Abort Monitor
=============
                                               LSS 5.0(0), August 1996
                                               -----------------------
Overview
--------

This document explains the circumstances under which ABORTMON would be 
used, how to configure the program and an explanation  of  the  output 
produced.

1 Reason for ABORTMON
2 Using ABORTMON
3 Command-line parameters

1 Reason For ABORTMON
---------------------

ABORTMON is a DOS program designed to track down a problem  associated 
with  some  computers which  repeatedly  cause  transmit aborts on the 
network.

The  specific case which this utility will be looking for happens when 
the token ring card is communicating with the computer in  'PIO'  mode  
and  occasionally  the  computer  cannot  keep  up  with  the rate the
Ringnode is  transmitting  the  data onto the network and hence cannot  
complete  the transmission of the frame. 

The  Ringnode abandons the transmission  by  sending  an  abort  frame 
( consisting   of   Start   DELimiter  followed   immediately  by  End 
DELimiter).  These aborted frames are not a problem in their own right 
but  may  cause  other  nodes  on   that   ring  to have difficulties, 
specifically  some ring switches, which  may  delay  for  20ms  before  
generating   a  new  token,  thus significantly reducing the available 
throughput on the ring.

2 Using ABORTMON
----------------

ABORTMON  detects  these  transmit aborts and keeps track of the nodes 
producing them and how  many  aborts  each  has  produced,  while  the 
utility   is  being run. Abortmon must be run on a dedicated computer, 
not  from the network, as the network  connection  will  be  destroyed  
and  not  be recoverable.

It  is  possible to run the utility for as long as required, with  the 
run-time statistics being displayed and when  the  user  decides  that 
enough  information  has  been  collected, it will be dumped to a text 
file for analysis later. 

The  run-time  statistics  periodically  display  the number of aborts 
detected, the number of nodes that have produced at least  one  abort, 
the  total number of frames received and number of frames received per 
second, since the statistics were last updated. For example,

       Aborts Detected   Error Nodes  Frames received
       ---------------   -----------  ---------------
            72                5           12892         598 frames/sec

While  the  program is running, it is possible to reset the statistics 
by pressing 'R'. This sets the total number of aborts detected to zero 
and clears the record of any node that has sent  an  abort  since  the 
program was started.

To quit ABORTMON, press 'Q', the program will stop and a record of all 
nodes  that have produced an abort during the run will be written to a 
file. The file produced is a simple text file and consists of all  the 
nodes  that  have  produced  transmit  aborts  and the total number of 
aborts  that  each  node  put on the ring. The format of the  file  is 
shown below:

 Station Address                Transmit Aborts   Duration - 1395 secs
 ==============================================
 0000F6085292                                23
 0000F61EBB82                                 2


3 Command Line Parameters
-------------------------

ABORTMON has two optional command line parameters.
The format of the command line is:

        abortmon [/out=output file] [/io=IOAddress]

output File: This allows the user to override the name of the
             output file, which by default is ABORTMON.LOG.
             If the user wishes, it is possible for the filename to
             include a fully specified path, such as 
             'C:\RESULTS\OUTPUT.TXT'.

IOAddress:   Rather than abortmon using the first adapter it finds,
             this parameter specifies the IO location of the adapter
             to use.

                  ***** end of ABORTMON.TXT *****
