Working with AppleTalk seed routers

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

Working with AppleTalk seed routers

When you install and set up Services for Macintosh, you must specify whether the computer running Services for Macintosh will seed each physical network to which it is attached. For example, a computer running Services for Macintosh attached to three physical AppleTalk networks might serve as a seed router on two of the networks but not on the third.

For networks that the server will seed, specify the routing information. The computer running Services for Macintosh will then function as a seed router, seeding the routing information that you provided. If you specify that a server will not seed a network (that is, if you make it a nonseed router), the port will be seeded by another AppleTalk router attached to it.

Using multiple seed routers on a network

To make your network more reliable in case of system failure and power outages, you can install multiple seed routers on the same physical network.

When you install multiple seed routers for a particular network, all the seed routers must seed the same information for that network. When the network starts, the first seed router that starts on the network becomes the actual seed router. Although only one server seeds zone and range information at a time, all other seed routers continue to act as routers.

If the first seed router to start on a network has different routing information than the other seed routers that start later, the information established by the first seed router is used. If a seed router that started subsequently has different information and is running Services for Macintosh, the conflicting information is ignored and an event is written to Event Viewer. If a server that is seed routing stops responding or is shut down, one of the waiting seed routers starts seeding the network zone and range information.