PSF/AIX: PSF Direct using SNA ethernet

ITEM: RTA000106688



Q:                                                                              
ABSTRACT:     PSF Direct using SNA ethernet                                     
SEARCH ARG:   psf direct ethernet                                               
TOPIC THREAD: PRINT                                                             
              PSF/AIX                                                           
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My customer is planning on implementing the following solution.                 
Please validate this for me and let me know of any potential                    
problems. They plan to use PSF/MVS to communicate with PSF Direct               
using SNA and ethernet. Then there will be a 370 channel card in                
the RS6000 attached to a 3900-001. All of the examples in the PSF               
Direct Network Configuration Guide are for SNA token ring. I believe            
that this will work also with ethernet if we can get it configured              
correctly.                                                                      
                                                                               
I realize that we need SNA Server for the RS6000 to make                        
this connection as well as PSF/AIX. Is there anything else that we              
would require? I assume also that we would be better of if we could             
set up a private segment for the ethernet connection to the RS6000              
thereby avoiding collisions. I do not know if this is possible yet.             
                                                                                
Are there any bandwidth issues I need to be aware of. I usually plan            
for about 229KB of bandwidth for a remote 3900. We are proposing                
a C20 RS6000 which would be dedicated to the printer. We plan to also           
allow lan printing to go to the 3900 allowing the transformation                
of PCL and PostScript. I assume we can "share" the 3900 between the             
host and the LAN the same as if it were a token ring environment.               
Is this assumption correct? Is there anything else you can think of             
that we should do or be aware of? Thanks for the help.                          
                                                                               
A:                                                                              
The underlying physical medium doesn't matter as long as the                    
host VTAM and Communications Server for AIX (or its predecessor,                
SNA Server/6000) can establish an LU6.2 conversation.  Ethernet is              
supported in this environment.  You're correct that there isn't                 
formal documentation for an Ethernet connection using PSF Direct on             
AIX; however, there are examples in the PSF Direct Network Configuration        
Guide for 3172 connection of token-ring; use of that in combination             
with PSF/2 documentation for Ethernet connection have enabled others            
to set up PSF Direct using PSF/AIX over Ethernet.  See libraried ASKQ           
item RTA000092459 for a similar question.                                       
                                                                                
As far as the performance rate, I would recommend that you check out            
the PSF/2 and PSF/6000 PSF Direct Performance Guide that is available           
by request from the PENNCONF disk:                                             
                                                                                
  REQUEST PSF6PERF PACKAGE FROM PENNCONF AT BLDVMB (yourname AT yournode        
                                                                                
There is some discussion in there of needed bandwidths.  The bottleneck         
will be the slowest component of the link between the host and the              
bandwidth.  I'm out of the office today and don't have access to                
my copy of this document to check the numbers, so I urge you to                 
obtain it and review it, particularly the section on bandwidth.                 
                                                                                
Yes, you can share the 3900 between the host and LAN using the timers           
described in the PSF Direct Network Configuration Guide.  However, if           
you're planning to transform PCL and PostScript as input datastreams,           
a C20 may not be sufficiently powerful.  Both the PCL and PostScript            
transforms in PSF/AIX V2.1 are floating-point intensive and generally           
perform better on RS/6000s with Power2 or P2SC chips.  There are other         
ASKQ items available that discuss this in greater detail.  Let me know          
if you are unable to locate them.                                               
                                                                                
I hope this helps.                                                              
                                                                                
S e a r c h - k e y w o r d s:                                                  
Ethernet Direct PSF/AIX PSF/6000 PSF AIX sharing share timers LAN               
LU6.2 3172 performance pcl postscript SNA                                       
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                               


WWQA: ITEM: RTA000106688 ITEM: RTA000106688
Dated: 01/1999 Category: XPSF6000
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