BSDI Internet Super Server Version 4.0

Reliable, High-Performance Web and Internet/Intranet Server for Intel Platforms

The Internet Super Server 4.0 is the most recent release of our 'Industrial Strength' Internet Server product. An extremely cost-effective and reliable alternative to proprietary systems, Super Server 4.0 is a complete software package including operating system, services and tools for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and corporate Intranets. We designed this release to give our customers state-of-the-art Internet functionality, while enhancing the reliability, support and performance the Super Server is so well known for. We take great pride in saying that 70% of the ISPs worldwide rely on the BSDI Internet Server because of its proven reliability and cost-effectiveness. Many of our customer's boast, their BSDI servers have been running for more than 500 straight days with zero downtime, even under heavy mission-critical loads.

It's important to us to provide our customers with the functionality and services they need. We designed Super Server 4.0 with exactly that in mind. Super Server 4.0 is the first product to deliver IPv6 and IPsec functionality, and it's also the first product to incorporate IPX/IP and Netware-compatible file and print services standard into its operating system for seamless compatibility in Novell environments. Other new features include symmetric multi-processing (SMP), support of ELF object files and dynamic linking to benefit software developers, and several other leading edge security features that make it a perfect fit for Internet communications, including electronic commerce transactions and Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), and more. For more detailed information about the Internet Super Server 4.0 download a version of the datasheet and view the links listed below or better yet, give us a call.

New Features of Internet Super Server 4.0

Multiprocessor Support

      While the BSDI Internet Super Server running on a uniprocessor system often outperforms competing products running on multi-processor systems, many of our customers need a robust and high performance SMP implementation for their Internet servers. BSDI 4.0 is such a product, with fully multi-threaded network and file system code (and of course with kernel threads).
      4.0 is the first production release of the BSDI Internet Server to include SMP functionality. This release provides core SMP functionality that offers performance gains to applications that are CPU-bound in user- mode. Sites with heavy user-mode application loads, and anyone wanting to qualify hardware for SMP use, will applaud this feature.

Networking

VPN support, using IPsec & ISAKMP
      It is now possible to build a standards-based Virtual Private Network (VPN) between any two machines implementing the IPsec (RFC 1825) protocol. A VPN enables the connection of private networks over the public Internet without compromising the security of the connected networks. This is accomplished by building an authenticated and/or encrypted tunnel between private networks.
      BSDI uses the Internet standard IPsec protocol to provide VPN authentication and DES encryption (for the US and Canada only). IPsec provides authentication of IP packets, and a framework is also provided for the encryption of IP packets. Key management is facilitated by the ISAKMP key-management server.
      The IPsec protocol works with both IPv4 and IPv6. In fact, an IPv6 implementation requires IPsec, effectively guaranteeing that IPsec will become the de facto encryption/authentication protocol for VPNs.
 
IPv6 support
      IPv6 also includes a number of other features that will facilitate the further growth of the Internet. Most notable are: automatic address configuration, enhanced security, and reduced routing overhead.
      BSD/OS 4.0 is one of first commercially available OS�s to include support for IPv6, enabling BSDI customers to start evaluating and making plans for this exciting new technology today. As the IPv6 standard continues to evolve, BSDI is committed to track it, and provide solutions for our customers.
IP Packet Filter
      The IP Packet filter functions as an extension of the BPF (Berkeley Packet Filter mechanism), which provides BSD/OS with a very flexible tool for identifying and potentially acting upon "interesting" packets.
      While many packet filter implementations are limited to acting on packets being forwarded by the machine, BSDI v4.0 is also able to filter packets on input and output. These additional "hooks" greatly increase both the security and the flexibility of the filters.
      The filters are precompiled and run entirely in the kernel (except when passing an "interesting" packet to a user level process for logging or further investigation) so the filtering overhead is quite low.
      Many sites and commercial vendors have been building firewalls based on BSD/OS since our earliest releases. The IP Packet Filter adds greatly to the "out of the box" firewall functionality in the BSDI Internet Server, and makes it easy to add "backstop" firewall functionality at any point in the network where the BSDI Internet Super Server is deployed.
NFS: Network Lock Manager, Network Status Manager
      BSDI is the first OS vendor to have independently implemented the NFS file locking and status protocols. Applications requiring NFS file locking are no longer restricted to running on proprietary OS's, and can now take advantage of the performance, reliability and cost benefits of running on BSD/OS. The BSDI implementation has been tested at the Sun-sponsored Connectathon '98 where it successfully interoperated with lock and status daemons using the Sun code running on Solaris, and other OS platforms.
Frame Relay Support
      The Frame Relay protocol is now supported over synchronous serial connections. Both DTE and DCE models are supported. However, DCE mode packet switching is not supported in this release.
RADIUS
      We have upgraded our RADIUS support, by including Merit AAA RADIUS, which adds support for features such as proxy lookups to other RADIUS servers.

