[HECnet] DECNET Cluster alias and simh

[Jordi Guillaumes i Pons]

Hello,

I have built a simh based LAVC (just because it is cool), and I have a problem. The booting/sharing/clustering works as usual (that is, awesomly), but I can't make the decnet cluster alias work. I have defined it and if I do a show exec char I see it is defined. If I do a SET HOST to the cluster alias _FROM_ any node in the cluster, it also works (as SET HOST 0), but the address does not propagate thru the LAN, so it is not visible in SHOW NET/OLD and it is regarded as unreachable from any other node.

I have some real iron here, and there the cluster alias works as intended.

I wonder if it is a simh-related issue. I don't really know how does this thing work internally. Since DECNET has no ARP resolution I guess the MAC address corresponding to the DECNET address is somehow added to the NIC so it "listens" to both MAC addresses (the one corresponding to the node and the cluster one). Perhaps SIMH implementation does not allow this magic. If that was the case I'd consider it something to be fixed.

Any idea if I am missing something stupid before reporting this as a bug?

Jordi Guillaumes i Pons
jg at jordi.guillaumes.name
HECnet: BITXOV::JGUILLAUMES