NETWORK CONFIGURATION
Assigning the IPX socket number for a Domino server
The IPX/SPX protocol provides two types of sockets: dynamic sockets and static, or well-known, sockets. Novell assigns well-known sockets to products for their exclusive use. Applications using well-known sockets always listen on the same socket number. Novell manages the registration of these sockets, allocating them from a range of 0x2000 through 0x3FFF. Dynamic sockets are allocated from a range of 0x4000 through 0x7FFF. Applications using dynamic sockets use whichever socket number the IPX/SPX stack allocates during the registration of the service to the local NetWare server by the application. Using dynamic sockets usually ensures that a socket number is not used twice.

Connections initiated by a Domino server or Notes workstation use a dynamic socket. For the listener socket, the SPX port driver uses a modified algorithm for allocating sockets and always tries to use the same socket number. If the socket number is unavailable, the Domino server lets the IPX/SPX stack assign one. When a Domino server using SPX starts for the first time, it uses a dynamic socket and then saves the socket number. Subsequent invocations of the Domino server use the saved socket number. Therefore, the socket is called a persistent dynamic socket.

If for some reason this saved socket number is in use -- for example, if another application using dynamic sockets allocated the socket -- the Domino SPX server allocates a new socket number and saves it for future invocations.

Assigning a socket number

Controlling the socket number used by the Domino server is useful in large IPX/SPX networks because an assigned socket number prevents server name-to-address resolution problems that result when name service records lag behind a dynamic socket number assignment when a server is restarted.

To control the socket number, use the NOTES.INI setting NetWareSocket. NetWareSocket applies only to the listener socket. Connections initiated by a workstation or server still use a dynamic socket.

Note If NetWareSocket is set in the NOTES.INI file and the Domino server cannot bind to the specified socket on the local system's IPX/SPX protocol stack, the Domino server will not start. This condition may occur if the socket number the server normally uses is in use by another application on the same system.

For example, if the NOTES.INI file contains the setting NetWareSocket=9135 (which is the decimal value of 23AF), and another application is assigned that socket number through the dynamic assignment process, the Domino server can fail to start.

To minimize the chance of the server's not starting, assign the NOTES.INI setting NetWareSocket to the address of a well-known socket. If the problem still occurs, either close the application that is using the same socket as Domino or reassign a new socket to the Domino server.

To determine the socket number the Domino server is using, do one of the following:


See also