Has anyone experience with the installation of a packeteer / packet-shaper in a multi-site environment? I mean multi-site: several Baan-companies in a multi-logistic / multi-finance configuration ánd two locations with approx. 50 miles in between.

Between the two locations we have a frame-relay connection, with a lower/upper bandwith of 512 / 1024 Mbit/s.

The problem on the other end of this connection is that Baan sometimes ‘freezes’ for some time. We think that a packet-shaper might be the solution, because the connection is used for all kinds of data.

Second – does anyone know by which protocol the Baan GUI (BW) communicates and which port is used? It seems that the network-load is over ten (!) times more than from a simple telnet VT100 terminal emulator. Is it possible to tune the network load of BW (possibly by adjusting the packet size)?

Thanks in advance,

Lex

First of all, the archiving and multi-site forum is for Baan archiving and multisite configuration which focuses on the Baan functional side (if I was moderator for the SIG I would move this to the OS and DB forum). :)

But anyway,

I have used a packet shaper in Baan WAN environments with some success. WAN QOS options in Cisco routers also seem to help when the contention is caused by other network traffic.

Where are the two locations? I have seen differences based upon where the facilities are in the world?

I am assuming Baan IV/5 with the BW client. DEM, WorkTop and BA clients will be quite different. BW uses the rexec protocol to communicate between the BW client and the application server. I have traces of this process which I can send you if you send me an email. Packet size adjustments generally do not make much of a difference as long as you are using a reasonably sized MTU.
Baan does not have network tuning parameters for the client.



-- Jim

Can also use baanlogin protocol this is taken from solution 70306

SOLUTION DESCRIPTION:
1. Rexec versus BaanLogin method
============================

When using the BaanLogin method password information is send in a encrypted way.


Short description of The BaanLogin functionality:

The BaanLogin functionality provides:

* The BaanLogin protocol.
* A client-side interface for the BaanLogin protocol.
* A daemon that will act as a server for BaanLogin.
* A changed BaanLogicService on Windows/NT that supports the BaanLogin protocol.
* The possibility to select between the BaanLogin- and rexec-protocol based on additional information in configuration files.

To be able to accept BaanLogin-requests, the BaanLogin daemon must be started and running at the Baan server.
And, at the client side, BW has to be configured to use the BaanLogin method.

SERVER CONFIGURATION
Windows NT:

The daemon runs as a service and is implemented in the BaanLogicService.
To enable BaanLogin-request configure the BaanLogic Service as follows:
> Start the Baan NT Manager on the Baan -NT server.
> Select the Logic service, and click on it with your right mouse button
> Select Protocol...
Now a window pops up having the following fields:

Listen
Protocol
O Rexec
O BaanLogin

Port ....
ONamed Pipe

To enable the BaanLogin protocol mark the checkbox in front of BaanLogin.

Selection of the correct Port number:
When enabling only Rexec protocol you have to choose Port 512.
This is because the Rexec protocol is hardcoded to port 512.
So, also when enabling both Rexec and BaanLogin protocol you have to use port 512.
When enabling only the BaanLogin protocol the default port is 7150. You can change this to another portnumber.

After stopping & starting the BaanLogic service the new settings will become active.

To disable BaanLogin request turn off the BaanLogin option again and restart the BaanLogic service.

UNIX:

The BaanLogin functionality is implemented as a daemon process: blogind6.x

To enable BaanLogin-request do the following::

Usage: blogind6.1 [-vV] [-d] [-p Portnumber] [-kK]

> Log in as root at the Baan Unix server because you must have root permission to start the BaanLogin daemon.
> Take care the BSE environment variables are correctly set.
> Start the BaanLogin daemon process as follows:

blogind6.1 -p Portnumber

When you start blogind6.1 without specifying any options it will default take port 7150.
To run the blogind6.1 in a kind of debug mode specify the -d option, for example:

# blogind6.1 -d
# Daemon: listen for first connection.

Daemon: Incoming connection, spawn child.
Deamon: revert to listen-mode.
Child: handle BaanLogin request.
Child: received: user kvddool, action 1
bseEnv /c1/b40c/bse/bin/ipc_boot, bseVersion 6.1
Child: logon for kvddool OK.
Child: pwd status = -5, message = -2005: The aging for name is turned off.
Child: starting /c1/b40c/bse/bin/ipc_boot6.1.

Here you see someone logs on successfully using the BaanLogin method.

To stop the BaanLogin daemon execute the following command:
blogind6.1 -k



CLIENT CONFIGURATION
To configure the client to use the BaanLogin method follow these steps:

> Start BW Configuration
> Select Method: BaanLogin
> The portnumber will be set to the default: 7150
The portnumber must be the same number as the one you configured the BaanLogic Service (Windows NT) for or you specified when starting the blogind.6.x (UNIX).
> Save the configurarion and login Baan.

When the BaanLogin protocol is selected the following entries are written into the .bwc file:
protocol=BAAN
portnumber=7150

When the Rexec protocol is selected the following entries are written into the .bwc file:
protocol=EXEC
portnumber=512

A clarification...

While the Baan Login encrypts the password for authentication purposes, all subsequent traffic is unencrypted and continues to use the rexec protocol.

The port number is user configurable and defaults to a different value between rexec and BaanLogin.

-- Jim

I was under the impression that we could stop rexec. but the following clarification says something not on baan support site.


A clarification...

While the Baan Login encrypts the password for authentication purposes, all subsequent traffic is unencrypted and continues to use the rexec protocol.

The port number is user configurable and defaults to a different value between rexec and BaanLogin.

-- Jim

Botth the baanlogin mechanism and the rexec protocol are just used for authentication. As soon as this is done, the actual communication is a simple stream of data, to call this a protocoll is a bit of a misnomer. If at all, then it is a baan properitary protocoll between bw and bshell.

But in regards to traffic load, there should be no difference.

There is another hardware "expand" you can visit www.expand.com who also increase throughput of WAN.

rgds