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Version 3.0 - Release Notes

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clearVISN DECNIS Configurator V3.0 Release Notes

This document contains information not included elsewhere in the clearVISN DECNIS Configurator documentation. This includes information about using the clearVISN DECNIS Configurator, software changes and/or documentation changes.

This document is intended for use with Version 3.0 of the clearVISN DECNIS Configurator.

The V3.0 release includes all the functionality of the previous releases and patch kits. Configurations saved under previous versions will be preserved during the installation process and will work with the V3.0 release of the software. Older versions of the software are now no longer supported and users reporting problems will be asked to upgrade to V3.0 before any investigation begins.

PLEASE READ THESE NOTES BEFORE INSTALLING OR USING THE SOFTWARE.

Installation Information

How to install this kit

WWW installation

Copy the self extracting executable NISV300.exe kit file into a temporary directory.
You may also want to read the rest of these release notes before continuing.
Run the self extracting installation file (NISV300.exe) from the temporary directory. This will run the installation program.
When the installation is complete you can delete the contents of the temporary directory.

After installation

Once installed you can configure DECNIS systems. If you had not already read the release notes you should do so to make yourself aware of issues that may affect the operation of this software.

Functionality provided in this release

The following items can be configured in the V3.0 release:

Network Interface Cards
L601, L602, F621, W614, W618, W622, W631, W641.
Datalinks
CSMA-CD, FDDI, ATM, PPP, CHDLC, MPI, DEC HDLC, DDCMP, SMDS, VCP, Frame Relay, HSSI.
IP Routing
IP only configuration, IP circuit addressing, IP circuit reachable addresses, IP LAN circuit alternative subnets, RIP, OSPF, Integrated IS-IS, Route propagation & filtering, Database sizing.
DECnet Routing
Addressing, DECnet circuits, Reachable addresses, Interphase links, Database sizing.
IPX Routing
IPX circuit addressing, tunnel circuits.
Bridging
Now includes support for bridge filtering.
X.25
New support for all the main DECNIS X.25 features including DTEs (LAPB and LLC2), gateway, relay, routing and security.
Secure Connections

The following tools are provided with this release. These can be started by selecting them from the 'Tools' menu on the main screen:

clearVISN DECNIS Event Monitor
Integrated Windows application which decodes DECNIS events.
clearVISN WinDTF
Integrated Windows application to interface to the Digital Trace Facility.
clearVISN BootP Server
Integrated Windows BootP implementation for loading and dumping DECNIS boxes.
clearVISN DECNIS WinNCL
Integrated Windows application to send NCL requests to DECNIS and other DNA products.
Address Mapper
Integrated Windows application to map node names to DECnet/OSI addresses and add NSCTS nicknames.
mod_flsh
Integrated DOS application to edit and modify DECNIS combined files for Flash loading.

The following functionality is also provided in this release:

Integrated router browser
The clearVISN DECNIS Configurator and the clearVISN DRS Configurator now have a common interface for browsing router configurations. The router browser provides:
- Summary information for all configurations.
- Router manipulation functions such as copy, delete and rename.
- Drag & drop configuration file support.
NCL migration
Support for creating new configurations from NCL scripts produced on the old VMS, UNIX and PC configurators. Warning, NCL which cannot be migrated into the configurator will be placed in the 'extra' scripts and may need to be manually edited to give a successful compilation.
VMS load host support
A package of VMS and PC tools designed to help run the clearVISN DECNIS Configurator to manage DECNIS files residing on a VMS system. Allows redirecting the 'clients' directory to a remote mounted VMS file system, plus VMS tools for converting CMIP scripts and creating MOP clients. For more details read the VMS load host support section of the clearVISN DECNIS Configurator User Guide
Alpha/NT support
Support for running the clearVISN DECNIS Configurator on Alpha/NT V4.0 SP2 under FX!32.

Functionality restrictions for this release

The following section describes known restrictions with this software release.

NCL migration restrictions

The following restrictions apply when using NCL migration:

Entity names must not contain spaces
Configurator generated entity names
The clearVISN DECNIS Configurator has changed its naming policy for certain entity names which are automatically generated. For example, previously 'modem connect lines' were named after their communication port but now they are named after their routing circuit. This can cause problems with attributes which are migrated into the 'extra set' section because they will be using the old name and the configurator will be creating the entity with the new name. To solve this, the names have to be manually edited in the 'extra set' section.
Wildcards are not fully supported
The migration process only has limited wildcard support. It does not support the use of wildcards at the start or in the middle of names. (e.g 'enable routing circuit w*' is valid but 'enable routing circuit w*0' is not)
Abbreviations must not be less than 3 characters
The migration process cannot cope with NCL command words which are abbreviated to less than 3 characters.

VMS file name limit

On VMS the number of characters which can occur in the first part of a file name is limited to 39 characters. Therefore the length of the configuration name (from which file names are derived) must not exceed 39 characters if files are to be located on a VMS share. The problem is exacerbated because Windows allows characters in file names which VMS does not support. VMS resolves this by replacing invalid characters with a 4 digit character code.
e.g. "configuration (2) for decnis1.nis" becomes "configuration__20__282__29__20for__20de.cnis1__2nis"

NCL script filenames

If any NCL scripts contain file path names these filenames must not contain any spaces. If they do then the NCL compiler will interpret them incorrectly. For example, if the following command was contained in an NCL script:

  Set ncl cmipscript C:\Program Files\Decrou\Clients\Nis1\Nis1.cmp

the NCL compiler would interpret the command as:

  Set ncl cmipscript C:\Program

Configuration checking

By default the configurator automatically checks the current configuration for errors as part of the Compile/Load procedure. If this feature is not required it can be turned off by following the steps below: