ComOS 3.5b17 Pre-Release Note
Introduction
The new Livingston Enterprises ComOS 3.5b17 software pre-release is now
available for the PortMaster 2, PortMaster 25, PortMaster IRX, and
PortMaster Office Router (but NOT the PortMaster 3, which already has
3.5 released for it). This Open Beta release is provided at no charge
to all Livingston customers. We've been running it internally here and
at selected sites without any problems, so we're making it available to
Livingston customers who would like to test it in their environment for
a week or two. Interested customers are invited to upgrade to 3.5b17
and report any problems to Livingston Technical Support (please mention
3.5b17 in your call). After ComOS 3.5 is released, you should upgrade
from 3.5b17 to 3.5 promptly.
Customers in mission-critical environments may wish to wait for the
ComOS release 3.5, available soon.
This release note documents commands and features in ComOS release 3.5
in addition to those described in the Command Line Administrator's
Guide (available in printed form December 23, 1996). All Livingston
manuals are available in PostScript and Adobe Acrobat PDF format on
ftp://ftp.livingston.com/pub/le/doc/manuals/.
Note - You must use PMconsole 3.5.1b1 when upgrading to ComOS 3.5b17;
see "Upgrade Instructions" after reading "Memory Requirements", below.
Contents
Introduction
New Features in ComOS 3.5
Bug Fixes in ComOS 3.5
Memory Requirements
Upgrade Instructions
New Features in ComOS 3.5
ComOS 3.5 includes the following new features:
Variable Length Subnet Masks. In previous releases ComOS required the
same netmask to be used for all subnets of a network. In release 3.5,
variable length subnet masks (VLSM) are supported. To ease the
transition, the command "set user-netmask off" is available; see below
for details.
OSPF. See the OSPF chapter in the Command Line Administrator's Guide,
which is available now in PostScript and Adobe Acrobat PDF format on
ftp://ftp.livingston.com/pub/le/doc/manuals/ and will be available in
printed form on December 23, 1996.
The "add route" command supports VLSM.
The "show routes" command can show specific networks.
RADIUS can now be used to authenticate administrative logins.
Syslog messages can now be directed to facilities other than AUTH.
Easier commands for erasing flash memory.
Support for VLSM in RADIUS Framed-Route.
RADIUS Accounting entries are retransmitted sooner.
RADIUS now supports passwords up to 48 characters in length.
The size of the Assigned Address Pool can be set with the "set pool"
command.
The ARP cache has been increased from 24 to 96 entries.
Debug statements can now be timestamped.
Variable Length Subnet Masks
ComOS release 3.5 supports Variable Length Subnet Masks. In previous
releases ComOS required the same netmask to be used for all subnets of
a network. In release3.5, variable length subnet masks (VLSM) are
supported. To ease the transition, the command "set user-netmask off"
treats all netmasks specified in the User Table or RADIUS as though
they were 255.255.255.255, the way earlier releases did. The command
"set user-netmask on" adds routes based on the specified netmask. The
default is off.
In ComOS 3.3.3 and earlier the PortMaster always used 255.255.255.255
for the user's Framed-IP-Netmask, regardless of the value of the
attribute. ComOS 3.5 adds support for Variable Length Subnet Masks
(VLSM), but by default ignores the Framed-IP-Netmask the same way
earlier releases did. To have ComOS 3.5 accept the netmask value, issue
the following commands on the PortMaster:
set user-netmask on
save all
After user-netmask is set on, the PortMaster uses the actual value of
the Framed-IP-Netmask to update the routing table when a user logs in.
Use caution with this feature, because it affects both routing and
Proxy ARP on the PortMaster.
If you want to route to that one host, use the attribute
Framed-IP-Netmask = 255.255.255.255
You should always use netmask 255.255.255.255 when using the PortMaster
assigned address pool (or omit the attribute, which defaults to
255.255.255.255).
If you want to route to an entire 24-bit subnet, you use
Framed-IP-Netmask = 255.255.255.0
"add route" command supports VLSM
Static Routes support VLSM. For example, to add a route to the
192.168.1.32/27 subnet through gateway 192.168.1.1 with metric 2 you
would use the command
add route 192.168.1.32/27 192.168.1.1 2
OSPF
ComOS 3.5 supports the Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) routing protocol.
See the OSPF Chapter in the Command Line Administrator's Guide,
available now in PostScript and Adobe Acrobat PDF format on
ftp://ftp.livingston.com/pub/le/doc/manuals/ and available in printed
form on December 23, 1996. Some additional commands were added after
that manual went to press and are documented in
ftp://ftp.livingston.com/pub/le/doc/notes/ospf and here.
Virtual links are not supported, meaning that all PortMasters running
OSPF must either be in one area, or have at least one interface in area 0.
When injecting RIP routes into OSPF, ComOS 3.5 includes the RIP gateway
as the gateway.
Before configuring OSPF, you must enter the following commands.
set ospf enable
save all
reboot
reset ospf
The "reset ospf" command resets the OSPF router engine in the
PortMaster. You must enter this command after making changes to the
PortMaster's OSPF configuration.
OSPF cost, hello-interval, dead-time
OSPF cost, hello-interval, and dead-time can be configured by
interface.
Note - The value for cost, hello-interval, and dead-time must be the
same for all routers attached to a common network.
set Ether0 ospf on cost Number
This command sets the cost of sending a packet on the interface,
expressed in the link state metric. Number is a number from 1 to
65535. The default value is1. Example: set ether0 ospf on cost 2
set Ether0 ospf on hello-interval Number
This command sets how often the hello packet is transmitted; the
interval can be any value from 10 to 120 seconds. The default value of
hello-interval is 10 seconds. Example: set ether0 ospf on
hello-interval 40
set Ether0 ospf on dead-time Number
This command sets the number of seconds the the PortMaster will wait
after ceasing to receive a neighbor router's hello packets before
marking the remote router as down. The range is 40 to 1200 seconds. The
default value is 40 seconds. Example: set ether0 ospf on dead-time 60
"show routes" command can show specific networks
The "show routes" command now accepts an optional argument to only
display routes that match that argument. For example, "show routes
172.16" only shows routes that contain "172.16".
RADIUS for administrative logins
The PortMaster now supports Service-Type Administrative-User and
NAS-Prompt-User.
In previous releases, the !root administrative login granted full
control to the PortMaster. While !root remains, ComOS 3.5 adds the
ability to authenticate administrative logins with RADIUS to provide
two classes of users:
* administrative users with full configuration ability
(everything that !root can do)
* read-only administrative users who cannot change the
configuration, but can reset ports, reboot, set debug flags, and show
status.
Now, rather than requiring everyone in a Network Operations Center
(NOC) to know the global administrative passwords to all your
PortMasters, you can create individual accounts to track access and
limit configuration changes to appropriate personnel, if desired.
In ComOS 3.5 and later, if a RADIUS Access-Accept returns a
Service-Type of Administrative-User (6), the PortMaster treats it as a
!root login. If a RADIUS Access-Accept returns a Service-Type of
NAS-Prompt-User, a restricted administrative login is granted that has
permission to use the following commands:
* ifconfig
* ping
* ptrace
* reboot
* reset
* set console
* set debug
* show
* traceroute
* Any other commands that do not affect the configuration
A NAS-Prompt-User does not have access to the following commands: add,
delete, erase, save, tftp, or any set commands other than "set debug"
and "set console".
To enable this feature on your RADIUS server:
If running RADIUS 1.16, modify /etc/raddb/dictionary to include the
following two lines; then kill and restart radiusd:
VALUE User-Service-Type Administrative-User 6
VALUE User-Service-Type NAS-Prompt-User 7
If running RADIUS 2.0, modify /etc/raddb/dictionary to add the
following line (it already has a definition for Administrative-User);
then kill and restart radiusd:
VALUE Service-Type NAS-Prompt-User 7
Here are two examples (for RADIUS 2.0) of /etc/raddb/users file entries
to illustrate:
!noc Password = "dontuseth1s"
Service-Type = NAS-Prompt-User
!pmconfing Auth-Type = System, Prefix = "!"
Service-Type = Administrative-User
Caution - If you are using your RADIUS server with a combination of
Livingston products and other vendors' products, confirm that they
either do not use these two Service-Types or that their use is
compatible.
Syslog messages can be redirected
In releases prior to ComOS 3.5, packet filter logging went to the
loghost at AUTH facility and NOTICE priority, and all other logging was
done to the AUTH facility at INFO priority. In ComOS 3.5, the facility
and priority can be set for each of five types of logged events.
To display the current syslog settings, use the "show syslog" command.
The default settings are displayed in this example:
Command> show syslog
Syslog Configuration Settings
admin-logins: auth.info
user-logins: auth.info
packet-filters: auth.notice
commands: disabled
termination: disabled
To change the syslog settings, use the "set syslog Logtype Where"
command. Logtype is one of the following: admin-logins, user-logins,
packet-filters, commands, or termination. Where is either the keyword
"disabled", indicating not to send that type of message to syslog, or a
facility and priority separated by a period. For example, to log all
commands issued on the PortMaster to the LOCAL0 facility at DEBUG
priority use the command
Command> set syslog commands local0.debug
The five areas you can set logging for are defined as follows:
Logtype Description
______________ ___________________________________________________
admin-logins !root and administrative logins
user-logins Nonadministrative logins (You might want to disable
this if you already use RADIUS Accounting.)
packet-filters Packets that match rules with the "log" keyword
commands Every command entered at the command line interface
termination More detailed information on how user sessions
terminate (See the ComOS 3.3.2 Release Notes.)
The facilities and priorities are defined as follows. Livingston
recommends that you use the AUTH facility or LOCAL0 through LOCAL7
facilities for receiving syslog messages from PortMasters, but all the
facilities are provided. See your operating system documentation for
information on configuring syslog on your host.
Facility Number
_______ ______
kern 0
user 1
mail 2
daemon 3
auth 4
syslog 5
lpr 6
news 7
uucp 8
cron 15
local0 16
local1 17
local2 18
local3 19
local4 20
local5 21
local6 22
local7 23
The following priorities are available:
Pri Number Typically Used for
______ ______ ________________________________
emerg 0 system is unusable
alert 1 action must be taken immediately
crit 2 critical messages
err 3 error messages
warning 4 warning messages
notice 5 normal but significant message
info 6 informational message
debug 7 debug-level messages
Flash erasure commands
For more information on these commands see the "General Commands"
chapter of the Command Line Administrator's Guide. ComOS 3.5 has a set
of commands for erasing all or part of the nonvolatile flash memory of
the PortMaster. erase configuration does what "set register 0xffff 0x0102"
used to do.
Command Use
___________________ ________________________________________________
erase all-flash Erases all the nonvolatile memory in the
PortMaster including the configuration and ComOS.
erase comos Erases the ComOS that the PortMaster boots from.
erase configuration Erases the configuration, returning the
PortMaster to factory defaults after its
next reboot.
erase file String Erase the specified file from configuration
nonvolatile memory, see "show files" for a list.
erase partition Number Use this command only if told to do so by
Livingston Technical Support.
RADIUS Framed-Route supports VLSM
ComOS release 3.5 supports the subnet length specifier in RADIUS
Framed-Route attributes. For example:
Framed-Route = "192.168.1.32/28 192.168.1.33 1"
RADIUS Accounting retransmits sooner
RADIUS Accounting packets are now retransmitted every 30 seconds.
The Authenticator field in a retransmitted Accounting-Request is
now calculated using the method specified in the current RADIUS
specification.
RADIUS now supports passwords up to 48 characters in length
RADIUS now supports user passwords up to 48 characters in length. The
RADIUS 1.16 and RADIUS 2.0 servers support passwords up to 16
characters in length; a future release of the Livingston RADIUS server
will support passwords up to 48 characters long.
Assigned pool size
The PortMaster allocates a pool of IP addresses starting at the
Assigned Address base value (set from the global menu or by the "set
assigned" command) and counting up. The total number of addresses is
equal to the number of ports configured for Network Dialin. If someone
dials in and requests an unused address from the pool, that is
assigned; if someone dials in and requests any address, the next
address from the pool is assigned, if someone disconnects, their
address is placed at the end of the pool for reuse.
In ComOS 3.5, the size of the pool can also be set explicitly with the
"set pool Number" command, where Number is the number of IP addresses
to allocate for the pool. If the pool size is decreased, the PortMaster
must be rebooted for the change to take effect.
