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Conference koolit::vms_curriculum

Title:VMS Curriculum
Moderator:SUPER::MARSH
Created:Thu Nov 01 1990
Last Modified:Sun Aug 25 1996
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:185
Total number of notes:2026

164.0. "Supplementary materials" by DBLDOG::DONHAM (Progress Through Tradition) Thu Mar 11 1993 14:19

I thought I'd start a note to collect pointers to supplementary material. Books,
articles, handouts, and so forth that you might want to use to prep with or
to hand out in class.

Perry
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name
DateLines
164.1Tuning booksDBLDOG::DONHAMProgress Through TraditionThu Mar 11 1993 14:2138
I haven't seen these yet, but they sounded interesting... (I edited it to 
show the correct address through the DECWRL gateway):


---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] writes:
Path: nntpd.lkg.dec.com!pa.dec.com!decwrl!sdd.hp.com!crash!ttisms!dan
From: [email protected]
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: Re: ?Cause of slow response time.
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Date: 8 Mar 93 19:55:07 PDT
References: <[email protected]>
Organization: Touch Technologies Inc., San Diego CA
Lines: 27

Hi,

Our company gives away free booklets on VMS tuning:

   VMS Tuning -- Rules of Thumb
   The Secrets of VMS File I/O
   The Myths of File Fragmentation

To get a copy of one of these free booklets, send e-mail (including your 
post office mailing address + phone#...if a company) to:

   decwrl::"[email protected]"

For the subject, mention the name of the booklet you want...or "all booklets"
if you want them all.

Dan E.  (co-author of the booklets)

P.S.  The trade is that we get your name + phone# and address for future
      mailings...and you get free booklets that have LOTS of technical
      content!
164.2V6 Questions and AnswersBROWNY::DBLDOG::DONHAMProgress Through TraditionThu May 20 1993 15:04265
This is from some material that's being given to folks going to DECUS. It
looked like it might be useful for answering questions in the classroom.
Please note Tim's reminder.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sure Perry ... that's fine.

	Please remind them that the Q&A is for internal use, the wording
	isn't particularly for customer consumption, so we shouldn't
	hand it out .... but the information can certainly be relayed
	to customers.

-Tim

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:	BROWNY::DONHAM "Progress Through Tradition  20-May-1993 1138"
20-MAY-1993 11:41:35.95
To:	star::ellison
CC:	donham
Subj:	RE: DECUS Q&A


Tim, I'd like to supply the DECUS Q&A you just sent out to my
instructors...ok by 
you?

Perry

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

From:	SUPER::ARCHDEACON "Michael Archdeacon; ZKO1-1/D42; 381-1101 
20-May-1993 1129" 20-MAY-1993 11:31:31.37
To:	@VMS.DIS;1
CC:	
Subj:	DECUS Q&A

From:	STAR::ELLISON "Tim, OpenVMS Product Mgmt., 381-0101  20-May-1993
1104" 20-MAY-1993 11:07:35.20
To:	@DISTLIST:LWSTAFF,@PMTEAM
CC:	
Subj:	Final Q&A information for DECUS



	OpenVMS VAX Questions and Answers for the June 1993 DECUS
	---------------------------------------------------------

Q.  What is the reason for this major new functionality release ?

A.  The functionality in OpenVMS VAX Version 6.0 addresses specific 
    requests from a wide number of customers.  Version 6.0 addresses
    customers needs for expanded memory by providing extended addressing,
    and extended virtual addressing.  Version 6.0 is currently in the 
    final phase of the National Computer Security Center's (NCSC) evaluation
    process for ranking operating system software.  Successful completion
    of this evaluation will provide V6.0 with a C2 security rating. Version
    6.0 includes MSCP Dynamic Load Balancing, Adaptive Pool Management and 
    Virtual I/O Cache which all provide performance enhancements.  The 
    ISO 9660 standard is supported in Version 6.0.  This support enables 
    customers to access data contained on ISO 9660 formatted CDroms. 
    Version 6.0 also includes the OpenVMS System Snapshot, which improves
    boot time for standalone workstations, and a new Help Message Utility 
    that can be customized.

    A number of enhancements that customers have requested, such as a set 
    of new DCL capabilities, and support for multiple queue managers have
    been included in this release as well.

Q.  Every major version of OpenVMS seems to have a serious impact on
    layered products ?  What about Version 6.0 ? 

    OpenVMS Engineering has taken a number of steps to dramatically reduce
    the impact of the operating system revisions on layered products.  Right
    now, over 150 layered products are available for use with Version 6.0.  
    OpenVMS VAX provides an Image Registry facility that allows compatible
    but version-dependent images to run on the operating system without
change.
    The creation of this registry has greatly reduced the impact of V6.0 on
    layered products.

    A Layered Product Availability Guide has been created for 
    customers, which lists the availability for other layered products that 
    are not currently available.  Please contact one of the OpenVMS Product
    Managers for a copy of the Layered Product Availability Guide.

Q.   What is the minimum version I must be running in order to upgrade
     to OpenVMS VAX Version 6.0 ? 

A.   OpenVMS VAX Version 5.5 is the minimum version required before a
     successful upgrade to Version 6.0 can be performed.  Systems running
     Version 5.5 must be using the new batch/print facility introduced
     in Version 5.5 in order to upgrade to Version 6.0.  Any systems
     running Version A5.5 (Version 5.4-3 batch/print facility functionality)
     will not be able to perform an upgrade to Version 6.0.  

     Customers running OpenVMS VAX A5.5, or A5.5-x must convert their 
     batch/print facility before preceding with an upgrade to Version 6.0.  

	Insert name of command procedure

	SYS$UPDATE:VMS$UPGRADE_A55_V55.COM

Q.   What version of DECnet runs in the Version 6.0 environment ?

A.   Version 6.0 currently supports the DECnet VAX Phase IV environment.
     DECnet/OSI for VAX will be available in the January 1994 time frame.

Q.   What progress is being made in the area of Standards ?

A.   Version 6.0 includes support for the ISO 9660 standard which was
created
     to establish the volume and file structure criteria for the exchange
     of information when using CDrom media.  POSIX for OpenVMS VAX has
     created a new version (V 1.2) which specifically works with V 6.0
     and allows customers to take advantage of POSIX's portability. 

Q.   What advances have been made in the area of Security ?

A.   The OpenVMS VAX Version 6.0 release is currently undergoing the 
     National Computer Security Center's (NCSC) evaluation process.
     It is expected that Version 6.0 will receive a C2 security ranking.
     This ranking involves providing specific capabilities in the operating
     system such as auditing, authentication, and access controls.  This
     ranking indicates Version 6.0 has the capability to enforce finely
     grained discretionary access controls, making users individually
     accountable for their actions through logging procedures, and auditing
     of security related events.

Q.   Can any VAX system take advantage of the Extended Addressing
capability ?

A.   The VAX 7000 series, VAX 10000 series, and the VAX 6000 model 600 are
the
     initial VAX systems that can take advantage of the extended addressing
     offered in Version 6.0.  The VAX 7000 and VAX 10000 series systems can 
     access up to 3.5 GB of physical memory, and the VAX 6000 model 600 can 
     access up to 1.25 GB of physical memory.

     Due to specific microcode issues the VAX 9000 series can not take
     advantage of the benefits of extended addressing.

Q.   Can OpenVMS AXP Version 1.5 and OpenVMS VAX V6.0 run in the same
cluster?

A.   Currently OpenVMS VAX V5.5-2 and OpenVMS AXP Version 1.5 have been
tested
     and work together in a Mixed Architecture Cluster environment.  Version
     6.0 will be tested with the next functional release of OpenVMS AXP.

Q.   What is the performance impact of V6.0 ?

A.  The most significant performance characteristic of OpenVMS VAX V6.0 is
    that it generally has better average performance than the release it
    replaces.  This has been shown by system-level performance measurements
    with a number of "real-world" applications.  However, performance is 
    directly related to hardware configurations and application usage.

    The Virtual I/O Cache (VIOC) facility, which is a completely integral
    part of OpenVMS VAX V6.0, can dramatically reduce the number of
    physical I/O operations that must be performed, often reducing the
    elapsed time required for applications to run.  The VIOC is not only
    effective for application I/O:  it can, for example, also speed up
    image activation.  While the VIOC is not a universal panacea, it seldom
    has an adverse impact on performance and can be disabled in those cases
    where it does.

