Server Hanging After Binding SLP/TCP
Articles and Tips: qna
01 Jan 2003
Q.
We have a server that is hanging solid on boot up after binding SLP/TCP. We thought it was the on-board Ethernet, so we installed an Ethernet card and disabled the on-board Ethernet, but we are having the same problem.
This particular server was configured as a secondary Directory Agent (DA) and was abending on startup when the SLPDA module loaded. So we removed the DA configuration from that server, left the other DA server still configured, and changed all the other servers to just look for the only DA server.
The strange thing is if we disconnect the Ethernet cable from the server, the server boots up fine. We can then reconnect the cable and all is well. We're running eDirectory 85.12a, Support Pack 4, SLP v1.07c and our DA is unscoped (we only have a few servers and no WAN connections). It just started suddenly a few weeks ago (I think it first happened after having to reboot from a slow server/high utilization problem). What might be going on?
DNS Donna Riding A Donkey
A.
Dear DNS Donna: I have fought this exact same problem in a previous life. The fix has been changing the discovery option to 4. You do this by changing the SLP discovery type from 15 (with DHCP) to 4, which is "use static only in the SLP.CFG file." One thing I have noticed is that even though I think I have every server set to discovery option 4, that isn't always the case.
To work around this, I updated the STARTUP.NCF file on every server in the tree by adding the line
SET SLP DA DISCOVERY OPTIONS= 4
(This seemed like the logical place to put the command, since typing SET SLP DA DISCOVERY OPTIONS at the server console prompt tells you this is where it goes). With a few exceptions, this did not always seem to fix the problem. In fact, it did not seem to make a bit of difference!
I walked one problem server through the loadstages manually one day. The SET command does in fact get issued, but by the time we get through loadstage 4 (just before the AUTOEXEC.NCF loads), it's back to the default of 15. Adding the set command early in the AUTOEXEC.NCF seems to have helped. I put it in a few lines before the call to the sys:etc\initsys.ncf line.
* Originally published in Novell AppNotes
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