Increased ARP cache
The Ethernet ARP cache has been increased from 24 entries to 96, to
improve performance.
Debug timestamps
The command "set debug clock on" time-stamps console debug messages
using the time since last reboot, specified in days, hours, minutes,
seconds, and hundredths of a second. To turn the timestamps off use the
command "set debug clock off".
Bug Fixes in ComOS 3.5
The following bugs are fixed in ComOS 3.5:
* Three small memory leaks are fixed.
* In previous releases, if both B channels on a BRI were active and the
BRI was provisioned for "Additional Call Offering" and a voice call
came in, a B channel was set to idle. In ComOS 3.5, the PortMaster
properly refuses the call.
* In previous releases, if a synchronous PPP device called in and the
PortMaster missed the first PPP packet, after one second the
PortMaster sent a V.120 frame to wake up the device. Some devices
treated the V.120 frame as an invalid protocol and hung up. In ComOS
3.5, the PortMaster waits five seconds before sending the V.120
frame, because the PPP specification requires the device to
retransmit within three seconds.
* The Omron ME2814BII modem drops CTS for less than 80 microseconds. In
a previous release, the PortMaster detected the drop but not the rise
1/12500 second later, causing the PortMaster to flow control the port
and hang the session. This behavior has not been detected on any
other brand of modem, but ComOS 3.5 now handles it properly.
Memory Requirements
The following section discusses memory requirements for ComOS 3.5 in
general terms; actual memory usage depends on the configuration and use
of your PortMaster. For instructions on upgrading memory see the
installation guide for the product. All installation guides are
available on the Total Access CD, in PDF format on the Livingston web
site www.livingston.com, and in PDF and PostScript format on the
Livingston FTP site ftp.livingston.com.
All models of the PortMaster Office Router have 1MB of nonupgradable
memory, which is sufficient for ComOS 3.5L.
All models of the PortMaster IRX have 1MB of memory, which is
sufficient for ComOS 3.5R unless you are using OSPF with very large
networks.
For the PortMaster 2 and PortMaster 25 use the following guidelines to
estimate memory usage.
Model Async Sync ISDN Base Memory
__________________ _____ ____ ____ ___________
PM-25 25 0 0 780KB
PM-2E-30 30 0 0 800KB
PM-2E-10 + 1 ISDN 10 0 10 860KB
PM-2E-10 + 2 ISDN 10 0 20 910KB
PM-2E-20 + 1 ISDN 20 0 10 935KB
PM-2ER-10 + 1 ISDN 10 1 10 885KB
PM-2ER-10 + 2 ISDN 10 1 20 935KB
PM-2ER-20 + 1 ISDN 20 1 10 960KB
If SNMP is used, an additional 50KB is required.
If IPX is used, an additional 20KB is required, plus memory for SAP and RIP.
If RIP is used, 5KB for every 100 RIP routes should be added.
If OSPF is used, an additional 50KB is required, plus 5KB for every 40 routes.
If any other tables are used, such as the User Table or Location Table,
those require additional memory.
The PortMaster auto-detects the physical installed memory. Four 30-pin
70ns parity SIMMs are required, either 256KB, 1MB, or 4MB. Mixing of
SIMMs is not supported. They can be either 3-chip or 9-chip SIMMs.
Upgrade Instructions
WARNING! YOU MUST USE PMINSTALL VERSION 3.5.1b1 OR LATER TO PERFORM
THIS UPGRADE! If you are upgrading using PMconsole for Windows, you
must use PMconsole for Windows version 3.5.1b4 or later.
If you are upgrading from ComOS 2.3 or 2.4 to ComOS 3.5b17, you must
first upgrade to ComOS 3.0.4, reboot, then upgrade to ComOS 3.5b17.
If you have any port speeds set to 115200 and upgrade to ComOS release
3.5b17. and then downgrade to any release before 3.3.2, you must set
the port speeds again after downgrading.
The installation software can be retrieved by FTP from
ftp://ftp.livingston.com/pub/le/software/system/tarfile.tar.Z,
replacing system and tarfile.tar.Z with the actual names of the files.
