WHAT ARE THE ARCHITECTED SNA SESSION LIMITS

ITEM: RTA000038147



QUESTION:                                                                       
My customer has some questions regarding SNA Services/6000 and                  
SNA Server/6000.  Could you please answer the following for both                
products?                                                                       
                                                                                
1.  What is the maximum number of PUs (attachments?) that can be                
active at one time - (a) what is the architected limit, and (b) how             
would one determine a practical limit?                                          
                                                                                
2.  In (1), is the answer dependant on the number of network adapters           
installed, and if so, what is the limit per token-ring adapter?                 
                                                                                
3.  What is the maximum number of LU 6.2 connections - total or per PU -        
that can be active at one time - again, (a) what is the architected             
limit, and (b) how would one determine a practical limit?                      
                                                                                
4.  Is there an architected maximum number of token ring adapters that          
are supported, or is it based only on the maximum number supported by           
the RISC System/6000 and AIX?                                                   
                                                                                
5.  Are there any other limits that we should be aware of, especially           
any resource limits per token-ring adapter?                                     
                                                                                
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A: I will respond to your questions in the order you asked them.                
                                                                                
1. We need to distinguish between PUs and attachments.  In SNA                  
Services/6000, each Token Ring or Ethernet adapter, or port on a                
multi-protocol adapter, is considered a PU.  That is to say,                    
only one PU can be associated with a communications adapter (or                
port).  This is a limitation of SNA Services/6000, not of the                   
SNA architecture.                                                               
                                                                                
With SNA Services/6000, the number of attachments per adapter                   
depends on the designation of the attachment. While only one                    
attachment of designation "call" is permitted per adapter (PU),                 
SNA Services supports a maximum of 255 attachments of type                      
"listen" ("auto-listen"). If 255 attachments are active, only one               
attachment can be used for dependent LU traffic.  This is                       
because the Attachment Profile cannot specify its own XID node                  
ID - it must use the XID node ID specified in the Control                       
Point Profile.                                                                  
                                                                                
SNA Server/6000 drops the use of the term "attachment", and                     
adopts the more conventional term "link station".  Since each                  
Link Station Profile can specify its own XID node ID, SNA                       
Server/6000 supports a maximum of 255 link stations (PUs) per                   
adapter.                                                                        
                                                                                
The "practical" limit is highly relative, depending on a number                 
of factors, including the applications running on the system.                   
Unfortunately, there are no "rules of thumb" to determine this                  
limit.  I recommend that you contact the AIX Systems Center at                  
1-800-CALL-AIX.                                                                 
                                                                                
2. See answer (1).                                                              
                                                                                
3. In SNA Services/60000, the number of active LU 6.2                           
connections is determined by the value of the "TOTAL active open                
CONNECTIONS" in the Node profile.  The maximum allowed (with                   
Quality Refresh 3) is 5000.                                                     
                                                                                
SNA Server/6000 equates a connection with a session (Local LU)                  
profile, thus the value is determined by the "Maximum number of                 
sessions" in the Node profile. The maximum here is also 5000.                   
                                                                                
If all the traffic is independent LU 6.2 traffic, both SNA                      
Services and SNA Server support any combination of LUs per PU                   
which totals 5000. If the traffic is dependent LU traffic, both                 
products support 255 LUs per PU.                                                
                                                                                
4. There is no SNA architected limit on the number of                           
supported Token Ring adapters.  The only limit is the maximum                   
number of adapters supported on the particular model of RISC                    
System/6000.                                                                   
                                                                                
5. There are no other resource limits per Token Ring adapter.                   
But, note that you will probably need a great deal of real                      
memory in order to perform acceptably up to the maximum limits                  
mentioned above.                                                                
                                                                                
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This item was created from library item Q651511      CPFKF                      
                                                                                
Additional search words:                                                        
ARCHITECTED COMMUNICATIO CPFKF FEB94 IX LIMITS OZNEW RISC RISCSNA               
RISCSYSTEM SESSION SNA SOFTWARE S6000                                           
                                                                               


WWQA: ITEM: RTA000038147 ITEM: RTA000038147
Dated: 11/1996 Category: RISCSNA
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