How to test if the network is multicast ready for ghost imaging

Products

• Ghost Solution Suite

Issue/Introduction

Need to test if the network is capable of imaging using ghost multicast.

Environment

GSS 3.3

Resolution

use mtools to test with msend and mdump

The tools, "msend" in particular, have many options which are useful in diagnosing a variety of multicast problems. To make the initial evaluation of the network easy, the "msend" command has 5 numbered command-line options ("-1" through "-5") which pre-load other options to values that test for the most common network problems.

The MSEND command parameters to use are deliniated in order by:

•   group : multicast group or IP address to send to (required)
•   port : destination port (required)
•   ttl : time-to-live (limits transition through routers) [2]
•   interface : optional IP addr of local interface (for multi-homed hosts)

A common test would be for multicast from the GSS server:

msend -1 224.9.10.11 6666 15 10.1.2.4

Where:

• 224.9.10.11 is the multicast subnet,
• 6666 is the ghost multicast port,
• 15 is TTL,
• 10.1.2.4 is the IP interface GSS is using

The reporting is done on an endpoint on the subnet with the commands deliniated in order by::

•   group : multicast address to receive (required, use '0.0.0.0' for unicast)
•   port : destination port (required)
•   interface : optional IP addr of local interface (for multi-homed hosts) [INADDR_ANY]

mdump -omdump1.log 224.9.10.11 6666 10.1.2.3

Where:

• -omdump1.log is the log file to create for analysis,
• 224.9.10.11 is the multicast subnet,
• 6666 is the Multicast port,
• 10.1.2.3 is the IP interface of the endpoint

It is important to read the other testing options that are listed in the README located in the GitHub directory

Additional Information

MTOOLS can be found at: https://github.com/UltraMessaging/mtools/blob/master/