You can FTP the upgrade image at the same time. This example shows an
administrator retrieving the SunOS pminstall and PortMaster 2 upgrade
image.
umask 22
mkdir /usr/portmaster
cd /usr/portmaster
ftp ftp.livingston.com
(Enter anonymous)
(Enter your e-mail address; it will not echo.)
binary
cd /pub/le/software/sun4
get pm_3.5.1b1_sun4.tar.Z pm.tar.Z
cd /pub/le/upgrades
get pm2_3.5b17
quit
tar xvf pm.tar
rm pm.tar
mv pm2_3.5b17 data
./pminstall
PMconsole 3.5.1b4 for Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 is available on
ftp://ftp.livingston.com/pub/le/software/pc/pmw351b4.exe in a
self-extracting file. FTP that file, run the file to install PMconsole
for Windows, move the upgrade file into the data directory, run
PMconsole for Windows, and click on the Upgrade icon.
PMconsole can be found under ftp://ftp.livingston.com/pub/le/software/.
Note that the AIX release is now for AIX 4.1, since IBM has
end-of-lifed AIX 3.2.5.
bsdi/pm_3.5.1b1_BSDOS_2.0.tar.Z BSD/OS 2.0 and 2.1
sgi/pm_3.5.1b1_IRIX_5.2.tar.Z SGI Irix 5.2
linux/pm_3.5.1b1_Linux.tar.Z Linux 1.2.13 ELF
rs6000/pm_3.5.1b1_RS6000_4.1.tar.Z RS6000 AIX 4.1 (no longer 3.2.5)
alpha/pm_3.5.1b1_alpha_T3.0.tar.Z Digital Alpha OSF/1 T3.0
hp/pm_3.5.1b1_hp9000_10.01.tar.Z HP 9000 HP/UX 10.01
sun4/pm_3.5.1b1_sun4.tar.Z SunOS 4.1.4, 5.5 on Sparc
sun86/pm_3.5.1b1_sun86_5.5.tar.Z Solaris/X86 2.5.1
pc/pmw351b4.exe Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0
The upgrade images are at ftp://ftp.livingston.com/pub/le/upgrades/.
ComOS Upgrade Image Product
_______ _____________ _____________________________________
3.5b17 pm2_3.5b17 PortMaster 2, 2E, 2ER, 2R, 2i, 2E-10I
3.5b17 pm25_3.5b17 PortMaster 25
3.5Rb17 irx_3.5Rb17 IRX-111, 112, 114, 211
3.5Lb17 or_3.5Lb17 OR-M, U, ST, LS and HS
ComOS 3.5 uses the same RADIUS dictionary file as ComOS 3.3.3, with the
addition of the NAS-Prompt-User. An updated dictionary file is
available for RADIUS 1.16 and RADIUS 2.0 at
ftp://ftp.livingston.com/pub/le/radius/dictionary.
The upgrade does not affect your stored configuration in the
PortMaster. If you would like to backup your PortMaster configuration
before upgrading, run pmreadconf:
cd /usr/portmaster
./pmreadconf pmname pmpassword data/pmname.conf
chmod 600 data/pmname.conf
Copyright and Trademarks
Copyright 1996 Livingston Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved.
The names Livingston, PortMaster, ComOS, RADIUS, ChoiceNet, PMconsole,
IRX, True Digital, and RAMP are trademarks belonging to Livingston
Enterprises, Inc. All other marks are the property of their respective
owners.
Notices
Livingston Enterprises, Inc. makes no representations or warranties
with respect to the contents or use of this manual, and specifically
disclaims any express or implied warranties of merchantability or
fitness for any particular purpose. Further, Livingston Enterprises,
Inc. reserves the right to revise this publication and to make changes
to its content, any time, without obligation to notify any person or
entity of such revisions or changes.
Contacting Livingston Technical Support
Livingston Enterprises provides technical support via voice, FAX, and
electronic mail. Technical support is available Monday through Friday
6am-5pm Pacific Time (GMT-8). Livingston will be closed December 25-27
so that employees can spend the holiday with their familys, and will
reopen December 30.
To contact Livingston Technical Support by voice, dial 1-800-458-9966
within the US or 1-510-426-0770 outside the US; by FAX, dial
1-510-426-8951; by electronic mail, send mail to
support@livingston.com; and through the World Wide Web at
http://www.livingston.com/.