Performance

Faster Virtual Host Support
      In this release BSDI has concentrated on optimizing the performance of servers in virtual hosting roles. Performance is greatly improved because the recognition of IP addresses handled by the BSDI server is now done with a hash table instead of a linear search. This means much faster connect times and throughput for your customers/users. The capacity of the BSDI Internet Server to handle virtual hosts is now limited only by the hardware configuration of the system and the traffic load that the system is handling. Using typical Pentium class hardware configurations, a single machine can handle about 5,000 to 10,000 lightly loaded (500 - 1000 hits per day each) virtual domains.
      IP performance is further enhanced by the use of highly optimized in-line checksumming code, which reduces the overhead of handling network traffic.
Filesystem
      The BSDI Fast File System has been further enhanced with a number of features designed to improve the performance of systems with high volumes of disk write activity (this is especially valuable on mail and news servers):
 
Trickle sync
      The on-disk and in-memory versions of the file system are now kept synchronized with a "trickle" of small changes, rather than big bursts. This approach reduces the need to use precious I/O bandwidth for writing temporary files to disk that regularly appear and disappear on a frequent basis. This results in a more even load on the I/O sub-system, and improved file system performance.
Soft-dependency updates
      Greatly reduces the number of synchronous file system operations while maintaining the consistency of the on-disk file system. This results in a dramatic improvement in the performance of applications like e-mail and news that create many files. For short-lived files, the system is able to avoid writing the file to disk altogether. The soft dependency code is carefully structured to eliminate unnecessary operations while maintaining the integrity of the file system data.
Lazy SPLs
      The kernel no longer masks hardware events unless a hardware event actually occurs, avoiding many expensive operations.
 
Assembly Code Math Library Routines
      On systems with hardware floating point (i.e. any with a 486 or later processor) the math library will take advantage of the hardware transcendental instructions.

Novell Connectivity

IPX-to-IP gateway (with BSDI Internet Client)
      BSDI Internet Super Server v4.0 allows workstations on Novell networks to have access to the Internet and other TCP/IP-based services -- without the need to run a TCP/IP stack on the workstations, or managing IP addresses for desktop clients. This protocol gateway is also a natural firewall. This capability is welcomed by customers with Novell-based LANs, because IP addresses are a finite resource and many sites do not care to manage hundreds of IP addresses. Now you can provide Internet access without the hassle!
Netware 3.12 File and Print Services
      BSDI IPX Services allows any BSD/OS system to become either a Novell file and print server, or a Novell client for file services. A typical use for this would be allowing the sharing of file and print resources between Unix and Novell systems. A single BSD/OS machine could serve files to Unix machines with NFS and Novell clients via IPX.

Programming support

ELF Dynamic and Static Libraries
      ELF dynamic linking allows applications to avoid the limitations caused by fixed addresses and offsets in static linking. ELF executable file support brings BSD/OS in line with industry standards. The system now executes ELF programs in addition to a.out and COFF programs.
      4.0 provides dynamically linked versions of all our standard libraries. Dynamically linked ELF shared libraries and shared objects are a widely used industry standard, and they are much more flexible and maintainable than the statically linked shared libraries.
Improved compiler and assembler
      GCC 2 is the standard compiler. We now distribute GAS 2.8.1 as the standard assembler. It has a much broader opcode support and fewer bugs.
POSIX 1003.12 Socket interface to networking, RFC 2133 support
      The socket networking interface has been modified to align with draft 6.5 of the upcoming POSIX 1003.12 standard, plus some changes from draft 6.6 as well as RFC 2133. New interfaces such as getaddrinfo () have been added. This allows applications written to the POSIX interface to be supported, as well as the thousands of programs using the historical BSD socket interface.
Kdebug and KTR
      The system can now be configured with small console debugger, and/or extensive and extensible event tracing facilities.

Hardware: Drivers

Compaq Hardware support
      BSDI Internet Super Server v4.0 now supports a full complement of Compaq controllers and adapters, allowing customers to use standard Compaq systems, including many of the ProLiant series.
      Support includes:
Enhanced SCSI support
      SCSI support has been significantly enhanced to provide Ultra and Wide support for many of our supported SCSI host adapters, including those from Adaptec and NCR. Using wide-capable drives, this allows transfer rates of 40 MB/sec!
RAID
      RAID support has been enhanced as well. It is now possible to designate a target as being a RAID device, and thereby send more operations in parallel. This can significantly improve performance on RAID devices. It is also possible to enable/disable the following hard disk capabilities: sync, disconnect, Ultra mode, wide mode, and tags, on a per target basis. This allows the system to take advantage of these features on other targets when a single defective target exists.
Multispeed COM
      Support has been added for the new, very high-speed (greater than 115,200 baud) serial ports.
Blue Heat
      Blue Heat PCI-based multiport serial cards are now supported.
AMD PCnet-PCI Ethernet
      The AMD PCnet-PCI 10 Mb/s chipset, used in some NE5500 clones Ethernet adapters, is now supported.
Plug and Play
      Version 4.0 includes support for popular Plug & Play Ethernet, Modem and Sound Cards, including:
Bootable CD-ROMs
      It is now possible to build CD-ROMs that are directly bootable on many CD-ROM drives.

System Administration

Network statistics
      Packet and byte counts are now recorded for each virtual domain address configured on the system. ISPs can now track resource usage for each virtual domain, making billing and network monitoring easier and more complete.
MaxIM Additions/Improvements: Virtual Host support
      Using a familiar web browser based interface, the MaxIM Internet Manager takes the steep learning curve out of installing an Internet or intranet server, while maintaining the configuration files that are familiar to old hands.
      MaxIM now offers simplified configuration of virtual hosts for mail and web servers.
Scsicmd: user-configurable command descriptions
      The 'scsicmd' program now uses a human-readable, modifiable table of command descriptions, rather than a compiled-in list of command data.

3rd Party Software

X Server GUI
      We've upgraded our X11 distribution to X11R6.3. The major new functionality in X11R6.3 includes support for World Wide Web integration, protection of data from 'untrusted' client connections, a bandwidth and latency-optimized protocol for using X across the Internet, a print protocol following the Xlib API, and support for vertical text writing and user-defined characters in the Xlib implementation. 4.0 provides a commercial X server from MetroLink Inc., as well as Xfree86.
      If upgrading from an earlier release that was licensed for the Xi Graphics server, you may elect to keep that server. The Metro Link server and the XFree86 server use new graphical installation utilities.
Netscape Communicator and Composer
      4.0 comes with Netscape Communicator 4.01.browser, and Netscape's Composer editor for HTML files.
      Many other Third Party software products and information are included on the Third Party Products CD in the 4.0 release, including:

Miscellaneous

Many upgrades to contributed software -
      We provide updated versions of many programs and utilities that we have integrated into BSD/OS from customers and developers.
Bug Fixes
      We have integrated many bug fixes from staff, customers and other developers.

BSD/OS 4.0 SMP Motherboard Compatibility

This page describes motherboards and/or chipsets that have been tested with BSD/OS 4.0 SMP. Some motherboards or chipsets require special treatment to run in MP mode correctly. In some cases the workaround needed to run a particular configuration requires lines to be added to the /etc/mp.config file.

Contact BSDI support if you need assistance determining what type of motherboard or chipset you have.

Configuration Comments
Tyan S1562D (Pentium)
aka: Tomcat II
Intel Triton II chipset
chips: 82371FB or SB, 82093AA		 Works with some caveats:
  1. Many motherboards were shipped with defective COAST (cache) modules, these tend to work fine when the system is lightly loaded but when a second CPU is started data gets corrupted. To determine if this is your problem, remove the COAST module from the motherboard (physically), it is not sufficient to disable the 2nd level cache in the BIOS.
  2. Some motherboards are very sensitive to the placement of cards on the ISA bus (which slots particular peripherals are plugged into); shuffling ISA cards around sometimes helps matters.
  3. Some motherboards will not reliably run at the CPU's rated speed in a dual processor configuration; sometimes lowering the CPU speed helps this situation (ie: if you have a P200 attempt to run it at 166Mhz).
  4. The 2nd IDE port built into the motherboard will not work on some machines (depends on BIOS revision, newer ones are broken) with a single ATAPI CDROM drive (the drive is not detected at boot time). If an IDE hard drive is attached as master on the second port, both it and the slave ATAPI CDROM will operate in uniprocessor mode.
  5. The 2nd IDE port built into the motherboard will not work on any machine tested in multiprocessor mode; Tyan ommitted a connection from the 2nd IDE port interrupt pin to the I/O APIC (which is only used in MP mode). This can be worked around by adding the following to /etc/mp.config:

         noextclk
         irq15=ext
         irq0=ext

    when running in this mode performance is degraded since interrupts from the system clock and the 2nd IDE channel are all directed to the boot processor (instead of the 'best' processor).
    Another option to solve this problem (for hardware hackers) is to manually run a jumper wire between the interrupt pin on the 2nd IDE connector (pin 31) and the IRQ15 pin on an available ISA connector (pin D06); this also fixes the problem of not seeing a lone ATAPI drive on the 2nd port at boot time.
    A final option is to disable the onboard 2nd IDE port and use an ISA add-in card.
  6. Older Award BIOSes are not Intel MPS compliant and provide incorrect interrupt routing information to the kernel; solution: flash a more up to date BIOS from the Tyan web site.
Tyan S1564D (Pentium)
aka: Tomcat IV
Intel Triton II chipset
chips: 82371SB (PIIX4), 82093AA (IO Apic), 82349HX (memory ctl)		 Reported to work, most likely has same caveats regarding IDE and clock as the Tomcat II.