    Virtual Balance Slot Switching (VBSS) was implemented to alleviate the
    constraints imposed by the size of system space on balance set count
    and the maximum virtual address space of processes.  The implementation
    of VBSS is such that these benefits are obtained with negligible
    performance impact.

    The new pool management scheme eliminates the performance bottleneck of
    small or empty look-aside lists (since the lists themselves have been
    eliminated).  As long as any non-paged pool is available for
    allocation, the system should perform as before.  The elimination of
    the SYSGEN parameters relating to the look-aside lists simplifies
    system tuning procedures as well.

    A new multi-processor synchronization option is available with OpenVMS
    VAX V6.0 and is designed to work well with the write-back cache design
    of recent VAX processors such as the VAX 6500, VAX 6600, VAX 7000 and
    VAX 10000.  By changing the pattern of access to system synchronization 
    information for which there can be high contention, bus and memory 
    traffic have been decreased with a consequent increase in processor 
    effectiveness.

    The implementation of C2 security features has been done in such a
    fashion as to minimize the performance impact on so-called "innocent
    bystanders," i.e., those which are making no use of the security
    features.

Q.  Has any work been developed to improve scheduling capabilities ?

A.  A new loadable executive image implements the $SCHED system service,
    which allows the creation of Class Schedulers for OpenVMS VAX.  $SCHED
    allows a program to map processes to classes and assign CPU time to 
    classes, so that particular processes may be given more or less CPU
    time than others.

Q. I hear that DECwindows XUI support is no longer bundled with
   OpenVMS VAX as of Version 6.0.  How do I get DECwindows now?

A. OpenVMS Version 5.5-2 was the final release of the OpenVMS
   operating system to include DECwindows XUI support. With the
   release of OpenVMS VAX Version 6.0, DECwindows XUI support is
   available exclusively in the OpenVMS DECwindows Motif layered
   product.  The OpenVMS VAX license no longer provides license rights
   to run DECwindows.  DECwindows users will need to order and install
   the OpenVMS DECwindows Motif V1.1 layered product license and media kit
   to obtain XUI and Motif runtime and development support on OpenVMS
   VAX systems.  

Q: Will my DECwindows XUI-based applications run under the DECwindows
   Motif for OpenVMS layered product?

A: Yes!  Because the DECwindows Motif Version 1.1 layered product 
   contains BOTH the XUI and the Motif toolkits, you can run DECwindows 
   XUI-based applications without modification.

Q: Is there a minimum version of the DECwindows Motif layered product
   required by OpenVMS VAX Version 6.0?

A: OpenVMS VAX Version 6.0 customers who want the DECwindows
   environment must install OpenVMS DECwindows Motif Version 1.1 at a
   minimum. OpenVMS DECwindows Motif Version 1.0 is supported on VAX
   VMS Version 5.4 through OpenVMS VAX Version 5.5-2.

Q: How do I order the software for the new VAX 4000 models 100A, 
   500A, 600A, and 700A?

A: There is no need to order the OpenVMS VAX operating system software 
   separately.  OpenVMS VAX V5.5-2H4 on both TK50 and CDrom media 
   will automatically ship with each of the new VAX 4000s 
   above.  Both a remastered and an update version of V5.5-2H4 on
   each media type will be included with your new system.  

Q: How do I order the software for the new VAXft 810, fault 
   tolerant system?

A: There is no need to order the OpenVMS VAX operating system software 
   separately.  A remastered, OpenVMS VAX V5.5-2HF on both TK50 and 
   CDrom media will automatically ship with each of the new VAXft 810 
   systems.  

Q:  How do I order the software that provides FDDI connectivity 
    for selected Q-bus and TURBOchannel based VAX CPUs?

A:  The DEC LAN Device Driver Kit for OpenVMS VAX includes a set of 
    FDDI Adapter device drivers for use on OpenVMS Version V5.5-2 ONLY. 
    This kit can be ordered under the following order numbers:

	 QA-0PAAA-H5    TK50
	 QA-OPAAA-HM    9trk MagTape/1600bpi

Q:  How do I order the software that supports the StorageWorks (TM)
    RAID Array 110 (formerly the SZ200) controller-based subsystem?

A:  The DEC SCSI TCQ Driver Kit for OpenVMS VAX can be ordered 
    under the following order number:

	 QA-0U3AA-H5    TK50
 	 QA-0U3AA-H8    CDrom