Configuring AppleTalk on an Access Server

Disabling AppleTalk

If you decide that your access server should no longer act as an AppleTalk node, all AppleTalk capabilities can be turned off using the following privileged DEFINE command:

Local> DEFINE APPLETALK DISABLED

Reinitialize the access server to have this command take effect. Upon reinitialization, the access server no longer functions as an AppleTalk node. All of the SHOW AppleTalk commands then give you the following message:

Local -527- AppleTalk is not enabled, no operational commands

allowed

DIGITAL recommends that you disable AppleTalk when the access server is not used as an AppleTalk node. When you disable AppleTalk:

The access server no longer responds to or monitors AppleTalk traffic on the network, freeing up CPU time.

System resources are freed up since they are no longer allocated for AppleTalk operation.

The access server rejects all SNMP queries for AppleTalk information. It transmits a No Such Name error message.

Setting AppleTalk Address Cache Size

An access server with AppleTalk enabled tries to acquire unused AppleTalk addresses for any potential hosts attached to the access server with asynchronous lines. It saves these addresses in a cache and defends them if any other host on the network tries to use them. When a host attaches to the access server via an asynchronous port, the access server assigns one of the addresses from the cache to the attached host.

A privileged user on the access server specifies how many AppleTalk addresses the access server should acquire on initialization using the following DEFINE command:

Local> DEFINE APPLETALK [address] CACHE [size] n

As with the command to enable or disable AppleTalk, this command affects only the NVRAM database on the access server. The access server has to be reinitialized for the cache size to take effect operationally.

The supported range for n is 1 to the number of asynchronous ports. The access server always attempts to keep the number of available entries in the address cache equal to the smaller of either the cache size that you define or the number of ports that do not already have AppleTalk connections.

Managing AppleTalk 8-3