Issues:

  1. When running both CPU's the motherboard is *much* more sensitive to memory timing; SIMM's that worked OK in UP mode may not work correctly with both CPU's running. Turning off 'chipset special features' in the BIOS sometimes helps, as does running the CPU's slower than their rated speed.
  2. The presence of a Creative SB16 (or, mostly likely, clones) on the ISA bus will sometimes cause erratic behavior. It is not neccesary to have the sound drivers loaded to see problems. Sometimes putting the SB16 in a different slot will help. This problem has not been reported with AWE64's, but we have no reason to believe an AWE64 will work better either.
ASUS P54NP4
S1462
(Intel Neptune chipset) 		Some machines based on this chipset have a bug in their PCI implementation that causes duplicate devices to probe, bpatch pci_scan_functions and pci_scan_buses to '1' if 'cpu siomode' gives an ENOSPC error.
Once running in symmetric I/O mode, some BIOS'es POST routines do not know how to reprogram the interrupt controllers (properly), so the machine hangs trying to soft-reboot; at present the only known solution is to power cycle on boot.
Tyan S1692D (Pentium II)
Aka: Tiger
chips: 82371AB (PIIX4), 82093AA		 No known problems, but 2nd IDE port has not been tested, may have similar design flaw to 1562D.
Generic: PIIX3 or PIIX4 chips (marked 82371XX) Newer chips may not be recognized automatically, if you have one of these and the clock does not advance after going into symmetric I/O mode (running 'date' several times yields the same time each time) the problem may be fixed by adding:

     extclk

to /etc/mp.config.
Tyan S1662D (PPro)
chips: 82371SB (PIIX3), 82093AA		 May have problem with 2nd IDE port (not tested).
Newer BIOS versions (5.01 and above) require a newer 'cpu' program than the one shipped with RC1; please use cpu.980623 or later (below). With this version of 'cpu' the BIOS may be set for MPS 1.1 or MPS 1.4 mode.
Intel DK440LX (PII)
chips: 440LX chipset, PIIX4		 No problems (2nd IDE port even works)
Bootstrap complains that extended MP config area checksum fails, this does not seem to affect functionality or performance.
Running with BIOS set for MPS 1.4 (as opposed to 1.1) compatiblity.
Supermicro P6DBS (PII)
chips: 440BX chipset, PIIX4		 ISA interrupts which were shared with PCI interrupts in PIC mode trigger continuously after switching to symmetric I/O mode. The polarity of these pins must be set to 'low'. An option will be added to 'cpu' to switch all previous ISA interrupts interrupt polarities with one override, but for now the workaround is an override for each IRQ that was previously mapped to the PCI bus:

irqN=2,N,level,low
 

Where N is the IRQ number in question; each IRQ that connects to a PCI device (in PIC mode) may need an override such as this.
DEC Celebris XL 5100DP (Pentium)
chips: Neptune: 82379AB, 82433NX, 83434NX
Onboard: NCR 810 SCSI, usual multi-I/O 		The 'cpu' program in beta1 would dump core on this motherboard, its BIOS reports conflicting MP configuration data (which is ignored in current versions of 'cpu').
Beta1 kernels would report CPU clock speed erratically, this seems to be due to a problem with the motherboard PIT chip emulation (worked around in s/w).
ASUS P2L97 The 'cpu' program in rc1 will not bring up this board; use cpu.980623 (below) or later.
Dell PowerEdge 2300 The 'cpu' program in the 4.0 release (or cpu.980623, previously availalable on this page) will not bring up this board due to the way the BIOS desribes PCI interrupt routing on empty PCI slots. The latest version of the cpu command (below) works on this system without any overrides.

There are some additional notes regarding SCSI support on this box:
The AIC7860 (ultra-narrow) on the motherboard runs with 4.0 drivers.
The AIC7890 (ultra2-wide) isn't currently supported. The driver for this device will be available sometime in the future.
The AMI Mega-Raid controller on this board is not supported by drivers in the 4.0 release. The driver for this device will be available sometime in the future.

Watch this space for the latest status.

Dell PowerEdge 4200 No known issues with two CPU's.

If you are having problems, please try the latest version of the cpu command.

Date File
98/06/23 (this is the version on the 4.0 release CD) cpu.980623.
98/08/28 (not yet released in an official mod, beta quality) cpu.980828.

Video Cards and Monitors

Metro-X Video Cards

Metro-X Monitors

XF86 Video Cards

Copyright 1998