On Mon, 14 Jun 2004, Lionel Dyck wrote: > My mainframe networking guy came back to me with this comment: > > "If I have interpreted the book correctly, and it is true that OSPF is not > used with VSWITCH, we will not be able to take that path as VSWITCH > protocols will not be supported by our networking group."
Heavy, heavy sigh. :( I hope it wasn't *my* book that gave him that impression... As Alan said, there are no "VSWITCH protocols". Go to your networking group and ask them how they would connect an unmanaged Ethernet switch into the network, and tell them that the port on the OSA is the external port of that switch :). Better yet (to borrow a previous suggestion of Alan's), take both your "mainframe network guy" and the LAN guy out for a coffee and work it out over one of my patent-pending network illustration devices[1]. To reiterate: one of the purposes of VSWITCH is to eliminate the need for routing function within the z/VM environment by making the VSWITCH an extension of the physical LAN to which the OSA port is attached. There is no OSPF because there is no routing, except to reach the networks beyond that to which the OSA is attached. VLAN is only used if you need or want to control traffic within z/VM in the same way as they do outside (as another poster mentioned, the VLAN IDs are the same inside and out so defining VLANs in the VSWITCH that do not map to corresponding VLANs outside could lead to failures). >From a networking perspective VSWITCH provides similar function to having your guests attached directly to the OSA, but you get the benefit of having the ability to switch to a different OSA port if a problem happens on the first one. Hoping that we're reducing confusion rather than contributing to it... Cheers, Vic Cross [1] In the ISP/ASP redbook, I came up with the somewhat corny idea of printing all of my network diagrams with z/VM shown in light shading. This would allow us poor hapless mainframers (who know nothing at all about networks, don't ya know) to turn the copier down low so that the box that says 'z/VM' doesn't appear, and you get real routers and switches on the diagram instead of "simulated" LANs and "virtual" routers. Seems to me like this idea has not quite outlived its usefulness... ;) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
