a telnet connection. If more than one host is using PortServer II as a RealPort server, each host will have it's own TCP connection, and therefore each is considered a user. It is unlikely that a site will have enough RealPort connections to cause problems. * Sites with heavy traffic on serial ports. Here the problem is simply throughput. Degradation of performance may indicate that additional memory is called for. 4.Upgrading Flash ROM Should it be necessary to update the PortServer II OS contained in Flash ROM on your PortServer II, the recommended procedure is: 1.Obtain the new version of the software from Digi and place it on your TFTP server. 2.Save your current configuration using cpconf. This should not be necessary, but it is advisable to maintain a backup of your current configuration when re-writing a sizable portion of flash. 3.Boot your portserver with the new operating system via TFTP, by using set config boothost=hostip bootfile=filename tftpboot=yes, and then rebooting your portserver. See page 45 of the User's Guide and Reference Manual for more details. This step ensures that you have a good copy of the new version of the software, and also that you can still boot your PortServer II in the unlikely event that your flash image gets corrupted in the process of writing it. 4.After booting your PortServer via TFTP, load the new version of the software into the flash ROM by using the command boot load=host:filename. If all goes well, the PortServer will reply "The image now in flash memory appears valid." 5.Now you can return your PortServer II to booting from its flash ROM image by entering the command set config tftpboot=no. 5.Enhancements - Added 422 EM Module support. - Change compile platform from Solaris to Linux. Upgraded compiler version. 6.Bug Fixes The bug fixes addressed by this release include, but are by no means limited to: * PR#1076 - Changed traversal of retran queue. Long downtimes over outgoing telnet will now not cause reboots if data is continuously coming into the PortServer II. * PR#1374 - Pinging out from Portserver II does not cause sporatic reboots. * Fixed PR#1383 - Now PortServer II correctly routes an ip address received from an outgoing PPP dialout connection. * Fixed Send Break Immediate command timing issues for modules. * Closed PR#1271 - PortServer II sets authentication randomly. Closed due to inability to reproduce. * Closed PR#1299 - PortServer II handles lpd jobs sequentially. Closed because problem was in costumer's print spooler. * Closed PR#1339 - PortServer II intermitantly reboots. Closed due to inability to reproduce.