| Cray Network Subsystem Release Overview and Installation Guide - S-2366-12 | ||
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This Cray Network Subsystem (CNS) release overview supports the CNS 1.2 release software running on the CNS.
This document does not describe hardware or software installation of the Cray mainframe, Cray Workstation (CWS), Cray system workstation (SWS), or products not provided by Cray.
This information is intended for system or network administrators and software support personnel. It assumes the user has a good understanding of Ethernet, Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) networking, High Performance Parallel Interface (HIPPI ) networks, IP over Fibre Channel, and Cray system administration.
Note: If you are familiar with the CNS and the release, you can use Chapter 2 for Quick Start installation instructions.
Refer to the CNS errata, if one accompanies the release, Cray Field Notices (FNs), if any, or contact your Cray representative for the latest updates or corrections to the product or documentation.
CNS Description: The CNS operates fundamentally as a router, passing all packet traffic between site networks and the Cray mainframe. The CNS improves the network performance of Cray X1 and GigaRing computer systems by handling most TCP/IP connections with a facility that allows the Cray mainframe to use large network packet sizes while using smaller packet sizes on the site network.
Cray does not support sharing a CNS between Cray X1 systems or Cray X1 partitions.
For more detail about CNS functions, see Chapter 3.
CNS Terminology: Table 1-1 shows the terminology used to describe the CNS.
Table 1-1. CNS Terminology
The major changes for the CNS 1.2 release include improvements for security, routing, startup, automatic failover (Fibre Channel IP bonding driver support), logging, and documentation.
For additional information about all software enhancements for this release, see Section 1.1.2.
The following software enhancements have been made since the last release of this CNS software:
Updated Linux kernel to the 2.4.22 version to enhance security.
Made updates, edits, and changes to improve security, including patches from Red Hat Advisories (Alerts). For more information refer to Section 3.4.4.
Added dual port Fibre Channel automatic failover (bonding driver support) to improve resiliency.
The Fibre Channel IP bonding interface allows two Fibre Channel links between a Cray X1 mainframe and a CNS to be treated as a single logical interface, providing a network connection failover capability.
Changed cns_gen_config script to properly disable unused interfaces and keep the configuration data in the configuration file. ONBOOT=no is used to prevent the interface from being enabled at boot.
Added these tcp_assistd (proxy) enhancements:
Added the capability to more reliably restart the proxy when port 513 is unavailable.
Updated the proxy startup and shutdown so that it is nondestructive of existing connections. This allows configuration changes to be made "on the fly."
Updated the proxy so that it correctly handles the race condition between new connections and old connections in the process of closing. (In previous releases, the close of previous connection and its subsequent open could overlap, causing failure).
Added a short delay (to improve reliability) to reestablishing a previous socket connection. This fixes intermittent problems with commands like rsh.
Added a check in cns_gen_config to determine whether gated is configured on or off, which allows the gated daemon to automatically start at the next CNS boot following an upgrade.
Improved documentation. Documentation enhancements since the last release of this software are described in Section 1.4.
A printed copy of this release overview is provided with each CNS release package. You can also access this document at any of the following sites:
The network location specified for Cray documentation by your system administrator
The Cray public web site:
The Cray internal web site (Cray personnel only):
If you cannot get electronic copies of the release overview files using any of these methods, contact your Cray representative.
The following conventions are used throughout this document:
Contact us with any comments that will help us to improve the accuracy and usability of this document. Be sure to include the title and number of the document with your comments. We value your comments and will respond to them promptly. Contact us in any of the following ways:
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