Release Notes 93000221W
for
PORTSERVER II Operating System
40001260V
Version 3.1.2
Software Manual P/N 92000246B
Software Manual P/N 92000271A
February 22, 2001

I. Introduction
These release notes provide information on PortServer II OS version 3.1.2.

II. Summary

A. Pre-3.0 Incompatibility Notice 
B. Pre-Rev K Model ROM Limitations
C. Limitations for Systems with 2 Mb of Memory 
D. Upgrading flash ROM.

III. Details

A. Pre-3.0 Incompatibility Notice
This version (3.1.2) 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.

B.   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, if 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. 

*NOTE: Versions above and including 3.1.0 will no longer be available in the smaller non-frame 
version.

C.   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 includes users accessing the 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.

D.  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 II with the new operating system via TFTP, by using set config 
boothost=hostip bootfile=filename tftpboot=yes, and then rebooting your PortServer II.  See 
command set config in 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 II 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 II 
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.

*NOTE - In some instances parameters from 3.0.13 may not translate properly into 3.1.2.  In 
order to insure that the parameters are correct the user can save their parameters from 3.0.13 
by doing a cpconf and reloading the parameters back into the PortServer II after 3.1.2 is 
loaded.