Network Hardware Test (nettest)

The nettest checks all the networking hardware on the system CPU board and separate networking controllers (for example, a second SBus Ethernet controller). For this test to be meaningful, the machine under test must be attached to a network with at least one other system on the network.

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Note - This version of nettest is used for all networking devices, including Ethernet (ie and le), token ring (tr), quad Ethernet (QED), fiber optic (fddi), SPARCcluster^(TM) 1 System (em), ATM (sa, ba), and 100 megabits per second Ethernet (be,hme) devices.

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The nettest mainly uses the Internet control message protocol (ICMP), and requires at least two machines on a network -- the machine under test and another machine reliable enough to be a test target. Both machines must support the transport control protocol/interface program (TCP/IP) (ICMP is part of TCP/IP). The target machine must either be configured to respond to ICMP broadcast or to RPC broadcast.

The first thing nettest does is to determine the target machine(s) to test against. If no targets are specified, it sends an ICMP broadcast to find them. If it fails to find all necessary targets, it tries RPC broadcast to the RPC port mapper daemon. If you specify the targets, nettest uses the specified target(s) instead.

After finding the necessary targets, nettest performs the following tests:

• Random test sends out 256 packets with random data length and random data.
• Incremental test sends out packets with length from minimum to maximum packet size using incremental data. (Minimum and maximum values differ for each device.)
• Pattern test sends 256 packets of maximum length, where each packet contains one test pattern, and all byte patterns (0 to 0xFF hex) are used. That is, the first packet contains pattern 0, the second packet contains pattern 1, and so on, until the last packet pattern of 0xFF.

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Note - nettest is a scalable test. However, the maximum number of networked devices allowed on a system is 255, and the number of instances for each device is limited to 200. So, if you start the SunVTS exerciser using the -i option to specify a default number of instances for all tests, nettest cannot assign more than 200 instances per each networked device.

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nettest Options

Figure 16-1 nettest

The Configuration section specifies the Host Name, Host ID, Host Address, and Domain Name of the system being tested.

• Target Host field specifies one or more targets to be tested against. Target host entries can be either a host name or an Internet address. When no target host is specified, the test finds necessary targets via broadcasting. The default setting leaves this field empty.

  Use the check boxes to select either the Random, Increment, or Pattern tests. All three tests are selected as a default.

• Receive Timeout field default is 120 seconds, but it can be changed. Use a range between 0 - 600 seconds.

• Number of Retries field default number of retries before flagging an error is three. This field can also be changed: use a range between 0 to 128 retries.
• Print Warning field is disabled by default. Click on Enable to see warning errors, such as retry on timeout.

nettest Test Modes

All three modes are supported by nettest. Different test schemes are performed on the network device based on the mode selected.

Connectivity Mode The nettest checks whether the device is connected or not under this mode. It searches through all the network interfaces for specified device name. The nettest considers the device not connected and test failed if it can not find the match, otherwise it returns device is connected.

Online Mode Under online mode, nettest is aware that the user's application may be running, it tries to minimize the influence on the application while it is testing. So the nettest uses only random test in online mode. Since the network device can be shared and the system resource is available, applications shall be affected fairly small.

Offline Mode Under offline mode, the nettest performs all three tests (Random test, Incremental test, and Pattern test) sequentially. It allows user to specify option in such a way that the nettest performs a very stressful test.

nettest Command Line Syntax

/opt/SUNWvts/bin/nettest standard_arguments -o target=h1+h2+...,
dev=interface,test=type,packets=n,pattern=hex,delay=seconds,
timeout=seconds,retry=n,warn

Argument	Explanation
target=h1+h2+...	Specifies a list of test targets by hostname or Internet address.
dev=interface	Network interface name. The default value is le0 for Ethernet networks.
test=type	Specifies the test type. Type Random for only the Random test, Increment for the Incremental test, Pattern for the Pattern test. The default value is Random+Increment+Pattern for all the tests to be run.
packets=n	Number of random/pattern packets. The default is 256.
pattern=hexn	Specifies a data pattern, in hexadecimal form. The default is all patterns from 0 to 0xff.
delay=seconds	Indicates the time between subtests in seconds; default is 30 seconds.
timeout=seconds	Indicates the number of seconds to wait before time-out; default is 20 seconds.
retry=n	Indicates the number of test timeout retries; default is three retries.
warn	When enabled, prints warning messages.

nettest Error Messages

The nettest error messages are listed below with explanations or probable causes:

6000 RPC broadcast failure <error_message>.
6001 Unable to resolve <host_name> ethernet address.
6002 No ICMP echo reply from <host_name>.

Probable_Cause(s):

a. system load too heavy b. No cable connection

c. target machine too busy

Recommended_Action(s):

a. reduce system load or increase timeout time b. Check cable connection!

c. reduce target machine load

6003 ICMP echo reply incorrect length from <host_name>, exp
<data> obs <data>.

6004 ICMP echo reply length <number> from <host_name>, data
mismatch at byte <number>, exp <value> obs <value>.

6005 Unable to find any test target.

6006 Unable to find necessary test targets for the ethernet
switch.

8000 Unable to open <device_name> <error_message>.

8001 Bad ioctl <name> <error_message>.

8002 Unable to allocate <number> bytes of memory
<error_message>.

8003 System call <name> returned <value> <error_message>.

8004 Unable to map network entry for <host_name>.

8005 ATM device <device_name> requires target
specification.

8006 Failed to allocate <number> bytes of swap space for
configuration.

8007 dl_primitive response = <value>
8008 dl_ok_ack: short response
8009 dl_phys_addr_ack: short response
8010 Invalid Argument <string>
8011 Interface <device_name> not configured in system.