System information

Troubleshooting AppleTalk
Book Title
9-198
AppleTalk: Connections to Services Drop
Symptom: Users complain that their AppleTalk sessions suddenly drop for no apparent reason.
Table 9-8 outlines the problem that might cause this symptom and describes solutions to that
problem.
Table 9-8 AppleTalk: Connections to Services Drop
Possible Problems Solution
Configuration mismatch Step 1 Use the show appletalk interface exec command. Check the output for a
“port configuration mismatch” message.
If the command output contains a “mismatch” message, the router
configuration disagrees with that of the listed neighbor.
If the command output does not include the “mismatch” message, use the
clear apple interface privileged exec command on the interface in question.
If the interface becomes operational after clearing, a configuration mismatch
does not exist.
Step 2 Enter the show appletalk interface exec command again. If its output still
contains a “port configuration mismatch” message, check whether all router
configurations agree on network number or cable range and the zone or zone
list.
Step 3 If router configurations disagree on these parameters, alter router
configurations to bring all routers into alignment.
Step 4 If problems persist, put the problem router in discovery mode by specifying
the interface configuration command appletalk address 0.0 on a
nonextended network or the appletalk cable-range 0-0 command on an
extended network. This causes the router to get its configuration information
from the network.
For more information about configuration mismatches, see the section “AppleTalk
Configuration Mismatches” earlier in this chapter.
Invalid zone names in routing
table
AppleTalk does not provide a way to update ZIP tables when changing the mapping
of zone names to networks or cable ranges.
For example, if the zone name for network number 200 is Twilight Zone, but you
decide to change the zone to No Parking Zone, the zone name on the interface can be
changed, and the new zone name takes effect locally.
However, unless you keep network 200 off the internetwork long enough for it to be
completely aged out of the routing tables, some routers will continue to use the old
zone name (this is called a phantom zone). Alternatively, if you cannot keep the
network off the internetwork that long, change the underlying network number when
you change the zone name of a cable.
Step 1 Use the show running-config privileged exec command to view the router
configuration. Check the network numbers configured for each AppleTalk
interface.
Step 2 Make sure that there are no network numbers configured that were
previously assigned to a zone that has been deleted. Change the cable-range
using the appletalk cable-range interface configuration command or
disable the network until it is aged out of routing tables.
Step 3 Use the show appletalk zones command to verify that the zone no longer
appears in the zone list.