
RELEASE NOTES 
=============
  AMD PCnet Family Software
  ODI-CHSM driver for Netware Server 4.11 and 5.0
  Version 2.10

This release provides the PermaNet Server support on the C-ODI driver for the 
AMD PCnet-FAST,PCnet-FAST+, PCnet-FAST III and follow on PCI ethernet 
controllers.

If you are using Netware 4.11, please have Service Pack 6
installed on your system or if you are using Netware 5.0
please install Service Pack 1.  These Service Packs may
be downloaded from Novell's website at www.novell.com.

The PermaNet Server features provided are:
   
   - Link Fault Tolerance (LFT) in a pair adapters.	
   - Dynamic Load Balancing (DLB) and Port Aggregation (PAg) in a group of 2 
     or 4 adapters - referred as same as AGP2
   - Fast EtherChannel (FEC) support in a group of 2 or 4 adapters - referred 
     as AGP2
   - Partially filled DLB/PAg or FEC groups

Link Fault Tolerance (LFT) Testing
==================================
The driver has been tested in a limited context for LFT capability under
certain conditions, viz - there is no interrupt sharing among any of the AMD
adapters ( refer to Known Bugs ). Testing has been done in Netware 4.11 or 4.2 
& NetWare 5.0. Hot swapping is possible under various load conditions. The
PermaNet feature however should currently not be used as there are some issues
concerning the PermaNet feature that is under investigation by Novell. 

During testing it was observed that in some cases NetWare abends when the
driver shifts the instance to the secondary adapter. This happens usually when
the instance shifting is performed several hours after the server is booted.
The abend does not usually happen if the instance shifting is performed a few
minutes after server bootup. The problem has been traced to memory corruption
in MSM data structures and is currently under investigation by Novell.

Dynamic Load Balancing (DLB) and Port Aggregation (PAg) Testing
===============================================================
The driver has been successfully tested for generic fast ehternet switch 
Dynamic Load Balancing (DLB) and Port Aggregation (PAg) link, and failover 
in AGP2 & AGP4 configurations in Netware 4.11 or 4.2 & NetWare 5.0 (Under 
certain conditions, viz - there is no interrupt sharing among any of the AMD 
adapters ( refer to Known Bugs )). 

The test passed using the following switches:

Cisco Catalyst 2924 (normal switch setting)
Nortel BayStack 350T
3Com Super Stack II 3300
CentreCom FS709 

Fast EtherChannel (FEC) Testing
===============================
The driver has been successfully tested at Cisco Catalyst 2924 switch for Fast 
EtherChannel and link failover in AGP2 & AGP4 configurations in both Netware 
4.11 or 4.2 & NetWare 5.0 (Under certain conditions, viz - there is no interrupt 
sharing among any of the AMD adapters ( refer to Known Bugs )).

Server Parameters
=================
It is recommended that some server parameters be modified when installing 
DLB/PAg and FEC configurations. Please refer to the installation document for 
details.

Known Bugs
==========

    1. 	NetWare 4.11 or 4.2 panics when the interrupt is shared by multiple 
       	instances of the same adapter. This is observed for C-ODI drivers only. 
       	This is currently under investigation by Novell Labs. Patches provided 
	by Novell ( MSM Version 3.90, January 19, 1998 ) have not been able to 
	solve this issue successfully. This problem does not appear in Netware 
	5.0.

    2. 	NetWare 4.11 or 4.2 & 5.0 panics in some cases when enabling the LFT 
       	feature during link failover. Patches provided by Novell ( MSM Version 
	3.90, January 19, 1999 ) have resolved this issue successfully.

    3. 	Netware 4.11 or 4.2 & 5.0:  When four instances of the C-ODI 
       	driver is loaded (as is required when four adapters are grouped 
       	into a Fast EtherChannel group), and heavy stress is applied, 
       	the system sometimes abends.  This has been identified to be 
       	a Novell MSM issue and AMD is awaiting a new MSM version to resolve 
       	this issue. 

