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Conference msgaxp::optical

Title:Optical Products
Moderator:TAPE::SENEKER
Created:Wed May 04 1988
Last Modified:Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:841
Total number of notes:3218

818.0. "Problems with changing disk platters" by EEMELI::MOSER (Orienteers do it in the bush...) Tue Apr 01 1997 07:01

	I have a customer using Laserstar V3.3 on OpenVMS Alpha V6.2 and he
	seems to have some problems with disk changes. I'm trying to
	describe what he told me, so maybe somebody can give me some hints.

	He has process A writing to a disk from within an application. The
	minimum time a disk has to stay in is set to 10 seconds.
	Next process B comes along and wants to read from another disk.
	Process' A write get interrupted, the disk changed, and B reads his
	stuff; if it succeeds within the 10 sec, all is fine and the disk
	is changed back to the original and process A continues to write to
	his original disk.

	If however process B's read doesn't succeed within the 10 sec, the
	disk is changed back and process A gets another 10 sec timeslice.
	Now when this is over the customer expect that it will change again
	the disk for process B, but apparently it always takes the original
	disk out, and re-inserts the same original disk, and this goes on
	within a loop and process B's read never succeeds.

	Is this expected? What additional information is required? Any hints
	or pointers?


	thanks and best regards

	/cmos

	
    
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818.1standard questions and misc. infoTAPE::SENEKERHead banging causes brain mushWed Apr 02 1997 11:22105
    The customers expectations are correct in the disks whould swap
    until the I/O is completed for all disks.  I remember problems
    similar to this in the past but no specific product changes have
    been made, I will try to refresh my memory.  For now, I recommend
    the following:
    
    o Use SYS$MANAGER:PERCEPTICS$VERSIONS.COM to generate a list of
      the LaserStar component ids and please post.  V3.3 has a few
      variant releases.
    
    o What is the optical hardware, related I/O interface, and host
      processor.  Is this part of a cluster?  If so, are the disks
      mounted /CLUSTER?

    o Try changing the MINSWAP and/or IORATE values. Extract from help
      below:
    
    JBUTIL
    
      SET PARAMETER /MINSWAP=time
    
         MINSWAP is the amount of "time", in seconds, that a disk
         cartridge will remain in a drive before it can be removed as
         part of a swap operation. The MINSWAP interval begins after the
         disk has been inserted and spun up.
    
         Once a disk has been inserted into a drive in the jukebox, it
         will remain in the drive until the MINSWAP interval has expired,
         regardless of the amount of activity on the disk or the number of
         other disks waiting for a drive. The minimum value for MINSWAP is
         5 seconds.
     
    JBUTIL
    
      SET PARAMETER /IORATE=seed
    
         IORATE is the name used for a seed value used in the jukebox swap
         algorithm. Large IORATE seed values will help cause heavily used
         disks to remain in a drive longer than their MINSWAP interval.
    
         The IORATE "seed" value is fed into an equation whose result is
         used to determine if the time the disk will be allowed to remain
         in the drive will be extended. The larger the IORATE "seed"
         value the less likely a disk performing servicing many I/O's
         will be swapped. Very large IORATE values will not significantly
         increase the amount of time a disk remains in a drive due to the
         exponential nature of the equation.
    
         Setting IORATE to zero will disable this feature completely so
         that only the MINSWAP time controls swap eligibility.
    
    swap_equation

         The number of seconds for a volume to become eligible to be swap
         is a function of MINSWAP, IORATE and the number of I/O operations
         the volume has performed since it has been placed in the drive.
         The following equation computes an operation rate, which is one
         of the values used to determine swap eligibility.

            OPS_RATE = IORATE * OPS / SEC_IN_DRIVE / SEC_IN_DRIVE

         where:

              OPS_RATE = operation rate of the volume
              IORATE = value of the IORATE parameter
              OPS = total number of operations since the volume was moved
              into the drive
              SEC_IN_DRIVE = number of seconds since the volume was moved
              into the drive

          The volume will be eligible for swapping when it has been in a
          drive longer than MINSWAP seconds and the OPS_RATE value is zero.
          The IORATE Impact on Swap Time Eligibility indicates some example
          showing how long a volume will remain in a drive based on IORATE
          and the number of operations per second. MINSWAP is set to five
          sconds for these examples.

          Table 1-1 IORATE Impact on Swap Time Eligibility

                                Operations
                                per
                      IORATE    Second     Eligibility second

                      1         5          6
                      2         5          11
                      3         5          16
                      4         5          21
                      1         10         11
                      2         10         21
                      3         10         31
                      4         10         41
                      Any       0          5
                      value

          As another example, if IORATE=2 and the volume gets 500
          operations in the first second and is then idle, the swap will
          not occur until 32 seconds have elapsed. The OPS_RATE will not
          be greater than zero until SEC_IN_DRIVE equals 32.

          Also if the OPS value exceeds 1024 the volume will be allowed to
          swap when MINSWAP seconds has been exceeded. This puts an upper
          limit on fast drives from preventing other volumes use of the
          drive.

	Rob
818.2EEMELI::MOSEROrienteers do it in the bush...Wed Apr 02 1997 11:554
    thanks for the reply. I'll go and do my homework, and will come back
    with some answers...
    
    /cmos