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EtherExpress™ FlashC LAN Adapter
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Contents: The Need For Network Manageable Adapters

Local area networks (LANs) are becoming integral to the operations of many companies. As this trend continues and PC networking technology matures, the industry is experiencing strong demand for simplified and centralized methods of managing local networks of desktop computers. Without this capability, companies are reluctant to invest in the downsizing of mainframe environments to PC LANs.

LAN adapters are an important part of a corporation's investment in networking. LAN adapters are second only to file servers in terms of worldwide dollar value of shipments (IDC, 1992, ranking of PC NICs, servers, NOS licenses, internetwork devices, application software, and hubs). LAN adapters are also by far the most numerous piece of networking equipment, since one is required for each networked PC.

Adapters today are just starting to become integrated with network management tools. Most of today's tools are oriented toward managing internetwork devices such as routers and bridges or wiring components such as hubs. The most popular way in which LAN adapters are managed today is through standard protocols such as SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) and through expensive network management consoles, often UNIX-based. Even so, the information that can be gathered is limited to low-level wire information, such as traffic statistics and error counts.

Intel's Lan Adapter Strategy

With its expertise in silicon, PC technologies, PC architectures and network management, Intel is uniquely qualified to supply the missing element -- node management -- by creating a new generation of LAN adapters with built-in network management hardware and software. LAN adapters are a logical place to add network management capabilities for the desktop. Each networked node has a network interface card (NIC). The NIC monitors network traffic on the wire, as well as interfacing with the network operating system and the PC bus. Intel's goal is to introduce a new generation of adapters that not only are the easiest to install and maintain, but also make the job of managing PCs easier.

Adapter management issues include configuring adapter hardware and installing network drivers. Intel led the market in September 1991 with the first ISA auto-configuration LAN adapters. With its new generation of adapters, Intel continues to make adapters easier to install by designing in the ability to automatically download drivers to the hard disk. Until now, a LAN administrator has had to physically go to the PC to make changes in drivers. Intel provides centralized utilities to update LAN adapter drivers from a central console.

Making PCs easier to manage includes a much broader range of functionality. In this area Intel is working on using NICs to monitor more than just traffic on the wire. For example, Intel is working on network-manageable adapters that include software to analyze the contents of the PC itself. In addition, the information will be stored on the LAN adapter using an Intel technology called flash memory. Understanding flash memory is key to understanding the capabilities of

Intel's new network management adapter cards.

Flash Technology

Flash memory was developed to solve some of the problems of DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory), SRAM (Static Random Access Memory) and magnetic hard disks and floppies. DRAMs are dense and inexpensive, but do not keep their contents when the power is turned off. SRAMs, popular for caching information generated by today's high speed microprocessors, are much more expensive and still require battery backup. Magnetic hard disks and floppies are often slow and subject to accidental user erasure or even corruption.

Flash memory is ideal for storing network management information because it is:

  • Non-volatile: It maintains its contents even if PC power goes off.

  • Secure and reliable: It cannot be accidentally erased by the user, and it is always accessible.

  • Fast: It is faster to read than a hard disk.
  • Low cost per megabyte: Pricing follows DRAM pricing.

Flash is Non-volatile Flash memory retains data for more than 100 years. Flash memory is modified electrically by erasing the contents of either the entire chip or certain blocks. This means that updates can be performed across the LAN without requiring a LAN administrator to walk to each station.

Flash is Secure and Reliable Unlike a PC's hard disk or floppy, flash memory contents can not be accidentally erased by the user and are not subject to the dangers of hard disk failure or floppy corruption. Flash memory can be written to and read more than 100,000 times reliably.

Flash is Fast Electronic storage is much faster than mechanical methods. The data seek time for flash memory is less than .1 millisecond, compared to more than 20 milliseconds for many hard disks.

Flash Offers Lower Cost Per Megabyte Flash memory costs less per megabyte than other non-volatile methods, for instance, SRAM, and yet it follows the higher density at lower cost trend of DRAM products. Intel uses an ETOX III technology to make a flash memory cell 30 percent smaller than an equivalent DRAM cell. Intel expects volumes to increase dramatically for flash memory as flash technology is adopted in applications such as palmtop memory cards, solid state disks, and the storage of software on the motherboard (ROM-executable operating systems such as DOS or Windows).

Flash memory is already used on Intel networking products, such as the Intel NetPort II print server and the StorageExpressTM backup system. The NetPort II, Intel's plug-and-play printer LAN attachment device, stores all software needed to link the printer and file server and can be reprogrammed across the LAN without having to open the box. The

StorageExpress system, an integrated and centrally managed network backup system, stores its BIOS in flash memory and can be reprogrammed across the network.

Intel's next generation of cards includes flash memory for network management capabilities. The characteristics of nonvolatility, security, reliability and speed allow Intel to provide network management features directly on the card.

Intel's Flashworks

Intel's EtherExpress™ FlashC network adapter includes 256Kbytes of on-board flash memory and a wide range of software utilities for network management. These utilities are called "FlashWorks."

FlashWorks was designed to make EtherExpress cards the easiest cards in the industry to install and upgrade. Intel accomplishes this by providing:

  • FlashStart, for the installation and configuration of the adapter without needing to copy or run floppy disks at the user's PC

  • FlashUpdate, for updating the network drivers on the hard disk or updating the flash contents

  • FlashBoot, for diskless workstation users

  • FlashView, for displaying changes in hardware assets

At present, FlashStart and FlashUpdate support Novell NetWare 3.1x networks. FlashBoot supports NetWare 2.x and 3.1x networks and Microsoft LAN Manager networks. Intel intends to support NetWare 4.x in a timely manner.

Flashstart

In the past, LAN administrators have had to go through a two-step process to install LAN adapters. First, they had to configure the adapter hardware for the PC environment. This included manually setting IRQs (interrupt request lines), I/O addresses, slot characteristics and other parameters, often by flipping switches or moving jumpers. This made installation a tedious procedure that could take several hours.

Beginning with the EtherExpress 16 in September 1991, Intel created a new standard for installation by introducing the SOFTSET automatic configuration program. The EtherExpress 16 adapter is configured automatically with the pressing of a key and without any need to set jumpers or flip switches. Thanks to SOFTSET, adapter installation time was shortened from what sometimes took hours in a fully loaded PC to several minutes.

Today, the second step after the card is installed is to configure the workstation for network operation by copying drivers to the hard disk and modifying the workstation startup files (such as AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS).

Intel's FlashStart utility is designed to get the adapter and PC configured in one easy step. SOFTSET has been modified to run in flash memory and is now called FLASHSET. The program executes and configures the cards automatically at initial boot-up time. Then, the Novell NetWare software stored in flash memory automatically bootstraps the EtherExpress FlashC card onto the network to a preferred server. This server -- referred to as the FlashStart server -- contains the drivers and configuration files that need to be downloaded to the PC. This server only has to be set up once -- a mostly automatic process that takes five to 10 minutes.

After the card is installed in a slot in the user's PC, drivers are downloaded across the LAN and written to the hard disk, and the PC's startup files are modified to load the drivers. The computer is rebooted, and the downloaded drivers are used to log on to the network. Subsequent bootups will bypass the FlashStart operation and go through the normal bootup process. With FlashStart, Intel has shortened total adapter installation time to less than a minute per workstation.

The actual installation scenario is:

  • The LAN administrator plugs in the board and then turns on the computer, which displays welcome screens.

  • Using the Novell ODI remote boot protocol (RPL), FlashStart automatically logs in to a special user account created during the FlashWorks installation process.

  • A log-in script maps necessary drives and executes a program on the server called FLSTRT.EXE.

  • If both ODI and dedicated IPX drivers have been installed on the server during the FlashWorks installation process, the user is prompted to specify which set of drivers is desired.

  • Then FLSTART copies the drivers from the server to the workstation's hard disk, modifies AUTOEXEC.BAT, CONFIG.SYS and NET.CFG as needed, and saves all original files with an .OLD extension.

  • If the process completes successfully, FlashStart turns itself off and reboots the user's computer. The rebooting is automatic, making it possible for the workstation to be on-network in about 30 seconds. Further, if an error occurs during installation -- for example, if the cable is disconnected or the server is not formatted to run FlashStart -- the EtherExpress FlashC adapter software will describe a path for correcting the problem.

LAN administrators don't need to worry about excess traffic as drivers and configuration files that reside on the server are copied over the network. FlashStart generates minimal impact on network traffic. The entire FlashStart process generates about 150Kbytes of traffic -- no more than a large e-mail message.

Flashupdate

Once the PC is network-ready, there will occasionally be changes in the network environment that require adapter drivers to be updated. With FlashUpdate, the LAN administrator can automatically update all drivers on any EtherExpress FlashC card on the network from any central PC--without going through the time-consuming procesure of manually copying new drivers onto PCs that have already been configured.

FlashUpdate -- which functions like an extension of FlashStart -- is installed onto a server from any PC. The LAN administrator copies the latest drivers from a floppy disk onto this same server. When the LAN administrator needs to update network users, the FlashUpdate automatically presents a list of EtherExpress FlashC users and allows for the selection of all users or a subset of users. Then FlashUpdate adds to the system's log-in script a small executable called FLCHECK that runs each time a user logs in to the network. This executable scans the hard disk for Intel drivers and compares them to drivers that reside on the server. If a more current version of the drivers exists on the server, it updates users automatically by copying over the latest version.

By running at each log-in, the executable builds a dynamic database of client information. This information includes the client's NetWare name, station address, log-in name, whether Flash is installed, whether the client uses IPX or ODI drivers, and whether the system has a hard disk or is a diskless workstation. The LAN administrator can check the database to view the attributes for each client and obtain a status report of the most recent update event.

A second utility within FlashUpdate, FLUPDATE, describes a driver update path for FlashUpdate by "pointing" to files on the server. The FLUPDATE utility features menus that allow software events to be added and deleted. Up to five updates can be in line at one time. Also in DRVMGR are search string paths that define which directories or sub-directories should be searched on the client's PC.

For ease of use and customizing to specific network environments, the FlashWorks installation program allows the LAN administrator to create a list of which users to update and when.

FlashUpdate also has a reporting feature that provides the number of users updated, users pending update (because they have not logged on yet), and a listing of error codes for users who could not be updated, for example, "Driver not found."

In a similar way, FlashUpdate also can update the flash contents of any EtherExpress FlashC card on the network. For example, if a new version of the FlashStart utility needs to be downloaded to every EtherExpress FlashC card, it can be accomplished through FlashUpdate automatically and from a central location.

With the exception of file searches, the update procedure for flash contents is the same as the driver update procedure. A flash loader is invoked, which makes a backup copy of the flash contents on the server. (This redundant copy allows the flash contents to be recovered in the event an error occurs.) The LAN administrator can view the history of flash updates on a per workstation basis or event basis.

Flashboot

Diskless workstations today demand that the LAN administrator go through a variety of extra steps to configure them for network access. Because they cannot be booted from the hard disk, typically a boot PROM must be installed in a socket on the board. Then, if for some reason the boot PROM contents need to be changed, the LAN administrator must physically go to every workstation, open the machine and install a new PROM. The EtherExpress FlashC adapters include NetWare IPX and LAN Manager NDIS boot code in flash memory, eliminating the need for a boot PROM.

An initializing ROM that executes before the operating system determines whether there is a hard disk at the workstation. If no hard disk is found, it runs the FLASHSET configuration program. Because the FLASHSET utility is stored in flash, the adapter can be configured without the need to switch the card from a PC with a floppy drive or setting jumpers/switches. If the boot code needs to be changed, the LAN administrator can do so across the LAN using FlashUpdate -- without ever changing a PROM.

By storing boot code in flash, Intel is taking a more integrated approach to configuring diskless workstations and simplifying network management for the LAN administrator. This approach streamlines overall maintenance of firmware and drivers by replacing time-consuming manual steps with a program-automatic, remote booting update solution. Taking advantage of flash to store boot code also eliminates the need for customers to purchase optional boot PROMs.

Using Flash To Track PC Hardware

Intel makes the EtherExpress FlashC adapter not only the easiest adapter on the market to install and maintain, but also the only network adapter on the market that allows you to view the hardware contents of your PC. This is accomplished through a utility called FlashView.

Flashview

FlashView includes two components: a scanner and a viewer. The scanner scans the hardware components of the PC. Information such as CPU processor speed, hard disk size and type and VGA card and type are then written into the flash memory on the EtherExpress FlashC card. This scan takes place at log-on time and takes less than a second. The viewer is a DOS utility that looks at the inventory information stored in flash. It also displays a history log of what hardware components have been added or changed. The viewer also allows the LAN administrator to enter into user-defined fields information that the scanner cannot capture, such as inventory tag numbers, serial numbers, system contact and so on.

The FlashView scanner and viewer can also display certain configuration files and their changes, which simplifies troubleshooting of a system. The files that can be tracked include AUTOEXEC.BAT, CONFIG.SYS, NET.CFG and SHELL.CFG.

FlashView benefits include:

  • If a problem occurs with the PC, the LAN administrator can use FlashView to determine what was the last piece of equipment that changed. This enables quick debugging of compatibility problems.

  • A CMOS save and restore feature in FlashView allows the EtherExpress FlashC card to store CMOS configuration files. If CMOS contents are corrupted -- for example, if the battery backup runs out -- the data can be easily retrieved because the FlashC card keeps a copy of the configuration file.

  • Inventory information is always available without having to open up the PC. Because the information is stored in flash, the LAN administrator doesn't have to worry about power failures, accidental user erasure or even crashed hard disks. The flash can be accessed whether the PC is logged onto the network or not.

Etherexpress Flashc Hardware

The EtherExpress FlashC adapter hardware design is based on the EtherExpress 16C Adapter. Like the EtherExpress 16C, the EtherExpress FlashC adapter includes all three connectors for Ethernet connections: AUI for thick coax, BNC for thin coax, and an RJ45 twisted pair connector for the popular 10Base-T standard. This flexibility also makes the card easier to manage from a customer and reseller viewpoint. With one card for all Ethernet needs, the customer need not be concerned with wiring changes in the future, and the reseller needs to stock only one card for customer needs. The card is also designed to automatically sense the connector in use. If the 10Base-T wiring is reversed (polarity check), the board will automatically orient and correct it.

The EtherExpress FlashC is Intel's first card to feature FlashWorks. Intel plans to develop new cards that can take advantage of these network management features, as well as new applications for flash memory. Users can rest assured that they have the flexibility with the Intel Express adapter series to upgrade in the future as their management needs grow. Integration of EtherExpress FlashC with Intel's LANDeskTM Manager The LANDesk Manager from Intel provides an integrated set of core tools for managing desktop devices and services on NetWare 3.1x networks. The LANDesk Manager software integrates essential LAN administration functions under a single, Windows*-based visual interface, including remote desktop management, network traffic monitoring, application monitoring, virus protection, troubleshooting and inventory management.

There are two ways in which the LANDesk Manager works with LAN adapters. First, the software enables remote viewing of workstations linked to the network. The software allows the LAN administrator to view all adapters on the network -- including Intel adapters that do not feature flash memory and adapters from vendors other than Intel. Workstation information that can be viewed via the adapter includes configuration parameters, such as IRQs, I/O addresses, the type of adapter (model, vendor) and so on.

Second, because Intel's EtherExpress FlashC adapter stores asset information in flash, it offers tight interoperability with the LANDesk Manager. Integrated in the LANDesk Manager is inventory management functionality that provides a comprehensive summary of hardware and software resources on the entire network. As the inventory management program scans the network, it collects information from any FlashC adapters it locates. The software reads user-defined fields from flash that the LAN administrator has entered locally, such as inventory tag numbers, serial numbers, and so on.

This gives LAN administrators a set of redundant databases: the central database that LANDesk Manager uses on a file server, and a distributed database that comprises the EtherExpress FlashC cards on the network. The only operator action required to generate this information base is loading two small scanner applications by including them in the network log-in script.

The chief advantage of using the LANDesk software and EtherExpress FlashC adapters together is that the combination provides simple options for managing PCs on the network. LAN administrators can select from multiple configuration and setup options to customize management to their particular environment. For example, LAN administrators can define a process whereby as PCs arrive on site, they are configured, then the LANDesk Manager software automatically adds their serial numbers and inventory numbers to the database.

The scanner that ships with the LANDesk Manager software is designed to recognize EtherExpress FlashC cards. The scanner is an executable file (rather than a TSR) that the LAN administrator can load into AUTOEXEC.BAT -- to initiate the scan, for example, when the PC is turned on or when the system logs on to the network. As another option, the LAN administrator could set up a manual scan, or some combination of automatic and manual scans. The manual scan option is especially useful in pinpointing problems.

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